TronXY X5S upgrades

thingiverse

Bought a budget Chinese Core-XY printer with numerous flaws. With several upgrades, this is now a much *much* better printer. Ended up replacing the rollers for the print head's X-motion with solid printed-plastic bearings, and this led to a much better result. Note that the theme here is minimal upgrading. Addressed only the worst shortcomings, and stopped once I had a decent printer. Did not need to replace the motor mounts. Did not need to replace the Y-motion frame and rollers. Kept the funky belt "pulleys," except for the front corners, as they work well enough. Insulating and reinforcing (flattening) the print bed was crucial. Stiffening, dampening, and forcing frame alignment with the large corners was crucial. Routing the belts in one plane removed asymmetric forces from the gantry. Replacing the X-rollers with a solid bearing was crucial to force more exact head positioning. Putting all the electronics on a single backplane made the wiring much cleaner. Entirely removed the control panel (with the horrid Marlin UI), as the OctoPrint web-based control panel is much(!) better. And at this point I stopped. This printer now prints PLA (mostly) very well. Also note that the large plastic corners are *superior* to metal brackets, as they force *exact* frame alignment, dampen vibration, and are more than sufficiently stiff. **Update 2018/05/13** Slightly updated the X-sliders to be even more precise. Tightened up tolerances and added a slight slope to the bearing surface. The result is improved. The prior iteration had less "give" than the stock bearings, but there was still a slight amount of play. Eliminated the play with these changes. **Update 2018/06/10** Again, in the theme of minimal upgrades ... added a simple support tower for the cable chain. Tie-wrapped the filament tube to the cable chain (after losing a print, due to the tube snagging on one of the clips). Nothing fancy, but works. **Update 2018/08/11** The printed-PLA bearing for X-motion continues to perform well. No noticeable wear or "play". Note that I took advantage of the slightly porous nature of 3D printed parts, and soaked the bearing with a generic oil spray (from the local hardware store, which also claims to contain Teflon and silicone). Sprayed a (Telfon-based) mold release on the rail (though this may not be needed). This just works. Weights less than the original X-motion bearing (wheels) and has no perceptible "play" (thus more precise).