Transcript:
Have you outgrown your into three well? Now you can supersize it with an ender extender kit. [MUSIC] [Music] here’s a scenario. You’ve got an end of three. It might have been your first 3d printer. You’ve learnt the ropes. Maybe design some of your own parts. Maybe you’ve even done some modifications, But now you feel you’ve outgrown it. And the print volume is just too small, that’s. The scenario that this Ender extender kit is aimed at it comes in a range of configurations. For instance. If you want to extend the Z, you can do that with the XL kit. The kit I’m showing here expands the X&Y to 400 millimeters for each. There’s a variation on that we also extend the Z to 400 millimeters, and then the biggest of all is 400 by 400 By 500 millimeters. As you might have guessed. This comes as a kit that you fit to your printer and it still reuses most of the existing parts. And this upcycling concept is something. I really really like so when Mark from Ender Extender offered to send me one of these to make a guide. I jumped right in as you can see. You can now print things much bigger than a standard into three. So let’s get on with our build the kit. I’m installing is the Ender Extender 400 and that extends the X and the wider 400 that retains the standard 250 meter build volume for the Zed. It cost 139 If you’re in the us, you buy directly from this website. Are you going to qualify for free shipping? If you’re outside the US thing you need to purchase through eBay? We’re going to be following this installation guide for this video. It’s about to be updated, which is a good thing because at the start of the document, it’s really well illustrated and informative, but later in the guide, that’s mainly text and it could do with a lot more pictures. Hopefully this video will fill in the gaps. In the meantime, you will need some printed parts that may or may not be included in the kit you purchase. I needed an electronics box, A wide belt, tensioner and a wire motor mount. The SDL for these and other great resources are found in the file section of the Facebook group. You’ll also need some common tools, which are listed in the instructions we’re gonna start by breaking down the printer and it’s extremely important to have a large organized workspace week. Put the parts and not have them mixed up. I’d also recommend keeping the nuts-and-bolts with that specific part. The first part of the conversion is for the y-axis and we’ll start our disassembly with the horizontal rail that goes across the top of the printer. Now we’ll take the tension off the V rollers either. Side of the Z-axis, then manually twist the lead screw until the gantry is all the way up and off the printer. Like I have rested on the table behind where you’re working, We can now unplug the connector from the power supply to the main board and then undo the two bolts holding the power supply to the side of the frame. Next up is the two bolts holding on the LCD. We can unplug the ribbon cable and then set it aside. Now, we’ll remove the printbed by undoing the leveling knobs collecting the springs and then lifting the whole bed to the rear of the printer. There’s three bolts on top of the electronics case that need to be removed, so the cover can come off. Take care to locate the fan wire and unplug that, so you don’t damage this wiring inside the case we’re going to undo the heated bed wires as well as unplug the heated bed thermistor these are labeled on screen and once they’re free, you should be able to pull the wiring through and now completely remove the bed assembly we’re now going to undo the four bolts holding on the Y-axi’s belt tensioner slide the tensioner forward and that should allow us to twist out the belt mounts on the front and rear of the y-axis carriage. This belt can now be removed and put into storage as we won’t need it any longer. The belt tensioner can now be completely removed and then we can take the tension off the V rollers before completely removing the y-axi’s carriage from the front of the printer. Now we’ll remove the stepper motor for the y-axis from the rear of the machine, taking care to unplug the wiring. So you don’t damage it in the process back on the front of the machine we’re going to remove the remaining parts of the electronics case, including the hard-to-reach bolt on the underside, but now we’ll just let the whole thing dangle loosely on both sides of the frame to long em. Five bolts are used to hold the main pieces together. Were going to loosen and then remove them and that will separate the side frames that are shaped like t-the. Plastic end caps can then be removed from these 40 40 extrusions. If you haven’t already, you can remove the y-axi’s end stop. And that should be the final component in our teardown at this stage. I was left with the X-axi’s Assembly, still connected to the electronics and then the rest of the printer in sub assemblies. As I showed you earlier on, Let’s start putting it back together with the Y-axis. I think it’s easiest to do this. When you know what you’re aiming for, so here’s a preview of what we’re soon to have. The assembly process starts with instructions for threading the 40/40 extrusions that make up the feet of the printer. I was delighted to find that. Both of these feet on both ends were already threaded, so I was able to skip this step if you’re not so fortunate. There is a Youtube video linked in the instructions that you should watch to get the job done cleanly with that out of the way we’re going to locate the two 20 20 cross members. They have two holes on the ends, and two holes in the middle will then fit the spring washer to the m5 by 25 millimeter bolts. Push them through the center holes and get a T nut in place for later when ready, they should look just like this with the nuts facing up in the middle and the larger of the two holes facing outwards. We’re going to attach it to the lower legs in this case. I’m fitting the end of three Pro Kit, so I’m going to attach it to the lower of the two holes on the 44 T extrusion at this stage. We only want them finger tight. And when one side is on, we can flip around the frame and do exactly the same thing on the other side again until they’re all in place. Only do up these bolts finger tight. If everything is sitting nice and level on the table, you