3D Printed PCB Inspection Microscope and Others…

Finished building this a while ago, just wanted to post it. The results were great, considering the webcam module I used was only 5 dollars. Printed a mount for the camera with a small dial I could glue onto the lens, for manual focus of course. Then I looked up a rack and pinion print on thingiverse for a quick mount with some movement and then glued my camera mount to that one. The result like said before was simply awesome, now with a bit of software everything will be complete.

The other little do-dad, you see holding the pcb is a small clamp for holding these boards while doing light soldering work. The screw action works well and holds the boards firmly, there’s also a magnet in the base for rigid work holding.

I’m going to be releasing both of these on thingiverse together in a pack or both in one at the end of the week. Not sure yet…


UV Resin Oven…

I don’t have to many shots of this but I’ll be sure to fix that shortly. This is an old microwave oven I converted to a curing oven for my resin prints. Very simple conversion, I wouldn’t recommend people do it though, there are a million other enclosures that could be repurposed for this. But for me that’s what I had laying around that I could “up-cycle”. Fits underneath my electronics bench perfectly too.


Modifying my Enclosure for the Ender…

Doing a couple operations in one here, taking the ender out of the enclosure and re-installing the hot-end carrier for the MK2 conversion by Boothyboothy over on thingiverse. I’m remaking the aluminum plate named the “Tool Plate’ in Boothys assembly. Which looks like this…

And the one I made before…

So the idea is to give this another go with the Phaetus Dragonfly BMO(groove mount I believe) and see if I can print some PC. Anyway folks, thats all for today. More coming soon.

New CoreXY Design for the Ender 5

Hello everyone, and what a glorious day it was. Loving the weather here in Ontario, beautiful blue skies. In any case I took some time today to work on my new design for the Ender 5. The idea is to create a low cost CoreXY design that can still provide great quality prints without having to break the bank. I plan on implementing a 3/4″ right angle aluminum bar for the rail mounts and the crossbar for the XY brackets and it’s all held together by printed parts. I’m going to try to print some piece for it tonight to look a fit and finish but I’d really like to use carbon fiber filament or ABS filament.

New Corexy Design

As for the carrier I would really like to use a box section of aluminum, but if I really want to make this accessible and low cost I think that’d be out of the question. So I’m left with mounting to the top of the aluminum bar or on the bottom(Mgn12h Rail). I’m think the top would be optimal. Been working on the motor mounts and idler placement and just working out some basic concepts.

I’ll try to keep update for this flowing, and hopefully(with enough work) I’ll have a download and reference prints to show.

Ender Enclosure Article

Just finished the ender enclosure page and you can view it through the menu in the top right hand corner of the page and select the projects button.


Also got some other thing in the works that have been a long time coming, Fysetc’s Big Dipper and about to install these xy brackets I just printed the other day. I’m going to be posting an article related to printer kinematics and I’ll be going into a lot more detail about design choices and overall function.

Hope everyone’s having a great Mothers Day as well, and keep printing, layer by layer 😉

GearBox for Z Axis


Working on a few different things including this lovely gear box for my new print modification. I actually had this one done a while back but I had some finish touches to do. Also gotta post the dimensions for the shaft and a source for the gears. Sorry about this being such a short one, just really wanted to share it.

Missing Information/Ender 5 Upgrades

Missing Information

Backup, backup and finally backup. This is the word of the day, backup. Now I’ve been posting to this site for over a year and updating it and trying to build a little bit of a reputation using my website as my own platform to show some of the work I’ve been doing with my 3D Printer and additive manufacturing. Specifically the Ender 5. Now this post isn’t to complain or whine about what could have been but to basically replace what I had lost to begin with(a bunch of content).

So with all this having happened I plan on posting a downloads page here for some of the content I’ve created over the last year. Some of this content will be placed on the projects page and further more, I might have some kind content in the form of youtube videos detailing the process in which a lot of this stuff has been put together. I also was thinking about including a PDF or something with some details pertaining to issues with printing different materials and also troubleshooting.

So with all that said what I have here today is all the upgrades and mods I would recommend for a Ender 5 user.

