Lighting for Makerbot Replicator 5th Generation

thingiverse

* Update 2017-01-07 ** I added Light Rail, Side -2.0.stl It seems the diffuser interferes with the ribbon cable at full extension so I modified the design to be more compact. The geometry is the same, but everything is pushed back about 1/2". The rails hang down a little lower, but it's still out of the way of any moving parts. It actually fits well in the under nitch, anyway. I also hollowed out the rail so it saves on filament. Even though I used foam tape, it introduces a lot of acoustic vibration so I reduced contact surfaces. This reduces area for foam tape, which might still work, but I'm using hot glue for V2.0. I also printed the new one in carbon fiber PLA for stiffness. The original light rail I printed started curling under thermal stress of the LED. We'll see how CF PLA fairs. The front rail seems fine, but I'll be updating the design for filament-conservation as well as reducing contact surfaces to reduce vibration as well. I'll also be modifying the diffuser design to project light more evenly. Stay tuned. Tips: Material: Carbon Fiber PLA Nozzle: 0.4mm Width: 0.4mm Layer: 0.2mm Speed: 50mm/s Shells: 3 Top/Bottom: 3 Infill: 20% These are side and front light (LED) rails for Makerbot Replicator. I have a 5th Generation so it was made to fit my printer. This set may fit other models. I can't make guarantees on fitment. Anyone familiar with the Makerbot series printers will know that it's quite dark in the build space. They provide you with a roving white LED, and a red AMBIANCE LED which is both dim and creepy. I covered the red LED, but the roving LED just doesn't illuminate enough for you to gaze at the print-in-progress. That, plus my eyes are starting to fail me and I find I need more light these days, Originally, I was going to make some LED blocks with 3W LEDs, but when I was testing the LEDs, they got rather hot so some machining needed to be done. I got lazy so I decided to buy some LED strips. When the strips arrived, I found some flat surfaces to stick them to but they would point straight down and that's a waste of light energy. Then the idea to design some rails with 30 degree flats. So the LEDs illuminate at an inward 30 degrees from three directions. You will need 2 of each part. Print them however you wish. I printed mine black so they meld right into the printer. FYI, the bottom angle is 18.763 degrees. The angle is weird because the angle was freehanded before I realized that was the best face to print on. So... 18.763 degrees. I used some LED strips from Amazon. I chose the 4W/ft strips because I wanted more light. Keep in mind, these will draw more power than the 1.7W (or whatever the alternative is). These draw about 0.75A at 12V, but the Makerbots' power supply gives 15V, so these LEDs are drawing about 1.25A or so. The LED strips can be cut at every 3 LEDs. Given that, I cut as many LEDs as would fit on the rail, which resulted in a wire length of about 2.5" between cut-strips. Then the wires lead back to the power supply. Eventually, I'll put the LED strips on a microcontroller controlled MosFET. You may need some rubber cement to reinforce the adhesive on the back of the LED strips. Mine was poor from the package, and rubber cement worked like a charm. Nevermind the poor print quality. These rails were printed at 0.35mm resolution and 200 m/s. I just needed to get a set done. Due to the length of these rails, they had to be printed at about a 30 degree angle to fit the build plate. This plus the infill made each rail a very time consuming print. The first build took 5 hours at 0.25mm resolution at 100 m/s, 25% infill. After the print was done, I realized that the captive nuts on the printer were offset, so I made modifications and reprinted a rushed version. You may notice other modifications to my Makerbot. Feel free to ask.