Anycubic Kossel vertex reinforcement

thingiverse

I was planning to print some other vertex models from Thingiverse, but they seemed to have too much clearance or didn't quite fit my 3D model, which I've found to be extremely accurate. I started playing with FreeCAD and discovered that the Anycubic Linear Plus doesn't align its outside arc with the junction of lines extended from inside extrusions like most models do - it's off by a very odd amount, altering the relationship between extrusions. Once I figured this out, I designed a reinforcement bracket that fits extremely snugly and slides into place without any filing. I chose to design this bracket with a broad shell instead of a skeleton because it's much more rigid. After printing, I think it looks better too. The bracket has protrusions that go into extrusions, ensuring consistent alignment. There are also two shallow openings along the sides of the vertical extrusion that allow the part to be snapped into place and then slid down to horizontal extrusions with resistance. The legs on this model are longer than most common models, matching up with the length of stock vertex parts. You may notice a lack of holes in the model, but they're actually there - with 0.4mm walls at the ends of vertical holes and a 0.16mm floor on the bottom of horizontal holes. This is to prevent the need for supports when printing small-side-down as simple bridges will be printed. The holes and reliefs are sized for M5 button-head cap-screws, which can be seen in the pictures. If you use all available holes, you'll need 10 screws per bracket. I picked a font that closely resembles the stencil font Anycubic uses. If anyone knows of a (free) font that's closer, please let me know and I'll switch to it and regenerate the STLs. The cube in the pictures was printed after installing these reinforcements and switching to a flying extruder (and reducing retractions to 0.4mm).