Thinking Of ReVamping my Taz 6 Thoughts please

Ok my Taz 6 is noisy, bed levelling not working that great, Cura I hate, SO I was thinking of scrapping the machine and re vamping it,
1 fit a bl touch
2 fit a Duet 3 Mini
fit a bigger screen

any thought’s on this since Lulzbot just was saved, there has been very little to upgrade the Taz 6 with even there magnetic bed “out of stock” and not selling in the UK don’t have much to lose really but possibly get the machine a lot quieter , and wifi Any thoughts or has anyone done this…

I’m thinking about reworking my TAZ 6 clone into a workhorse shouldn’t be to difficult.

where are you sourcing the screen from,

I did a duet 2 and bltouch. It was easy if you are familiar with duet.

I simply zip tied the bltouch wires to the outside of the wire conduit. It is attached to my itworks titan aero toolhead with a small bracket attached using the heatsink screws.

I used a duet Ethernet. The wifi might not like all the metal in the case. The wires are pretty short. I ended up trimming the extra tab off the existing connectors instead of crimping on the right connectors. I was afraid I’d have to build a while new set of wire bundles if I trimmed any.

I made mounts for an Ethernet port and USB extension cable to avoid having to open up the case to access those ports.

I run a BLTouch on my taz6. BLTouch alone is a huge upgrade for the taz in particular, as the build plate is quite large, which amplifies bed tilt. The bl also enables mesh leveling, which is also valuable due to heat warping of the large built plate. My taz runs a quick mesh bed level at the start of every print, and also uses the BLTouch for initial z leveling as well. This means my nozzle no longer gets used as battering ram. :wink: (Seriously, your nozzle shouldn’t touch anything but hot plastic IMO.) This process has worked flawlessly for me and made the printer a true print-and-forget workhorse.

Magnetic bed is another huge upgrade. I run one from printed solid, which was inexpensive and has been a great upgrade. Huge ROI on this.

I will upgrade the taz to something with tmcs at some point, but I run kipper on all my printers atm, which is almost like a software-powered hardware upgrade. It’s a great way to increase performance that also has a noticeable impact on printer noise. It won’t make it silent, but it does quiet the printer overall.

I used to run octoprint with kipper, but recently switched all my printers to use moonraker with the fluidd UI. This is printer control server and a (beautiful) web app front end built for kipper that allows you to control everything on a printer from any browser (right down to configuring gcode macros, firmware settings, etc). With this upgrade I really don’t use the screens on any of my printers much at all, as I just manage everything from my phone/tablet/laptop at this point.

Finally, I swapped out my original taz6 tool head for a custom design based on the lulzbot m175. This change really increased overall print quality, printing consistency and viable printing speed much more than I would have expected. Huge and worthwhile upgrade from the original hot end.

Ok, really finally. Check out some of @piercet s mods. I did his frame upgrade and belt adjustment upgrades. Both worthwhile adds.

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wow that’s some upgrade first thing though how difficult was it to install the BLtouch I made and installed Hemera tool head so I do have some skills, I totally agree about the Nozzle touching the steel washers Im constantly trying to keep the nozzle clean so avoiding dirty contact with steel washers,so im keen todo the first mod then go to duet…

+1 on the duet upgrade. I just upgraded a Taz 4 to a duet maestro. Works very well. Setting up a machine with G code in the config file was easier than I thought it would be. BLtouch for bed leveling works so much better than Lulzbot leveling. E3D V6 hot end with Volcano and .8 nozzle. Wham Bam magnetic build plate with the PEX surface. Now I’m using Prusa slicer instead of ages old Lulzbot Cura. Definitely worth the effort!

Chuck

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Thanks for the reply did you have to supply information like z pitch screw, pulley pitch motor resolution, I downloaded the manual for a duet and they are asking information I might find hard to obtain… I bult a hemera head for the Taz 6, looking also to improve on the Modular bed from Lulzbot… any help appreciated to all who replied to my original post…

BLTouch installation was pretty straightforward for me. I think I reused the existing wiring, so no need to route new wire through the cable chain. It took me a little dialing-in initially, but that was probably because it was my first experience with that sensor as much as anything else. It has been so much more consistent and reliable than the conductive system, and also more accurate as well. The ability to mesh level also really helps with physically leveling (via shims) the bed on the Taz. Once the bed is level-ish, with no nozzle-bashing because BLTouch and no print-prying because flexible build plate, the printer just cranks out great prints with very little drama.

+1 on Prusaslicer, although I predominantly use ideamaker (even though the UI sucks). Great supports, and generally really good print quality and speed.