AO-101 60mm Print Height Increase

this modification will increase the print height from 100mm to 160mm (3.9in to 6.29in). this was achieved with no additional hardware, just printing new parts. the ao-101 use 30 degree angled parts for the upper frame, i changed everything to 35 degrees to allow the carriage to travel higher.

parts and sketchup file can be found on thingiverse

you will need to reflash your firmware with the new Z_MAX_POS value to allow the printer to reach that height. you can find detailed instructions on how to do that here https://www.lulzbot.com/?q=support/re-flashing-your-3d-printers-firmware

on about line 200 of Configuration.h change
#define Z_MAX_POS 100
to
#define Z_MAX_POS 160

and thats its, you’ll now have over 6 inches of print height!

Cool, thanks!

This is pretty cool! Thanks for sharing this!

That’s one must have upgrade! And it’s so obvious I don’t know how no one else (that I know of) thought of it! :smiley:

Thanks for sharing this.

Say, I guess to make this upgrade you need to remove the whole top since the lowervertexmiddle part is fastened to the T-slot with a screw at the end. What I’d like to know is can you safely leave the X axis and vertical smooth and threaded rods there while making the change?

On the other hand I might do the Z axis revision (replacing the X end clamps) at the same time on my AO-100.

Do you have a pic of what your printer looks like after this mod?

thank you all.

Gemini64, i was thinking the same thing, why no one thought of it before, or if someone did but ran into issues?

the process of converting all the parts over took some work. i pretty much did it in a frankenstein fashion by replacing the parts as i printed the next parts as i was making sure things worked out at the same time. at one point i was printing with nothing holding up the 4 x axis rods. :slight_smile:

lotw, i’ll get some pictures up in the next day or two

Any word of the photos?

While we wait for Seesoe to post pictures, here’s a screen grab of his Sketchup model.

Actually it is 25 degrees rather than 35. :wink:

Upgraded my AO-101 with this extra 60mm height mod over the weekend :smiling_imp:
Haven’t printed anything ‘tall’ yet. Standard prints seem to be coming out the same quality as before except that I seem to be getting more cooling layer separation issues.
I doubt it’s this mod causing however, as I also swapped over to using the budaschnozzle v2.0 and I am now printing with a 0.35 nozzle instead of the 0.5mm nozzle.

I’ll try post pics soon.

Antony

Nice, but you know what they say, pics or it didn’t happen. :stuck_out_tongue:

I was set to make this upgrade too, but I’m changing my mind. I still want the print height increase, but I’m thinking of going a little further and partially morphing my AO-100 into a small MendelMax 2.0. Just the aluminum frame configuration though, not the linear rails. Basically I want to open up the front because I find the front Z frame is in the way when I want to access the extruder. The MMax 2.0, Mendel90, Prusa i3 and to a lesser extent the TAZ are nice in the way their front is open.

But I’m going to start another topic about this.

Pics as requested :smiley:

The strip down


All back together again

159mm tall vase (in lulzbot green)

Antony

Quick warning: Make sure you check how your cables move after this upgrade. I had to add a clip to stop my x-axis stepper motor wires from catching under electronics enclosure. Nearly ripped them out :blush: the first time I raised z-axis to the top.

Antony

Very nice, thanks for sharing. :slight_smile:

Woo! Nice one. :slight_smile:

Very nice, thinking of doing that mod after I finish testing the new design I am testing for lead screw couplers.

Time lapse video printing a 16cm tall version of Humphrey :sunglasses:
http://youtu.be/vFbMNoVkGK0

Antony

This looks great. My printer is cranking out the new parts as I type.

A couple of questions - I’m assuming I’ll need to add the little nuts into the new parts. I’ve looked through the parts section of the site and I don’t see them.

Anyone know the specs for those?

Anyone have a source for them?

To install them, do I just heat them up w/ a soldering iron and press them into place?

Thanks in advance.

Mark

The AO-101 z-axis parts don’t use heat-inserts. The existing nuts can just be removed and re-used in the updated parts.

Antony

On the off chance you were referring to the Taz Style x ends parts in the other thread here: https://forum.lulzbot.com/t/project-a0taz-taz-style-x-end-bits-for-ao-10x-series/264/1 Those parts can be installed with a soldering iron and can be sourced from Mcmaster Carr.

That is pretty cool. I think I might have to start printing those parts out.

BTW: Those LED lighting strips are pretty cool. Is there a tutorial on how to do that?