So I decided to upgrade to a larger printer. My Ender-2 is a fantastic little machine, but the print area is rather small. This is not a review and I simply sharing my experience. The printer was paid for by myself.
I wanted something, open source, direct drive for TPU printing and a large printing area.
– The Sidewinder X1 the Marlin firmware has been provided. (Although the firmware related to the touch screen has
not)
– It has a direct drive extruder based on the e3D Titan Areo (So easier to buy replacement parts if needed)
– A large printing area of 300 x 300 x 400 mm.
These photos below are ones I took.
A strain relief was one the first things needed to made.
My part cooling duct is available on thingiverse. I was working on this before my Z axis movement decided to go full retard. Once I receive new stepper drivers to get my printer running again, I’ll continue to develop it. At the moment, it’s not blowing air in the exact centre and evenly from each side. Also, in my test, I think I had it a tiny bit to low, as the air is blown down on an angle.The other thing I’ll change out is the volcano nozzles with a clean brand new one.
3D PRINTED AQUAPONICS MODS PLUS MORE
This is the bell siphon I designed for my aquaponics set up. The breather tube on the side allows air to reach the top to help stop the siphon. You can adjust it up and down via the thread.
This fitting for the hose is for cleaning out the breather tube on the bell siphon. An O-ring was added to make it seal with the hose fitting.
Cowmole Co. New 225pcs Seal O-Ring Gaskets Set Air Conditioning Rubber Washer O Ring Assortment Kit for R22 R134a Purple Standard Parts Hot
This solar light is used on the ‘bug zapper”‘ mode and I drilled a hole in the plastic bottom. This way at night, insects will get zapped and fall into the water to be eaten by the fishes.
This float valve is used and connected to a smaller tank to keep the water from getting to low. Very hot summers where I am located, so I get a decent amount of evaporation.
Kerick Valve MA052 PVC Mini Float Valve, Tank Mount, Adjustable Arm, 1.5 gpm at 60 psi, 1/2″ NPT Male
This great outdoor solar light as some much needed lighting around the garden at night. As long as you have sunny days, they are certainly bright enough.
Solar Motion Sensor Light, JUSLIT 74 COB LED Solar Lights Outdoor, Security Light with Night Light Diming Mode, Waterproof Wireless 270° Wide Angle Motion Detector light for Garage Porch Step(2PK)
Here are the .stl files for download. Let me know in the comments how you go and if you have any suggestions for improving the designs.
Headphone Stand
I designed this simple magnetic headphone stand. Printed at 5% infill with supports and raft. Then I simply glued standard name badge magnets on the back with a 2 part epoxy.
A 8mm diameter brass tube was cut to length and used to hold the bearings in place. The small washes where used on the X-axis belt tensioner to keep the bearing centre.
Place the brass tube through the bearing.
Slide them into place.
I designed my version to give a lot more slack on the belt to make it easier to adjust things.
The Creality Ender-2 with my belt tensioners and a few other mods, that I’ll update here later.
With this set up it’s much easier to get the wheels under the build plate, that often become loose after a few prints.
This is by far my favourite upgrade and was totally unexpected. I purchased some Anet A8 Nozzles. I’m not sure if it was just because they are new clean nozzles or just better made then what comes with the Ender-2, but there was a noticble improvement in print quality.
I download and printed this filament guide from Thingiverse, works great to stop the 1.75mm filament from rubbing on the Z-rod. However it made this squeky sound, so I used a short peice of PTFE tubing in the hole and now it runs smooth and quiet.