5.1. Recommendations & Future Dev

Along with this printer upgrade I also recommend the following mods to get the best of your printer:

  • Ramps 1.4 with TMC2100 drivers. This allow for significantly quieter printing after proper calibration. Alternatively SKR and GEN-L boards make the transition to 24v and TMC drivers easier.
  • 24v Power supply mod for much faster heating times and better motor speed/torque.
  • Auto Leveling via a BL-touch or similar. No more manual leveling. When combined with bilinear leveling in Marlin it is possible to print on warped beds. I was able to remove my glass bed and print directly to a PEI sheet bound to my heatbed. This saves a very significant 300 grams of moving weight.
  • POM TR8x8 leadscrew nuts, seem to have a lot less play than the normal brass nuts.
  • Replacement Y carriage plate. The stock one is heavy and warps very easily.

I intend to keep this project up to date with the newest improvements from the Prusa i3 mk3s as they become available.

Sample Prints

boatyMcboat

boatyMcboat

Future improvements

this may include:

  • A Front extrusion plate for the Titan aero extruder hotend combo. COMPLETED
  • Possibly a MK2s style E3DV6 hotend with MK8 extruder gear. Hemera Mount COMPLETED. Provides a great integrated hotend and extruder for a decent price.
  • Trinamic TMC2208 silent stepper drivers with UART or TMC2130 drivers for integration into ramps for auto homing and skipped step detection when available. COMPLETED Via MKS GENL with TMC2130 steppers. Also available via cloned Einsy RAMBO, or SKR 1.3 With Trinamic drivers if you would like 32bit
  • Based on this excellent fan roundup, Add a number of alternate fan designs. This will include a Dii Cooler derivative and direct blower fan design. The fan in this project is based on Thorped’s design, It scores similarly to the Cii cooler in this test due to a straighter path from fan to nozzle. IMPROVED MK3 Fan Shroud added. very similar performance to Dii Cooler. New MK3s cooler based on the R4 will be completed soon.
  • New X Carriage design based on the upcoming MK3 x carriage design with incorporated belt tensioner COMPLETED
  • MK3s Filament Sensor
  • ~~Redesign for a MK52 heatbed and usability of the full 250x210mm heatbed. Will require new extrusions and Rods as the original Wanhao X-axis rods are much smaller than the MK3 ~~ COMPLETED
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Last updated on May 5, 2019