Basic Modifications Roll Up For New Builders

[JohnStack]

Doing a quick catalog (rollup) of possible mods to enhance or overcome design opportunities:

(Caveats: These are what I would call minimums or low investment items in terms of cost and time.)

In no particular order:

1. Magnetic Arms or Carbon Fiber with swivels arms smooth out prints.

2. A peek fan is mandatory for PLA and helps with reducing potential hot end jams. The peak fan may affect printing with higher temp materials. You'll need a peek fan shroud and 25 mm fan (see seemecnc site). You may also want to print PLA and in that case, a larger shroud and 40 mm or so fan. Lots of shrouds on Thingiverse.

3. A 25mm fan inside the electronics section pointed at the steppers helps with circuit stabilization due to potential heat issues.

4. Some have reported Smart LCD panel issues due to noise - a potential solution is to shield the ribbon cables or use very short ones.

5. Some folks have enhanced the end stop screw mechanism to provide better indicators for calibration. I use 2" 6/32 Hex head screws but others have put pointers and more advanced tuning mechanisms.

6. Borosilicate glass helps even out heat issues. Others have added other heated bed parts - even external heating devices.

7. Quiet down your prints with a thin sheet of cork or other dampening material (or part) between the stepper motor and the frame. Parts are available on ebay or cut your own. Use a 12mm screw instead of the stock one to accommodate the extra thickness.

8. Alternate hot ends might be your next step....

Doing a quick survey on this list, you're under $150 to put some icing on the Rostock Max cake.

Search the forum for various links that may help you with these items.

Printmasters, are there any other basic mods that you would add here?

[626Pilot]

I printed out an LED ring for under the effector yesterday, and now that it's in place I wish it was one of the first things I'd done. Costs a trifling amount of plastic, three LEDs, and one resistor.

You can get a J-head for ~$60 and Trick Laser's mount for it for ~$30. That and the Trick Laser carbon fiber arms are the first "real" mods I'd go for.

[barnett]

Not sure all these qualify for your list but here goes:

- cork or other noise damper for steppers
- belt tensioner / leveler
- fans & fan mounts to cool printed parts
- silicone tape or other heater block insulator (this may already be in the current manual?)
- various quick detach connectors (deans, micro deans, xt-60, molex, etc)
- spool holder spacers for wider spools of filament
- spool adapters for spools with huge holes
- polygonhell's extruder cap for anyone still using Steve's extruder
- emergency kill switch
- the rostock max reprap page describes LEDs at the end stops, but I don't know anyone who tried it

you already mentioned these, but they could be called out separate from the glass
- alternate power supply to speed up heated bed
- aluminum heat spreader

... and for the truly ambitious....
- aeh_key's Flying Extruder

[JohnStack]

Not sure all these qualify for your list but here goes:

- cork or other noise damper for steppers
- fans & fan mounts to cool printed parts

Great!

I'm going to add the ones I left above to the list (that I think qualify in the caveat) - let me know if you agree or disagree...

[JohnStack]

I printed out an LED ring for under the effector yesterday, and now that it's in place I wish it was one of the first things I'd done. Costs a trifling amount of plastic, three LEDs, and one resistor.

You can get a J-head for ~$60 and Trick Laser's mount for it for ~$30. That and the Trick Laser carbon fiber arms are the first "real" mods I'd go for.

The lighting might be an optional - but a very good thing to have. J-Heads would definitely fall into the tweaking category - not sure if it an essential. There are a number of folks still hanging with the original arms and head...

[barnett]

Even though they do not affect print quality, I would add the LED ring because it's inexpensive and completely worth it.

Some of the other stuff I listed might to too trivial or too expensive, it's probably different for different people.

I like the list idea anyway.

I thought of a couple more:
- various alternatives from Tricklaser
- extra long extrusions for increased build height

[inventabuild]

I would add putting springs under the Kapton bed in place of the white nylon bushings. Mini springs there will make it easier to level the entire Kapton surface which becomes very important for large prints. I'd actually like to see the RMAX come stock with these springs.

[geneb]

Adding springs will just guarantee you'll have a hell of a time getting the bed level. The default installation should result in a level bed unless the Onyx is badly warped.

g.

[barnett]

Berrybot's springs were cool though. I think the surface was firmly attached and unmovable, but the heating element was pushed up against the bottom of the print surface with springs. If the heating element warped, it wouldn't make the print surface warp.

Not that I've noticed any warping with my setup. I use the onyx > aluminum plate > boro glass.