Anet A6 Lead screw slim bearing case

thingiverse

Update: I'm warned by other makers that closing in the lead screw on top with a bearing could have an adverse effect, even initiating a wobble effect. If your lead screw has any deviation, not perfectly straight, closing it from both sides will push the z carriage around, causing unwanted effects to your print. That is why most manufacturers keep the leadscrew free on one side and only use it for the z movement. The smooth guide rods should keep the z-movement straight. So be warned if you continue with this mod. I wanted to securely close-in the lead screw because in the original ANET A6 design it gets much room in the upper frame construction (see the 2nd picture). I saw a lot of designs such as caps or big bearing kind of enclosures, but none came close to what I was looking for. I wanted a slim design that would not decrease the printing build height once installed and integrate smoothly in the original frame, replacing the guiding rod cap. But see my update, this can only be applied with perfectly straight lead screws. So I designed a bearing enclosure with a mini bearing (8x14x4 = 8mm inside, 14 mm outside, and 4 mm thick) that connects to the 8mm guiding rod. The bearing is kept exactly centered by the cloud cover tube, fitting tightly through the original frame hole into the bearing enclosure. The lead screw can freely move inside the cloud cover tube. The Mini Bearing fits exactly over the lead screw. The total bearing case is 6 mm thick (4mm for the bearing and 2 mm for the cloud cover tube to fit tightly in the bearing case). The Cloud cover and Bearing case are bolted together with the original Anet A6 frame in between, using the original bolt hole for the guiding rod cover. All nuts fit within a special cavity in the bearing case. The cloud cover on top of the frame matches the exact height as the original guiding rod cover. The Cloud design on top was just for fun. I'm not sure if the Anet A8 frame and lead screw and guiding rod have the same dimensions, but if so it can also be applied to the Anet A8. Extra material: M3 Stainless hex bolts, washers and nuts (see last picture). Mini Bearing 8x14x4