Creality CR-10 carbon fiber Z-Braces

thingiverse

I wasn't quite satisfied with the design of any CR-10 Z-braces I'd seen, and I had some carbon fiber tubes left over from other projects, so I decided to model some little mounting brackets in Blender and put them to use. You will need: M5 tap, to put threads in the holes at the ends of the CR-10's frame. 4.3mm or 11/64" drill bit, to slightly enlarge the holes before tapping. Four M5 T-nuts. If you don't have any on hand, you can use the printable one I've included (drill and thread it like the printer frame holes). Eight M5x12mm screws (10mm should be fine too). Gap filling epoxy. I used JB Weld, but any epoxy mixed with some kind of powder (talc or baking soda, etc.) would most likely work. Two 62cm long carbon fiber tubes. I've included brackets for either 10mm or 12mm diameter. I used two 50cm long 10mm tubes, epoxied them into ~18cm long pieces of 12mm tube to increase the length, and used the 10mm top brackets and 12mm bottom brackets. Screw the brackets to the printer, then epoxy the tubes into them. Make sure to rough up the surfaces and work the epoxy into them so it gets a good grip. You don't really need clamping pressure, but you may need something to hold the upper ends of the tubes against the brackets while the epoxy sets up. I just pinched some wood cam clamps on the tubes and let the weight of them hold everything in place. After getting the braces on, auto-home the printer and then move the Z axis up to 390mm. Then keep moving it up bit by bit to 400mm to make sure it won't hit and damage itself. The photos show my printer with the Z axis at 400mm. There's not a lot of wiggle room, but the braces do clear the print head by a few mm.