I did that mod a while back. Moderate improvement in quality. I wouldnāt say its worth the $400 or so in parts. Iāll be doing the open rails conversion soon and posting my misumi rods for sale.
You might want to add Flexystruder v2 to the list (http://devel.lulzbot.com/TAZ/accessories/kanyu/ I have been successfully using that extruder for a while. Adding the additional tension control on the Flexistruder v1 was more than I needed.
Donāt know if you want to add this to the list but I made a new camera mount. Itās a bit of a hack job but itās the most stable build plate mount with the widest view so far. Iām no designer so itās just pieced with meshmixer.
Although I just posted it elsewhere, Iāll repeat it here. I discarded my Misumi linear bearing & hardened steel shaft upgrade on my TAZ 5. The linear ball bearings rumbled and large parts had so much harmonic ripple on large horizontal surfaces (especially with a .5mm nozzle) that they looked like they were made of grainy wood. So, I got rid of the bearings and replaced them with 10mm x 14mm x 25mm sintered bronze bearings that I ordered from Amazon (Oilite P/N: AAM1014-25). I designed/printed some ABS sleeves to bush the bearings up to the 19.2mm x 29mm size of the stock plastic bearings. The results are fantastic! No play, axes move smoothly, printer is much quieter, and printed parts (so far) are excellent. I replaced all 11 bearings for $50 including shipping. These bearings should work well with the stock shafts, too, so no need to replace the stock shafts with hardened shafts as is necessary with linear ball bearings.
I just did this yesterday, so I donāt have much experience with the mod, but I expect it to last the life of the printer.
I respectfully suggest Lulzbot consider designing these bronze bearings into the next TAZ.
[12/23/2015 Edit] Per you suggestion, Iāve added .stl files of the plastic sleeve bearing holder. Note that dimensions are tight and changing temperatures, plastic colors, and such will cause size variations. I also made the OD about .2mm too large so I could sand the boogers off the OD on a disc sander after assembly (you just grip the assembly loosely by the ends in your fingers and touch it to the disc. Itāll spin while it sands and give you a nice smooth, round part)
[5/28/2017 Edit] Itās been a year and a half using the Oilite sintered bronze bushings and I thought Iād let you know that that they are still working great with NO signs of wear in the bushings or the shafts. An excellent, low-cost upgrade! Sleeve Bearing Holder - Male 2015-12-23.stl (103 KB) Sleeve Bearing Holder - Female 2015-12-23.stl (95.8 KB)
Updated the list, I had been leaving the old link there because it has the pictures in it. Looking forward to seeing nutmeg pictures at some point too!
Iāve modified the existing TAZ extruder body design to include forced-air cooling of the filament itself, above the brass bushing. The intent is to prevent swelling and jamming of PLA due to heat creep. So far it appears to have solved the problem.
Iāve included stp and stl files for the modified part. I will add photos when I have good representative models. The details are in this thread: