Taz 6 Anti Wobble Z nut mount

I finally theoretically finished my Taz 6 retrofit antiwobble. there will be a variant of this attached to the openbuilds parts as well at some point. It’s a 3 piece unit, printable without support, and using only 4 M5 heat set inserts. It uses the same size (but unknown length) 3/16" steel dowel pins and igus 2MTRI MYI-03-03 Flanged Bearing, 3/16" IDx 3/16" L bearings that my taz 5 anti wobble uses https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1089626 . You will need 16 bearings and 8 shafts to complete a pair of these units

It’s undergoing printing next. I’m mainly concerned with the overall unit strength. i don’t want to make it any bigger than it is in any dimension, but I may end up reinforcing the mid section by extending a plate between the shaft anchor posts to stiffen it. That will take about 1mm additional clearance on either side.

I think this should fit. I don’t have an actual taz 6 to test it on, but the clearances look right. To use this, you would remove the green squishy pad, and bolt this in its place. If it does hit anywhere, please let me know what it is hitting. I’m particularily concerned that it will hit the extruder motor on full maximum X travel. You probably do lose about 7-10mm of maximum Z travel with this as it exists currently. I can squish that down a little, but only if I make it much wider. This design is a compromise in that regard, but I may issue a compensated set of standard mounts and openbuilds mounts later to drop that conic section down accordingly. Files will be in the nect post, you’ll probably have to flip them to print them correctly.






The “taz6 antiwobble.stl” file is included just to show an example of assembly. That particular file will most not likely print, but if you print the other 3 piece files, you should be all set. Heat set inserts go in the one with 4 holes in it, the other pieces just get bearings and shafts and 2 m5 bolts. My calipers are still packed in the pending move box, somewhere, so I had to guess on the socket holes for the M5 bolts, but I think I’m pretty close or over on that area so it should slip right in.

You bolt the base to the X end piece, then put the mid layer on and slide in the first two pins. then the upper layer and the last set of pins. Then you bolt the leadscrew nut to the top of the assembly using the stock bolts and optionally 2 additional bolts. You should have 1.5mm travel in any direction. I may reduce that later if it means additional clearance but for now i’d like to keep the option.

New files will be at the bottom of the thread for now.
Taz6_antiwobble_1_0_a_base.stl (220 KB)
Taz6 Antiwobble.stl (565 KB)
Taz6_antiwobble_1_0_a_upper.stl (118 KB)
Taz6_antiwobble_1_0_a_Mid.stl (223 KB)

Seems to do the job about as well as my Taz 5 variant. it has a bit more travel built in, I may take about 1mm of that out in the final production variant to make it a little more compact. But it’s smooth, no Z separation movement, no binding, and seems to fit around a leadscrew just fine.






Published the design
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2574287

Hello Pierset,

Thanks for designing this! I am going to try it on my Taz 6. I have had Z-banding on my Taz 6, even after extensive tuning with Simplify3D.

Do you recommend printing it in PLA or PETG?

Thanks,

Ian

OK, cool! let me know if you run into anything that needs adjusting! It should print fine in either PLA or PETG. That particular part is away from heat and doesn’t really take much stress, so strength isn’t really a concern. I’d print it in whichever material you are able to print cleanest. The bearing mounts are designed with an ABS shrink factor in mind, but PLA or PETG should be close enough it shouldn’t matter. You may find you need to drill out the shaft immidiatly behind the bearing insert retention notch a bit for smooth movement with PLA, but that won’t interfere with retention of the igus bearings at all

More progress on the integrated Taz 6 Openbuilds integrated edition. the X motor side is done, the idler side is kind of done, except I fixed the old version not the newer one, so I’ll need to redo that. It may get posted this evening.

I also forgot to upload the z max limit relocation. But its here now.
limitrelocate.stl (97.9 KB)
wobblegratedtop_1_0_a.stl (123 KB)
taz_6_openbuilds_x_antiwobble_2_0_a.stl (478 KB)
bottomgrated.stl (144 KB)

Hey,
I see its been a WHILE since you made this, however, i am wondering how this worked out for you? I have a Taz6 and was having serious z-axis drive screw issues. Turns out after trying everything that it was a loose screw on the back of the left z-axis carriage that holds down that drive nut. I snugged it up a LITTLE bit and the screw turned SO easily again, however, i tightened it a bit more and it bound the dang thing again. I had to leave it barely tight. The issue is that it vibrates loose after a little bit. Thankfully i put a silver sharpie mark on the bolt and carriage so i could tell that it was unthreading. I ended up squirting a little hot glue on the bolts to stop them (hopefully) from backing out.
If THIS is a better solution i am VERY interested!! I am assuming this bolts to the top of the carriage and lets the drive nut float on the carriage to stop binding but still holds the carriage tight in the Z direction as to not cause printing issues… Is that correct?
Thanks!!!

It worked quite well. The main downside was the complexity of the part and the loss of z height. It also will only fit the earliest taz 6 x end variant, as later variants such as 6.02 moved the z max target, which interferes. The more functional and more popular option has been the openbuilds taz 6 x axis with integral antiwobble. I never made a standard rod taz 6 end with an integrated antiwobble, as my theory was if you are taking it apart that far anyways, just swap the entire rail for the much better system.

It does indeed in both versions prevent any uncommanded z axis movement while allowing free movement up to 1mm in x and y, which will compensate for both z wobble and mildly bent screws.

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Wow man… That is an amazing project! You designed that setup? It’s pretty incredible!!
You mentioned that the anti-wobble nut mount only worked on earlier Taz6 variants… I actually was wondering what the difference was and how to tell which mine was. I had to print out some parts from the Lulzbot downloads area and saw a bunch of Taz6 variants. Luckily i just needed the Y-axis idler so it didnt seem to matter much for that. However, my extruder mount seems kinda flimsy. When it goes through the wipe cycle it flexes back and forth. I cant seem to find any info to distinguish what version i have.
As for your OpenBuilds X axis, will this work on the later version Taz6 also is that just as accurate as the ground rods? I may start printing out the parts for this project because right now with my Z-nuts i have the bolts just barley snug so they wont bind but had to hot glue the heads to the carriage because they keep wanting to back out.

Thanks for your help and all the awesome work on this stuff man!!

Thanks! yeah, it turned out pretty neat I think.

The main difference is where the Z max target ends up relitive to the leadscrew, and in later variants, the lack of the cone shaped leadscrew nut mount. The early ones have that long spindly offshoot for the Z max switch, the later ones move it more inbound and beef it up considerably. The last variant eliminated the cone shaped section. i don’t know if that version made it onto production machines or not. I based my designs around the earlier ones. It does cause a few problems with the later ones since the X carriage also changes slightly somewhere in there.

The openbuilds X axis will work on all of the Taz 6 variants, it’s a complete drop in replacement. It is significantly more accurate than the rods, since it is fully supported along the entire length, uses bearings instead of bushings designed for press fit tolerances inside non press fit housings, etc. You can improve the tolerances on the stock Taz 6 rods certainly, by adding post tension on the rods similar to how the mini 2 handled things, and swapping the stock igus bushings for the more expensive preload variant, but fitting the X and Y openbuilds axis to the machine is currently the most effective means I have found at improving quality significantly. Adding recirculating ball linear rails might give you slightly more accuracy than that, but at a much higher cost, and there is only a Y aixis project to fit those that I know of so far.

If you like that design you should take a look at my other published designs. Quite a few other Taz upgrades in there Designs - Thingiverse

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