K8200 anti-Z-wobble and X-workspace improvement

thingiverse

I've been tinkering with Z-couplers and other gadgets to address the pesky Z-wobble issues. But unfortunately, it wasn't a complete solution - I needed to make further adjustments. Desperation kicked in, so I decided to beef up the gantry's stability. Check out these before-and-after photos. The blue images are from before the upgrade, while the red ones show off the improvements after tweaking things. By the way, the ABS and vaporized materials got some serious work done here! So, let's take a closer look at what I changed: First up, we've got a redesigned holder for the Z-rod that slides around the right z-profile [zrod_r.scad]. Next, there's an M5 rod connecting the holder to the frame's corner. The second key modification was creating a custom holder for the Z-axis linear bearing itself [zbar.scad]. Additionally, I fabricated sheet metal reinforcements for both sides of the Z-frame to add extra stability. Down at the bottom, I built another holder just like the first one but with an updated design - that's right, you guessed it - zrod_r2.scad. Don't have any photos yet, but take note: there are diagonal M5 rods on both left and right sides of this frame. This setup has opened up 20mm more space in the X-axis, which is fantastic! If you decide to take advantage of that extra real estate, though, keep in mind that you'll need a firmware update for it all to work together smoothly. By the way, I did fix a minor issue with the left side's 10mm rod holder recently, back on January 25th, 2015 - made sure things are running pretty smooth around here now.