X5S Linear Rail Upgrade & E3DV6 Part Cooler Design

thingiverse

After purchasing my Tronxy X5S 3D printer in December 2017, I made numerous upgrades. Previous Upgrades > Frame corner bracing – Many corner braces parts are available on thingiverse. > Firmware Upgrades (Currently running Marlin 1.1.9) - https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2792104 > New E3DV6 hotend (with insulating sock) – E3DV6 mount is found within this package > +24V heat bed (Running in PID mode) - https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2793094 > Inductive sensor Automatic Bed Leveling (ABL) using a 4X4 bed leveling matrix https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2902402 > Bowden Tube Support Scheme - https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3815245 > Replaced the plastic corner-pulley-mounting-plates with more rigid aluminum plates > Replaced plastic Y-Axis trolley plates with more rigid metal plates https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3725757 > Changed thin sheet metal X-Axis trolley plate with more rigid metal plate Why Go Further – Are Linear Rails Really Important? While overall printer performance improved with the above changes, it was still not great as even after all these upgrades, the carriage still “wobbled”. This caused first layer bed zeroing to be imprecise and left me with 'banding' patterns in subsequent layers. To take it to the next level, I eliminated the wheel-based X & Y trolley system in favor of Linear Rails. To do this, I purchased three 400mm long, Usongshine MGN12H Linear Bearing with matching Slide Block (Search AMAZON or eBay). These only cost $21.00 USD each and the conversion to linear rails was easier than expected. The new rails mount directly onto the aluminum beams of the X5S with 3mm dia X 8mm long screws and T-nuts. Furthermore, I found that most of the X5S carriage parts could be easily modified to mount directly onto the slide blocks of the rails, two for the Y-Axis, one for the X-Axis. Once I got the linear rails installed and running, I designed a new part cooler assembly based on a single 5015 radial fan mounted to the back side of the X-carriage assembly. The Results With the addition of the linear rails and new part cooler fan, my print quality has massively improved. In fact, I believe that the linear-rail upgrade has done more for improved print quality than any of my earlier efforts. This Project & Further Opportunities for Improvement This thingiverse submission details just my linear rail conversion and new part cooler design. I am providing complete design details in the hopes that this information might be a launching point for others considering a switch to linear-rails. Included are detailed design drawings and STL print files for all of the key parts required. Note, however, even though I have included STL print files, I actually fabricated a few of the parts for my printer from aluminum. Note that due to the evolutionary nature of my upgrades, my final hot end assembly in particular has room for improvement. The scheme used to mount the E3DV6 and X-carriage and then to the linear-rail slide-block is more complex than it could be using more individual parts and screws than might be needed. A more integrated E3DV6 X-carriage plate design could combine many parts and much of the hardware. Never the less, I hope you can understand my approach and build upon and adapt these basic ideas to your needs.