Add more V-Slot to my Makerfarm 10" Prusa i3v

I have mostly been upgrading this machine slowly over the years to replace the wooden parts with plastic parts. Now after seeing some other ideas of the latest printers using more V-Slot, I decided to work on making this printer more sturdy. This should also cut out more vibration & make it less noisy. I am doing these upgrades in stages. I have already changed the front Y-axis endplate to use a 2020x250mm V-Slot with some plastic parts for connections to existing V-slot & Belt. I am currently in the process of changing the back plate to 2020x250mm V-slot with plastic connection parts. Both of these plates I had already converted them from wood to plastic so my dimensions for the new parts should work. I also started working on designing a V-slot frame to go around the whole machine to replace all the wood. I have some spare 2020, 2040 & 2060 V-slot & will design the structure with using these in mind. This build page will give me some better documentation of my updates.

The front & back Endplate design changes should also work for the 8" & 12" i3v. You will just need to use a different length 2020 V-Slot. The front one will not be a critical length, but the back one will need to be. Not having either of those machines, I can not say what length they will need to be. After I publish the back plate parts, you should be able to print the Wood_Connect_Elec_Side.stl file & Wood_Connect_PS_Side.stl. Put them on the 2 wood side panels & measure the length. After looking at my reference info for the 8" & 12" i3v, I believe the lengths for those 2020 back endplate should be 196mm for the 8" i3v & 286.1mm for the 12" (286mm is probably good enough). I am not positive that is correct, but you could cut that length for the front & test fit it for the back. If it is not correct, you could use that one for the front, then cut the back one based on your measurement corrections.

10/2/2019
After putting on the new backplate with 2020, it looked the y-axis belt was going to scrape the wood center section, so I have temporarily changed the front plate to shim the front belt idler part up a little to clear it. Not sure I can really raise the motor any, but should be able to fix the problem another way if I can not.

10/3/2019
Here are some before & after photos. of the front & back plate also showing the wood and all plastic versions before this change.

Here is my solution to keep the bottom of the Y belt from rubbing the wood that is shown in that last photo. This will make the belt rid on the smooth idler pulley instead of the scraping the wood. I may move the motor up 1 or 2mm, but it is at the same height as the original design.


10/4/2019
After several hours of test prints I am fairly happy with this update. I added the STL files to Files tab and all the files can be found on thingiverse at: Front & Back Y-Axis Endplate using V-Slot 2020 for Makerfarm 10" i3v by GeoDave . I also added the main parts needed to the parts list, but it is not a complete list since I need to research the other parts I have used. All the parts should be listed on the thingiverse web page. I am still getting some waves or ringing in my prints. The photo of sample print is oriented that the face of screw holes is along the X-axis. I get a little less waves if oriented 90 degrees. I have not found the magic solution to this yet. Here are some update photos.


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