Carriage Measuring Tool

thingiverse

This is a customizable device that measures the distance between rods on an axis. I created it because I needed to determine my no-name Chinese printer's X-carriage dimensions, which can be difficult to measure accurately with calipers. To use this device, take your digital calipers and measure the rod diameter. The rods are likely metric with a 8mm or 10mm diameter. Round the measured distance to the nearest whole number if you're unsure - for example, if you get 7.8 or 8.2, round it to 8. Next, measure the distance between the rods on the inside from the top of one rod to the bottom of the other. This may require some trial and error and reprinting. You can also check a table of printer dimensions at the bottom of this page to see if your printer's measurements are already listed. If not, please add a comment so I can update it. To confirm fitting, you'll want to print the next size up or down with 0.5mm accuracy. The perfect fit should slide smoothly onto the rods without much force and come off easily without stretching.