Easy Z - A weight reducing system for the X gantry on Ender 3 printers

thingiverse

The Easy Z I recently got the Creality Ender3-V2 and love every print of it.. Maybe a little of my OCD peeping but I find the un-balanced Z axis system in this printer to be somewhat bothering. The Z movement is driven by a vertical lead screw with a rather steep thread. When this lead screw is properly aligned (I replaced the original Z motor bracket with a true 90deg. bracket) the X gantry it supports tends to rotate the Z lead screw and sink under its own weight. I measured the weight of the X gantry to be around 1.2 Kg. Now I understand that because the mating nut riding the Z lead screw doesn’t have zero backlash, some down weight is necessary in order to get accurate Z movements but I figured that this 1.2Kg can be reduced. So I went on and designed a weight reducing system that eases the load on the Z motor and eliminates the self-sinking of the X gentry. I found that adding a counter weight of about 700gr (resulting in the Y gantry weighing only 500gr) works great. the I called this system The Easy Z.. The system consists of a main bracket that attaches to the left corner of the upper cross beam of the printer. It is sandwiched and held by the spool holder bolts. This bracket was printed on this machine (the inner supports are somewhat tricky to remove but it is doable..) along with the bearings spacers and the pulleys. You will also need two 608 bearings, two m4/20mm bolts and nuts, half a meter of a good 2mm braded nylon paracord and a 700gr weight. The weight (shouldn’t be more then 50mm in diameter or 120mm in length) can be made of a piece of steel rod e.g. 70mm length of 40mm dia. Assembly is straight forward. follow the pictures... Although the Easy Z was designed and implemented on the Ender3-V2, it will fit all Ender 3 family printers as they share the same exact X-Z components and layout. :)