Taz5 Tools

thingiverse

I've added my level tool for leveling. I've had my TAZ5 for about two weeks, and these are the gadgets I've made to help get it working properly. I'm noob to 3D printing but an old hand at g-code with CNC routers, mills, and plasma cutting, so things are coming along pretty well. I got my TAZ5 off Amazon for $1850; been waiting for the time to build one up or even add an extruder to my Router, which is pretty fast as I designed it with servo motors instead of steppers. I decided to just buy one and get on with the learning process. Out of the box, my left Z-axis was pretty hard to move, and the stepper sounded like it was banging pretty hard. I was able to get things lined up pretty well, and both sides are about the same – less than 25 oz/in to move them, that's with the motor attached. I must admit I was worried about lost steps in the Z axis so I built a little indicator for the right Z axis to show if I'm getting out of alignment between both sides. It's easy to make and makes me feel better, but I haven't noticed any change since I set it. I built a torque gauge that clamps to the leadscrew to see if I was within the range the stepper motor could handle. I have three items here: another mount for a .01 mm dial indicator, a Z-axis monitor, and a torque gauge. The dial indicator was $10 purchased off of Amazon Prime; if I had seen the other dial indicator mounts, I probably wouldn't have made this one – I didn't know what Thingiverse was last week. I could've saved some time not poking around the Lulzbot drawings for the stl of the mounting plate. The dial indicator is mounted to put it close to the actual XY location of the single extruder; it also has a mount to mount the indicator horizontal to measure backlash in either X or Y direction. The little Z-axis monitor mounts on the right rail as shown in the photos. After you do a normal alignment of the Z axis, home the axis and then slide the unit up and down until the pointers are aligned together. I added a Z alignment tool aid that has been in my other things but you might not be aware of. The torque gauge is just a piece of 2mm music wire with a pointer calibrated to oz/in of torque. You can see it explained at 14:00 in this video. Print Settings Printer Brand: LulzBot Printer: TAZ 5 Resolution: Standard Infill: 30 Notes: ABS 240/110 Post-Printing Assembly Pretty straight forward – the pictures should answer any questions. These are junk box builds, so designed around what hardware I had; lots of mixed units, sorry but it's what it is. The dial indicator is mounted with a 1/4-20 .75 inch bolt. The dial indicator I used has a 10mm travel and when I do a home it reads about 4 mm. The right Z monitor uses a 3 mm screw with a smooth shoulder as the pivot point; the torque arm is 8 inches, and the pointer is 7 1/4 inches long. The three screws are 8-32 1/5 inch. After assembly, I measured the distance from the center of the leadscrew to the push points below the dial – mine was 8.9 inches. Decide what you want for markings and divide that value by the length; then add that weight to the arm and mark the position. You can assume it's pretty linear but could do it for several torque values and do them in both directions if you want great accuracy. I hope someone finds value in these accessories. I've modified slightly a couple of the stl's and haven't printed them – the changes were more room for the 8-32 nuts and reduce the original 1/8 inch holes for the torque wires to 2mm. Comments welcome. Cheers, Kisssys Try Fusion360