Improved Manual Z-mechanism for cheap laser engravers

thingiverse

Having done away with the polished rods and linear bearings to simplify assembly of my previous thing (https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:5229492), I was proud of myself. But, clearly, with all the plastic-on-plastic sliding surfaces in this thing, the roller bearings aren’t needed either. And, as this is a manually-adjusted Z mechanism designed to move at glacial speeds and carry negligible loads… I should be able to make this thing thinner yet, with no skate bearings, So, with an adjustment here and an adjustment there… and with the exception of six M3 screws and four M3 nuts, we have a “Completely Printed Z-Axis Mechanism” (CPZAM) for cheap laser machines. Please know that this is not the smoothest operating mechanism there is… but, in this case, it helps keep the laser at a constant height without a locking mechanism. My earlier version(s), with rods and bearings, could actually fall under their own weight at inopportune times. But it is “smooth enough” to allow easy and relatively precise height adjustment for focusing, etc. It has right at 9 complete turns of top to bottom adjustment… a range of 75mm total travel on the slide; i.e. about 8mm per turn of the knob. And, again, as this Z-lift isn’t for continuous, high-speed operation and heavy loads, this is a case IMO where printed slides and threads make sense. As long as it doesn’t melt or get broken by a “heavy-handed” gorilla… maybe it’ll last as long as the machine it get installed on? Only time will tell… UPDATE 02/13/22: The "r2" rails and carriage add many different mounting hole patterns to hopefully allow mounting on more laser engravers. Ortur LM2 and LM2-Pro hole patterns, specifically, have been added but not printed or fit-checked due to lack of machine to check against. I'll make this a work-in-progress and make changes if/when I get feedback. UPDATE 03/05/22: Threadless v1 carriage added to simplify adding different threads to carriage for different leadscrew. Bore of removed area is 12mm.