I am very interested in this project. I have a TAZ 5 on the way and plan to build large ABS parts for the motorcycle among other things so accuracy will be key. I’m also posting so I can follow 
Thank you for you ingenuity and all your dedicated effort on this project piercet! It was a lot of your posts that helped me with the decision and confidence in this very expensive purchase. You are a model citizen of the DIY community!
Glad you are enjoying the projects so far, it is always nice to get some feedback from people on how these are going and I thank you for your kind words! Good luck with your motorcycle projects, and if you think of anything you would like to see for a printer, let me know.
Tim
What size spacer are you using for single hole end of the belt bracket? Have you or anyone else had a chance to try out the printed bracket?
Also, do you remember what length you cut the extrusion to? I need to go buy a fine toothed blade for my miter because I want nice neat cuts this time
The single hole end has a pair of spacers on it actually. An extra 6mm spacer from openbuilds, and a larger 19mm (3/4") thick one from home depot. There may also be a washer or two in there. Your goal is to equil the thickness of the wheels and spacers used below.
I’ve printed the old printed bracket, but I never bolted it up. It may have the upper hole in the wrong spot by 16mm, since thats how far off the oritgional machined bracket was. I’ll finish the replacement one tonight.
I have the cutoff piece of extrusion somewhere still, I’ll measure that and post it later tonight when I get back
Yeah, I noticed that it was off a bit. I figure maybe I can play around with how I bolt the wheels in, but no matter what I did it was either off, or the plate that goes in the back then became off.
I’ll likely just 3d print a spacer then
The chunk I cut off of the 10mm x 60mm rail for the X axis was 64mm long. I never measured the rail ahead of time, I assumed it was 500mm. The X axis design is set up to allow up to a - 15mm “'too short” rail. That gave me a 5mm gap that I could move either end block in or out as needed.
Working on the backplate now, will post it in about 10 minutes.
Here’s the corrected backplate:
Taz_Openrail_X_belt_bracket_2_0_a.stl (157 KB)
Thanks! I’m going to print it out to try. By the way, What are those pegs that you used to wrap the belt around with?
I had a pair of threaded 1/2" spacers laying around. So they are a 1/4" bolt, the backplare, a nut, a washer, the spacer, another washer and another nut. You could also use tubing or a nonthreaded spacer. Even the bare bolt should be ok. I wanted to avoid long term wear on the belt loops but the teeth are thick enough that the threads wouldn’t wear all the way through anyways.
What do you think about using 4 holes for the back plate rather than 3? What about building a belt holder onto it like some of the prusa i3 x carriages on thingiverse?
There are 3 holes along the bottom, and one up on the top. You could put a second one on the top, but I felt that the three units on the bottom would be sufficient to limit torsion, and the thickness of the part would limit flex. Not sure where else you would be talking about adding a hole. You could rotate the motor and idler pulley ore use foldout tabs, but that would add complexity to the mounting solution for the motor and make it harder to print.
Oh yeah I’m not sure how I didnt notice the third hole at the bottom. I was just thinking we could make it a “square” design and just use the same bolt pattern and just use a longer bolt for where the wheels go. We would then be using the same sized spacers
Something like this one?
Openrail_square_backplate_1_0_a.stl (205 KB)
Ohh yes… I think that might be “easier” for me. I’ll try the one I got from thingiverse first since I already printed it. if I’m not going to get the spacing right then I’ll print this one and see. I just got a shipments of bolts and locknuts in today
Ok, great, let me know if it needs any tweaks. I really need to finish the leveling probe mount for the backplate soon too.
What did you do to get that glow and the words TAZ at the front of your printer? It looks really cool and I’d love to add that to my own printer.
Thank you!
The build thread and part STL’s for that particular modification are located here: Add status indicator LED's to your TAZ in the “add status indicator lights to your TAZ” thread. You will need some electronics (you can buy that as an assembly from Makers Tool Works, it’s basically the same one used in the Mendelmax 3 or separatly from other sources), you have to tie those electronics to the I2C pins on your Rambo board (which are currently unoccupied) and you have to tie into power to power the LED’s Then there are a couple of firmware pieces that need adjustment / adding. The firmware files in that thread should work for a Taz 4. i haven’t added my hexagon hotend to my printer yet, so I haven’t finished a Taz 5 version of the firmware yet, but that will be coming fairly soon. I’m just waiting on the extruder fans.
I would rate that project at about the same complexity as installing a dual extruder setup on your TAZ. The modification itself will work and fit on a Taz 3 and up. If you have any questions or need to see details of the installation, etc. let me know!
I cut my rail but looks like I need to make an order for some different length m5 screws. The 4 hole belt plate looks good! (Thank you)
Here’s a picture of the cut end of the openrail. I used a 100 tooth saw and the end I cut looks nicer than the other end.
You’re welcome! That cut came out really nice. What type of 100 tooth blade was it? I may need to get one of those.
With the plastic back plate I suppose it would indeed need longer screws than I used heh. Let me know which ones end up fitting
Ordered 16mm and 25mm using my caliper to roughly estimate. These were the sizes that were available on amazon. If it’s too long, it’ll just be a mm or two so then i’d probably print a thin spacer for it.
The blade is from home depot and it’s actually a 96 tooth. I clamped the aluminum extrusion to a piece of 2x4 and then clamped the extrusion again to the guide on the miter saw. The reason for the wood is so that when cutting metal, if it heats up, it will not melt the plastic part of the saw below the blade.
