Piper 2 Simple Belt Tensioner

thingiverse

I always want my belts a bit too tense and I found it rather difficult to tension them perfectly with just the zip ties on the gantry, so I designed this simple belt tensioner. It was effective for the elimination of backlash on my printer at crazy-high acceleration and jerk settings. The belt tensioner requires four short M4 countersunk screws, four M4 nuts, three M5 70mm screws and two M5 nuts. Any idlers with a 5mm bore can be used, teethed or not, making it compatible with both the 6mm and 10mm belt versions of the printer. The tensioner's current travel should be sufficient for any printer but the tension can also be increased by using wider idlers, two tensioners, or the combination of the above. You will have to print two U braces (the "Tensioner 1.STL" part). PS you can also print the idlers if you do not have any spares laying around. Their roundness hardly matters and the force is minimal.