Ender 5 bed support

thingiverse

I really liked this design as it was way less printing than fully printed options, so I remixed it because 8mm ali tube seemed strong enough and easily available. It looks nice too since I got some anodised ones. You can get them from most DIY shops in the UK; mine came from Wickes (pic included). I took merlindrz's design, imported it into Solidworks and did some remodelling to suit. The design seemed to be for a 5mm thick plate for the front support, but my Ender 5 has a 4mm thick plate. I thickened up the rear clamp halves that take the tube to have hex sockets for M4 nylocs. Sockets for the tubes are modelled at 8.1mm since I made no shrinkage allowance. Tubes were very tight fits initially; an 8mm drill (which was loose) must have taken high spots off and fit was then snug but usable. To fit it, I removed the bed assembly, fitted the front support piece, tubes, then rear clamp halves (which are handed). Then I re-fitted the bed and fitted the rear half of the rear clamps. A drawing of tube length is included; other hardware used are 8x M4 Nyloc, 8x M4x16 skt cap head (pan head be fine), and 8x M4 washers. Only one STL file is not showing upside down to how I printed it; clamp halves are printed flat side down, front support printed tube sockets up. Also included is a STEP model for those used to solid modelling. Although I used PLA, this would be better printed in polycarbonate. I plan to print in PC and hope the front support won't melt from radiated heat! I plan to heat shield it to save taking it all apart again.