Scalable Y Carriage for Any Printer

thingiverse

EDIT: 2-12-2020: So the original design desperately needs an overhaul. I had printed this before actually trying to re-assemble the printer on a new 2020 extrusion frame, but unfortunately the rods aren't far enough away from the underside of this to clear the frame. The bearing holes need to be offset at least 5-10mm lower so it can clear with ease. I recently redesigned this, but I didn't like how it looked so I'll probably start from scratch as I also want to make the base larger so there's less leverage on the arm mating surfaces. The original one was also prone to having the bridge at the top of the bearing hole crack especially if the springs were tightened as they need to be. I may incorporate the sliding mechanism as suggested originally, and a dovetail fit should be quite rigid if done properly. I was inspired by xxalxx's design and after printing it out I wanted to customize it for my linear bearing. After designing and printing a part that would snap into place on the original, I realized I would be better off designing it from scratch and changing some of the geometry to shave off weight and also to make the arms really lock into place. I used Solid Edge to design this and I've done several iterations, but I believe the tolerances built in (.1-.2mm between the mating surfaces) should work on a well-calibrated machine. I designed this so that I can make new arm pieces to simply expand the maximum size of the bed. I wanted to implement a sliding mechanism with a screw to expand the arms, but I feel that may introduce too much slop without a total redesign of the arms. The arms can be easily chopped and extended if you wish, just be careful not to simply scale it or the bearing holes won't be right.