Out of date!! Check v2! Anet A8 Y carriage 3 bearing conversion upgrade

thingiverse

This file is outdated! Only use this if your carriage is upside down and you prefer it that way. You want the carriage rails with housing mounts to be above the rail holding the y-belt, so the y-belt is closer to being parallel with itself. You can find a newer version which fixes this here: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3085251 This bearing/bushing housing converts the Anet A8 stock upside-down y-carriage into a 3-bearing type. Three points must be on the same plane. An extended version of the housing is also provided, which mounts through original housing screw holes. This extended version uses about twice as much filament (12g vs 6g) and should probably be printed with a brim of 5mm. The extra length of the mount could make it more sensitive to any bends in the carrier. You'll want to put this on the left rail of the printer (when facing the printer), because the right side bearing housing is what contacts the y-endstop. Like the original, you can feed a staple through the housing to retain the bearing. I wanted this because my stock carriage was so bent up that I had a really hard time getting my bed to glide smoothly on the rails while using tighter tolerance bushings. They would slide freely independently, but once all assembled on the printer they would bind up. Keeping 4 points level and parallel is much harder than 3, and this resolved my issue. Additional benefits include less friction and weight reduction. If you're coming from stock housings, this print can save you over 50 grams on bed weight. The base STL file has enough bite on the stock M4 screws to grab onto this bearing housing also. Just loosen the carriage screws until you can press the bearing housing flush to the carriage, then while pressing the bearing housing flush to the carriage, tighten the screws back down. I was concerned there wasn't enough thread there, but I gave it a few good yanks and it didn't budge. You could also use longer M4 screws here to thread right into the housing. I personally think the base STL is the way to go. Also included are M3 and M4 nut versions, untested by me as I have a well-working setup already. I've also included the modified SCAD file if you want to mess with the nuts, change the housing diameter, screw hole size, etc. If you do want to use nuts, you'll most likely have to drill out the M4 threads already in the carriage, or use M3 sizing. You'll also need longer M4 screws (20mm) than the originals. If using M3 sizing, you'll have to take more care with centering and aligning the housing and carriage rail. But seriously, you should probably fix your carriage and use the new version.