can now take your Allen Key and move around the frame of the printer. Talking these new bolts. We now take the 40/40 extrusion that came with the kit. Get the two small holes at the front of the printer and down the bottom. That means the threaded holes are at the back of the printer and it rests above the t-nuts. We prepared earlier, we’re going to do up the bolts on the underside, a little bit less than finger-tight because that will allow us to slide the center piece back and forth and get it in position. I initially measured the overhang at the front and rear and tried to get it Even later in the build. However, I worked out that the ideal front overhang for my setup was a little over 170 millimeters with the center rail. In position, you can then use your tri square to make sure the frame components and 90 degrees to each other. Since we don’t want to move anything out of alignment, you might like to slide the front of the printer off the edge of a table, so you can access the bolts for tightening underneath before you rotate the entire printer 180 degrees and repeat by tightening the bolts at the rear, and that brings us back to where we were when we previewed the frame and my next recommended step is opening the new Y-axi’s belt and feeding it into rough position in the three. Pro users can remount their Y-axis Stepper Motor using the original bracket, but I was fitting a pro extender kit to a standard into three, so I needed to separate the Y-axi’s Stepper Motor. Instead, I would be using this printed mount. I used to m5 plus 16 millimeter bolts, and the first one can be inserted into the upper right hole in the frame, the printed part then slots from the side into position before the second bolt can be inserted in the upper left-hand hole, both can now be completely talked up and there’s a handy access hole for the right-hand bolt, the stepper motor now mounts from the side and we can reuse the original m3 screws to hold it to the printed part for the y-axis and stop the original bolts. We’re too long, so I removed them and replace them with some m4 by 10 millimeter bolts as well as some tea nuts with these bolts clamped, The end stop is held in position with the bonus of being able to slide it back and forth for fine adjustment if needed in the instructions. The next step is to move from the center four bolts on an end of three standard to the outer four bolts like on it into three. Pro this is as simple as removing the nuts, moving to the new location and then tightening it back up again. Assuming your V rollers are moving smoothly, You can now locate the elongated cutout that goes at the re left of the printer to clear the Stepper Motor and then roll the courage into position on the center extrusion for an end of three. Pro it looks like you can reuse the factory tensioner for a standard. You’re going to need to disassemble. We have a choice of printed tensioners, but for my setup. I found they didn’t reach far enough, so I took my favorite design. Imported it into mesh mixer selected one half of it and transformed it to make it longer as you can see. The new part will reach further into the frame and have uploaded this to the Facebook group file section. We reuse the factory hardware to prepare the left and right hand sides of the tensioner, however. I didn’t feel the factory. M8 Bolt was long enough so replaced it with an m8 by 65 which was a more secure fit. Check your bearings are rotating nicely and then slide the part into position, feed the belt over the top and hook it into the bed carriage. You can now pull and tighten the bolts on the tensioner before checking the adjustment of the V rollers to make sure that everything rolls nicely without any slop, and you should also check at the rear of the machine. The carriage doesn’t collide and triggers the end stop properly. That’s the Y-axi’s done now. It’s time for the x-axis, and this is quite straightforward. We’re going to start by removing the belt tensioner on the right hand side of the frame and then sliding out the ends of the belts on the underside of the carriage. This belt can also be removed because we won’t be needing it again. We’ll, now twist the eccentric nut to make the fitment of the V rollers loose for the hot end. Flip over the entire piece and remove the two bolts holding the rollers onto the end with this piece out of the way, the hot end carriage can be completely removed, a reminder once again for anything you disassemble to store. All of the parts with the matching hardware safely to the side, the factory. Ptfe tube can be removed. It’s also no longer long enough and now we’ll move to the left hand side of the gantry, where there’s an other two bolts that need to be removed. Access is a little bit trickier, but certainly not impossible and they’re not too long. You should have the old 2020 Extrusion separated from the printer. The replacement piece is exactly the same, except it’s much longer verify. You have the correct part By comparing it to the original front and back assembly is the exact reverse of what we just took apart. The larger hole faces backwards to clear the bolt on the printer, and we use the same access holes to reinstall the same two bolts, the hot end carriage once again slides on from the right hand side, and that means we’re ready to reinsert the plate on the right hand side that holds the Z-axi’s. V rollers with the vaults for this properly tensioned we can also adjust the V roller for the hot end carriage. We now take our X access sub assembly and feed it back onto the printer from the top manually, turning the Zed lead, screw to move it into position and then tensioning the V rollers on either side, the kit comes with a longer belt for the x-axis it’s mounted on the machine in exactly the same way we loop it into position and then secure it on the underside of the carriage, reinsert the tensioner pull it tight and then tighten everything up, including the eccentric not to remove wobble from the carriage. There’s also a new and longer crossmember to complete the frame of the printer. The factory hardware is used to hold this last piece in place and our last step in completing the frame is reinstalling the filament spool holder on the top left of the machine that and also reinstalling the factory power supply back in the original