New to the group but just wanted to share with anyone that’s interested a new K1 series X rail linear rail upgrade that I have been working on for the last few months.
This is all my own work and my design goals were as follows.
My goals were simple:
Remove common VFA fault
Remove ghosting
Make an X rail upgrade kit that works on rooted or non-rooted machines
No impact to X x Y print area dimensions
Make it look close to stock and in keeping with the Creality design and less like an afterthought
No impact to start print scripts for nozzle clean/wipe
Make gantry lighter than stock!
Make XY block pulleys accessible so that if a bearing fails a full strip down is not required
The design is complete and ALL goals were met!
Upgrade uses a MGN9H rail rather than a MGN12H as per other upgrade kits to save weight and maintain full print area, but is reinforced by a carbon box section for additional stiffness. This has resulted in a reduction in gantry weight by 170g which has hugely helped print quality.
The one you shared is a FULL linear rail upgrade which would in theory be the best.
However it comes at a high cost as you need x3 linear rails vs 1 and also potentially unnecessary as testing has shown that a single rail on X is all that’s needed to remove the VFA.
Looking at that upgrade it’s a nice looking, well engineered solution however for me I don’t like an unsupported MGN12H rail, especially on a K1 Max. Goes against everything Ive learned from my engineering career. All be it that the tool head is relatively light and it’s prob ok I still wanted to opt for the MGN9H with supporting rail.
Another point for that mod vs mine is that in this one you need to change the stepper mounts and also the front lead screw mounts, assumingly to maintain build volume. Mine doesn’t need that as it works with the stock Creality design which therefore makes install easier for the masses.
Both are viable options and really it comes down to that level of modification and cost the user wishes to undertake.
hello… would it be possible to use this mod with 7.8mm belts? after replacing the pulleys? since I would like to keep the original things but I would like to minimize the movement of the top up and down and use linear guidance for the x axis
Hello Kamol, unfortunately not, the tooted pulleys you will need to accept the larger belts would not fit in the XY blocks. They would need modification or you could file them out.
Strangely, you are the second person in the last week that has asked for this (other person on the Cults3D page) so I may consider making a 7mm belt version.
What did you design in… I work with Solidworks so I would know how to adjust the holes for the pulleys in the program… the thing is that the 7.8mm belt works great on other printer components, I have dimensional inaccuracies x/y on x more and I attribute it to the fact that the belt goes up and down in my pulleys where the clearance is almost 2 mm and I have a difference between x and y of about 0.3mm so if I want to keep the original hardware I would use this belt to eliminate dimensional inaccuracies… and I already have it at home with the pulleys… but since I have to disassemble the entire top and print new guides for the y axis anyway, I am also considering upgrading to a linear rail…
I understand what you are trying to achieve. What size of pulleys are you using for the 7.8mm belts? I had a quick look on Aliexpress and 7.8 do not seem to be a common belt size and I can find little to no pulleys to suit 8mm belts.
if you can give me the pulley dims you may be able to fit them in the current parts.
Each of the XY blocks have a little bump where the pulleys go. You could file them down a little to suit the bigger pulley depending on the overall dims.
I am thinking of going the same route, only with aluminum XY joints and an aluminum box section for X. I am contemplating whether to use 9mm or 12mm (or even 15mm) linear rails. What is your experience with the rigidity so far?
