So it’s 4 months later and I’ve already replaced several components of this printer. I wanted to keep it somewhat resembling a taz but every taz “upgrade” I’ve done I still wasn’t happy with it. Everyone must be printing really slow with these machines because there is absolutely nothing rigid anywhere. Bed wobbles, toolheads wobble, z-axis binds over 5 mm/s. So I decided to go a different route and just make it my own. Anyways, I’m not here to complain or rag on lulzbot, just share what i’ve done.
For the frame, I got rid of all the corner brackets, tapped the ends of the extrusions and drilled holes for blind joints. Not because of rigidity or alignment issues but all those corner brackets were just a pain when i was disassembling the printer as much as I was. Also got in the way of other mods. It’s much cleaner now.
For the y-axis, I got rid of the igus bushings and added mgn12 rails. I replaced the front skateboard bearings with flanged F695 bearings and custom mount that keeps the belt perfectly straight. I planned to use the original glass bed for a while and even bought a new PEI sheet for it but shortly after I installed the PEI sheet, I dropped the bed and it shattered. So i’m now waiting on a mic6 plate, bed heater, and steel sheet. I also replaced the belt holder with a much smaller one and relocated the endstop. I can now get 350mm travel in the y axis if I decide to later replace the bed with a larger one or i can use that space for nozzle wipe, klicky probe, etc.
I originally replaced the x-axis with the taz 6 x-axis but I didn’t like it and there was just too much play, so I replaced it with an mgn12 rail. It’s rock solid now and there’s no shortage of toolhead mounts for it.
I replaced the z-axis with the taz6 z-axis but it still sucks. I had to loosen the screws on the pom nut and remove the bearings from the top of the lead screws and now it mostly functions without issue as long as I keep the speed low and manually level it once in a while. I’m seriously considering converting this to a core-xz at some point but if I decide to keep the lead screws then i’ll probably put both motors on their own drivers and add a second endstop so it can level itself.
For the electronics, I am still using the original rambo, screen, wiring, motors, etc, except the toolhead is now using CAN bus and I replaced marlin with klipper. I have a skr e3 v3 sitting here that I plan to install soon, mainly for the drivers so I can quiet it down. I plan to get rid of all these wiring harnesses and the enclosure and mount all the electronics under the print bed with some custom cut panels to protect them and hide any wires coming out either through the extrusion channels or in cable chains.
I’ve also built a few different toolheads for it. An h2v2, a voron stealthburner, an xol2, all with CAN bus and either bltouch or voron tap for bed mesh and adxl345 for input shaping.
As far as money spent, the toolheads and new print bed cost quite a bit but not counting that, I’m probably under $200. The biggest investment has been time. It’s been fun though and I can use the toolheads on my other printers as well.
I plan to release all the files eventually but right now it’s just a huge mess and my modeling skills aren’t very good, but they are improving.