I tested out the Simple Blocks mentioned in my last post, and I immediately saw room for improvement to the design. I've spent quite a while pondering new ideas and came up with something very nice - the TwisterBlock.
[No photos yet, because I always seem to be writing posts while waiting for my prints to finish - it seems like the best time since I'm usually really tired of drawing, and don't have anything better to do while I wait...]
Since my biggest 3d printing related projects are the NanoBlock (non-bowden) and H4 (bowden) extruders, I constantly seem to need to change the printhead. The UM owners among you know exactly how much of a pain this is, and the others can consider themselves lucky since they never had to do that. Well, my troubles are no more (assuming this works as intended).
I was thinking about how I could make it really easy to remove the XY cross bars and print head without disassembling everything, and I had an eureka moment: I could just "twist" it a bit and pull it out. Here's how you do that in three easy steps:
I was thinking about how I could make it really easy to remove the XY cross bars and print head without disassembling everything, and I had an eureka moment: I could just "twist" it a bit and pull it out. Here's how you do that in three easy steps:
Once these block are in place, you can mess with your printhead as much as you like, the only thing you will have to remove is 8 bolts. I really hope this works, it will save me hours and hours of time in the long run if it does. Plus they don't look bad at all, and they are about 1.5 mm shorter at the end which is closer to the free section of the belt where tensioners usually go, just for good measure. The belt clamp mechanism is easy on the belts and it will not deform them, and will also provide just a little bit of extra tension.
Stay tuned for updates in a day or two...
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