Bronze Bushing Upgrade (w/ PTFE) for FF Creator

thingiverse

Anyone with a FlashForge Creator knows it is a loud machine. The improvements upon the MakerBot Replicator are nice, but not as refined as they could be. After 3 Km+ of filament through my machine I got sick of hearing it. Seeing a few designs to replace the crappy roller bearings with bronze bushings (get PTFE lined ones to help wear on your shafts), I wanted to upgrade. Only problem was I couldn't acquire the bushings the designs were for. I also decided to go with PTFE lined bushings to decrease wear on the shafts. Hopefully McMaster-Carr will keep these in stock for a while. I already replaced my fans with quieter ones from Digi-key, and added active cooling (I have a good design I've been sitting on for a year that I need to finalize and upload). I just need pillow blocks and my machine will be fully upgraded! (open to suggestions) Edit 7/5/16 (EXTREMELY IMPORTANT): Finally got around to installing this and while it works well, I must have shorted a thermocouple wire because I have tool 0 failure and my bot won't work. Be careful when removing/installing the carriage! This can also happen from natural fatigue of the metal as the printer moves. I just may have accelerated it. In any event, after you have completed reassembly, CHECK to make sure the thermocouple leads on the board are isolated from the heater block or really anywhere else there. Also check for conductivity across the thermocouple wire (thermocouple is a resistive closed circuit), however if it is an open circuit, but not shorted to the heater block, the results will not be as catastrophic. I recommend replacing your thermocouples with stranded thermocouples (more fatigue resistance) like these ones:https://www.p3-d.com/products/replicator-2-2x-thermocouple preferably before it fails, but definitely after, as expensive as they are as per 'Jetguy' recommendation on the FF google group. I blew my MAX6675 ADC for the thermocouple because of the short. Doing these simple conductivity checks with a multimeter before turning on my bot could have saved me a $15 IC + shipping, many hours of googling and troubleshooting, and going on 2 weeks of downtime for my printer. If I didn't have an electronics background and enough soldering XP to deal with this myself, I could be looking at multiple printer boards (>$300+ ouch!). Check your work, especially when its this easy! If only I knew.... If you want some more intel on this matter, refer to this forum:https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/flashforge/eMCJG-vX7o0 Edit 7/30/16: having my printer down for a month sucked but it's back up and running, and more awesome than ever! Refer to above forum post if you break your machine, it sucks but definitely not the end of the world and not bad to fix if you catch it early. Thing.Details: This is a spacer for McMaster-Carr item: 6679k13 (see below for image) found here: http://www.mcmaster.com/#6679k13/=11jx35g I ordered 12, but order 13 (or one more than you need) for the improved method of installation. There are 12 roller bearings on the FF creator to be replaced, so you'll need to print 24 of these spacers since each one covers one end of the bushing. They are designed in two parts, so that they can fit loosely if needed and still encapsulate the bushing. DO NOT ATTEMPT TO INSTALL if you're not comfortable taking apart your printer. Refer to the source/inspired files for any additional instructions:http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:621710http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:526660 Thing.Details.Specs The stock roller bearings have an Inner Diameter (ID) of 8 mm, an Outer Diameter (OD) of 15 mm and a length of about 16 mm These bushings from McMaster-Carr have an ID of 8 mm, OD of 10 mm and a length of only 12 mm. (see pic above) These spacers for those bushings have an ID of 8 mm, OD of 15 mm, and length of 16 mm when assembled on the bushing. Minor reaming/fitting may be required, as you don't want them to fit too snugly or it might crush down on your shaft and damage it. hehe. The loose version has an ID of 10.6 instead of 10. I recommend printing both first and seeing what fits best for you. Thing.printSettings Print "Spacer.stl" with the following settings: (or really whatever you want) 200 micron layer height (.2 mm) 1 shell 100% infill I recommend printing them individually for uniformity (mine leaves stringy things when it moves from part to part on the build platform), but I understand that is a pain so feel free to load up a whole tray of them and fire away. Edit: Just be consistent, so if you do 4 at a time, keep doing 4 at a time until you have enough because they may shrink slightly differently depending on cool time between layers. I have definitely noticed this effect when printing in ABS. Thing.Postprocessing Check every single part off your production line to make sure it is to spec. This is nothing new to the cartridge reloaders out there (or methodical maker). The part should fit snug inside the spacers when pushed inside in a perfectly orthogonal manner. You shouldn't have to beat it in there with a hammer or womp on it with your thumbs. Too tight and you induce premature wear on your parts, too loose and you get slop. If it doesn't fit, break out your trusty calipers and go to work. I have found that many times it is just a small part with plastic sticking out (where each circular layer starts and stops) that is causing bad fit which can be remedied with a pocket knife. If the whole thing is small, try scaling. The model is made to spec (as if being fabbed with metal or a real 3D printer) so it's up to you to make it work for your machine. Remember, if using ABS (like I am) to scale by 2-3%. Edit: Improved Method: Order an extra bearing. Take a Dremel and put notches in it to make a die. They should be as orthogonal to the edge as possible, not angled one way or another (see below). Now, use your die to clean out the inside, it is shown below with my hands, but I used my trusty Leatherman to get more leverage. Make a die such that the grooves cut into the sides are 90 deg from the outer surface Turn the die inside a part to ream out the inside. Be sure to clear the chips after any decent amount of removal because these improvised dies will not clear them well. install two finished parts onto a bushing