Upgrading the Ender 5

The Ender 5 on it own is a great printer for beginners, but as you start to print more and more with it you’ll notice slight issues. Now the overall goal of this entire operation is to improve print quality. Now with the E5(Ender 5) right out of the box, will print PLA, PETG and even ABS if the settings are done right. Now I’d like to go over a few issues you’ll run into over time.

The Bed/Build Plate

Here we see on the original Ender 5, the bed comes with a removable build plate. This is good for PLA and PETG but over time adhesion tends to get worse and worse. After about 1 month of solid printing the removable build-tack goesto crap. Then you have to start using a substance for adhesion. I’d recommend anyone(doesn’t mater what you print) spend the extra 20 – 30 dollars and buy a printbite+ bed. I’ve been using mine fore over a year straight with all types of different materials and I’ve yet to replace it and it’s still going strong.

Flex3Drive PrintBite

The Hotend

The hotend, this is where all your plastic gets melted and deposited onto the build plate. There are many styles and types of hotends that are compatible with an Ender 5 out of the box. A lot of people talk all kinds of good stuff about the microswiss hotend(Wouldn’t bother, over-rated) or the “Mosquito” another one that’s really over-rated.

Classic E3D V6 would handle most anything(all metal for high temp). If you want to go all in with it, I’d recommend the BMG Dragonfly(basically a supped-up V6 with a bi-metallic heat-break and comes with either groove mount or rigid mount.) Great hotend nozzle swap is a breeze(pre-heat to 150 and swap out).


Extruder

The E5 comes with a bowden type extruder that is mounted to the side of the frame. A lot of users love this extruder and have nothing bad to say about it, but I think it’s lame and leaves a lot to be desired. I’d recommend changing that out to a direct drive(orbiter), the innovation with DD extruders has come a long way since even a year ago and there’s really no excuse not to have anything else on a single hotend printer. I’m currently using the Sherpa Mini made by Fysetc(decided to go with them because they produce a sls printed frame and shit out everything you need).

Some of you will totally dissagree and if you’re so inclinded to use a bowden system I’d at least recommend changing out the extruder to a titian and pancake stepper. And if it seems too good to be true, it probably is.

Sherpa Mini

Electronics

STM32F103RET6 or STM32F103FET6 I can’t remember the versions of creality boards were which off the top of my head, but I believe the RET6 was 4.2.2 and FET6 was 4.2.7. Not entirely sure but the board that comes with the printer isn’t terrible but as time goes on you’ll probably want something a little more capable.

As for myself I was forced to buy a another board due to the burnt out mosfets(I believe, could be something else under the heatsink but doubt it.) that control the fans on my creality 4.2.2 board. I went with a Big Tree Tech SKR e3 verision 2, another great board. Drop in replacement, with trinamic stepper drivers. Really enjoyed using it but over all it left me wanting more. Which brings me to the Fysetc Big Dipper Board. This is probably not the best for beginners but if you’re looking for something to grow into this is the best option. I’ve chosen this board because I have future plans of adding a tool changer to my Ender. But overall the best way to describe it is a cloned duet board.

Fysetc Big Dipper Board

Motion Mechanics

Last but not least is the core xy modification. This is one of the best ways to improve to ender 5, in my opinion. The corexy mod lets you achieve higher print speeds with less resonance. One of the biggest problems with the ender 5 is the motor mount on the x axis. This will cause unwanted artifacts if you’re printing fast or not. So one of the first solutions one could think of is the repositioning of the x axis motor, like we see in this design.

I want to be super clear here, I’m not the first one to come up with this idea. Especially for this particular printer, but after trying several designs from others I’ve tried to take some of the best qualities of each and rebuild them into one badass printer. One which I think could even give the Voron a run for its money.

Rear Left Stepper

One CoreXY Project I really want to shout out is the conversion made by Stephen Booth, he really did an amazing job on his core xy mod and it really inspired me to finish my own.

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4777606

Final Words/Thoughts

So overall owning this printer has been a ton of fun, and really without it I wouldn’t have gotten into 3D printing. So anyone that doesn’t own a 3D printer and wants one, go get one, try it out. You might be surprised as to where it leads you.