position. There’s the optional step of adding an AC powered heating pad to the underside of the larger bed, and with that comes a detailed set of instructions. If that’s the path you’re going if you’re looking for some extra safety tips on that process. I’ve got a video on that already. If you’re mainly printing in PLA, it’s an acceptable compromise to reuse the factory 24 volt. Either the factory cable strain bracket will no longer fit. So you’ll need to snip the cable tie and remove it now. It’s just a matter of aligning the two sets of holes and reusing the same bolts as before as well as the included washer and lock nut from the kit. Securing these nuts for me was one of the worst parts because I’m so impatient. Unless you have a super deep socket, you’ll need to use a spanner and take your time until the two are clamped together firmly. This tape is a temporary solution for strain relief until a new piece can be designed and printed. The bed assembly can now be reinstalled as perfectly. And if you like you can scrub off some of the grease with some IPA or acetone, we have some wiring to extend and there’s a complete replacement harness that goes to the Y-axi’s Stepper Motor and Y-axi’s end stop the wiring from the power supply to the mainboard, as well as the headed bed wires, both tend to be extended and wires in connectors. Come in the kit for this purpose. It should only take a few minutes to strip back the insulation and crush down the crimp connector. This should be a lot more reliable connection than soldering because it shouldn’t fail, even if it gets hot. Unfortunately, there was no extension for the bed Thermistor wire. So I made up a simple male-to-female extension piece, so I wouldn’t have to cut anything. Here’s my finished wiring as you can see, it’s far too long, so I would recommend laying out everything before you crimp to keep things tidy. The main board is going to bolt into the lower half of the printed case and it’s handy to know this case also supports Mps Gen. L and S. KR version 1.3 the metal LCD bracket bolts into the upper half of the case, as does the electronics cooling fan, and then the two halves go together secured by bolts on the underside. The original PTFE tube will no longer be long enough. There wasn’t any included in my kit, but I had some spare and cut it to just over 500 millimeters. It’s almost impossible to get a large aluminium sheet flat like this, so we’re going to have to prepare a square of glass or mirror. This is one job that I am absolutely terrible at so after a bunch of failed attempts, This is what it ended up with. Don’t worry the edges, nowhere near as sharp as it looks we’re very close to done in our firm, where we need to up the sizes for X and Y by 400 and potentially changing the Z as well. If you’ve gone for a taller kit, you’ll need to make the corresponding changes in your slicer As well to make sure the bed is sized correctly and objects are placed where you intend them to be. The bed is going to be moving a lot more weight, so you might like to slow your white acceleration down to 300 and then store this to the EEPROM. I could now turn on the printer and home it and that revealed to further adjustments required. The nozzle was nowhere near the edge of the bed on the Y axis. So I loosened the bolts underneath and slid the whole lock forward, and this is when I discovered that 170 millimeter offset. You saw earlier? I also took care to square everything up before tightening the bolts. The next time I honed, I know this desert access wasn’t quite aligned either to move the microswitch low enough. I had to snip off the little peg on the side and then mount it as you can see here. Probably somewhere in the region of 4 to 5 millimeters lower After this. I could finally level the bed. This was a pretty easy job because the 5 mil mirror plate was quite flat. My first test print was a 20 millimeter calibration cube, which looked ridiculous on the enormous bed. Interestingly, with the lower acceleration values, they didn’t seem to be any ghosting introduced on the Y-axi’s, So I upped the ante and scaled up this skull to something much bigger than would fit on a normal end of 3 It’s going to take a while for the heat from the bed to soak through the whole mirror plate, so I added some hairspray to help with 1st layer adhesion. I did some live tuning of my leveling as the first layer went down and I guess I got it spot-on because it took 53 minutes for the first layer. They go down, but it looked absolutely perfect. This skull in VARs mode looks pretty epic in this x3d sparkling black filament. This printer still has the factory mainboard. So there are some zebra stripe artifacts, but apart from that, it’s a beautiful print with no signs of lowered print quality from these modifications, honestly. I was expecting this kit to be a lot harder to put together. The instructions do need updating, and there was a couple of bits missing, but I’ve given my feedback to Mark and he’s already implemented change, such as including a longer length of PTFE tube and an extension cable for the bed thermistor the final thing. I’d like to talk about is price, and I understand that some people might think that this kit is a little too expensive, but I look at it a different way. I look at it by comparing it to existing quality printers that print with this type of volume. The CR 10 Max comes in at a thousand US dollars and the CR 10 S 5 is only a couple of hundred below that if you’ve already got your end of three, and you spend the money for this kit on top of that, and even if you opt for the silicone bed, you’re going to come out way ahead. Keep in mind too. That if you’ve done any modifications, they’ll likely carry over so that money won’t be wasted either. I love this upcycling idea. And that’s why I’ll be featuring another kit shortly that converts an N to 3 this time into a core. XY 3d printer. If you’ve got any thoughts on this kit or that, please leave them down in the comments below. Thank you so much for watching until next time. Happy, 3d printing. Gday, It’s Michael again. If you like the video, then please click like if you want to see more content like this in future click. Subscribe and make sure you click on the Bell to receive every notification. 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