ANET A8 Y axis on ball bearings - smooth and light !

cults3d

My ANET A8 had been delivered with a defective LM8UU linear bearing. it had a lot of friction, was very noisy and eventually lost 2 balls I found on the floor... Moreover, the design of the Y axis is somewhat overconstrained with 4 linear bearings which are quite difficult to align properly. But , as the Y plate is quite flimsly, the idea to remove one LM8UU is not good... The good idea is to keep 3 points to guide the plane plus 1 another one using the flexibility of the Y plate to absorb this hyperstatic mount. I then decided to design a parametric LM8UU based on a set of 3 standard ball bearings. Once installed this design reduces considerably friction and risks of misalignments. You can see it working here: https://youtu.be/b4TINRRJZXQ Another advantage is the gain in mass and inertia as 113 grams are recovered on the Y carriage, This is huge and will help to reduce Y-ghosting when fast printing !