Anet A2 diagonal supports

thingiverse

Simple diagonal supports I designed to stiffen up the frame of Anet A2, but I expect them to work just as well on Tevo Tarantula or any other similar printer that uses 2020 and 2040 profiles. These are designed to use 12mm aluminium tube, freely available from hardware/building supplies stores at least around here. In my setup the tubes are 375mm length (325mm visible length +25mm into both mounts), the whole setup is then 350 mm high and 250mm forward from the frame, you can play with tube length to achieve different dimensions. I used M5x10mm bolts and M5 T-nuts to fix it to the frame (4 sets), 5x20 wood screws (4 pcs) to fix it to base and M3x3mm set screws (8 pcs total, 2 per mount) to fix the tube into the mounts. Those things really stiffen the upper end of the frame up, no need for fancy lower and upper brackets weighing half a kilo and taking days to print. Print Settings Printer: Anet A2 Rafts: No Supports: Doesn't Matter Resolution: 0.2 Infill: 100% Notes: I printed the pieces in the orientation they come in the STL files - lower mounts in their "natural position" laying down, upper pieces standing up, to minimize overhang angles. I used brim for the upper pieces to prevent them from falling over during printing, didn't have any issues, worked perfectly on the first attempt. Post-Printing The tube holes are designed to be 12.2mm diameter, but I had to use a 12.0 drill to clean them up after printing and shave some material off the holes to make the 12mm tubes (which were in reality more like 12.1mm) fit. I assembled the tubes and mounts first, fixed them with the set screws so that ~325.5 mm ot tube was showing, then mounted them to the plate and frame. It helps to mark the expected height (350mm) and distance from the frame (250mm) on the frame/baseplate) first. Mounting is a bit tricky due to two of the screws being behind the tube, but doable. To make life easier, I marked the lower mount holes on the base plate first, screwed the screws in once (careful not to go through the baseplate!), removed the screws and then mounted the assembled support. You can (and should) fine tune the angle using the upper support height, I used a metal square tool, measuring on both front and backside of the frame to make sure it's perfect, before fully tightening the upper mount screws. Beware, not all the square tools are perfectly 90 degrees, mine was like 89.75... so I had to make sure it has the same amount of slop on both sides.