CR-10 Bed Nord-Lock system. Bed level locking system for under $6. Set and Forget.

thingiverse

4/16/19 - Still locked and level after months of abuse. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Test Update: I have run the new locks for over 60 days with high levels of printing. As of today, 5/29/18, I have tested the bed level and validated that I have had zero slippage in the bed. I am going to mark this one a success. The latest update on the CR-10 Bed Nord-Lock system. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MiHMoloLkFk What is Nord-Locks? http://www.nord-lock.com/nord-lock/wedge-locking/washers/introduction/ Video I found that explains how the Nord-Locks work. This is what convinced me to try them out on my bed lock: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSOjxU3pdSU For an investment of $20 and a few printed parts, you can now use this to lock your level bed in place after leveling. I found that several different bolt locking methods simply don't hold up long term. After investigating further, I found these locking washers and incorporated them into my design. As the washers will lock in place, I extended the dial and lock so that they are easier to use, as well make sure enough torque to lock the washers in place. Another part of the problem I wanted to solve was finding a way to level and lock the heated bed without having to invest so much time or resources into buying and setting up an auto leveler. I will be testing over the next several months and put this project back in Work In Progress if I find additional changes are needed. I put on the parts within the following order: 1. 4m bolt 2. Dial 3. 4m Nord-Lock 4. Lock 5. 4m bolt This way, the Nord-Locks will bite into the PLA easily as the PLA will give under pressure. Leaving the locking arm loose, adjust the bed level using the dials. Once set, hold the dial and pinch the locking arm to engage the locking washers. I found that setting bed level was easier with this setup than before. Before I had about a 0.10mm variant that I had to account for when locking. Now it's reduced to .05mm. This is easy to compensate for. Lock your first corner and test the level differences between locked and unlocked. Unlock the washer and adjust the dial to account for the locking variant and lock. Having a dial indicator helps out a lot through this process.