I got a non-working old printer from a friend… so the story begins here, I wanted to save it somehow.
So the task was given but I wanted to upgrade it, so I changed almost everything.
1., Bowden extrusion!
In short, now the extruder is far away from the hotend, so I don’t need a cooler on the extruder, extrusion is seamless (let’s say… because it’s not the best extruder ) and I can play with higher temps. (Bowden extrusion is a bigger topic I know.)
2., X and Y belt tensioning is redesigned too because I did not like that problematic and unstable part on the original printer (CTC i3 pro b) - now it’s in the moving part (between X-axes) and it’s not fixed on the right side, which was problematic, unstable…etc)
3., I pulled each Z-axis closer together, so the bearings are fixed by screw nuts, it’s very tight and I could remove some madness, and last but not least “wobble effect” around these parts.
Yes. It was expensive because I had to redesign every connected part.
4., The original heatbed mount was made of wood… and it was not flat (correct bed leveling was impossible).
So I created a new mount for that. It consists of five smaller parts so it’s possible to print it on a smaller printer, stronger filament material and higher infill seem to be working here.
5., other smaller things like front cooler mount…etc
There is a lot to do… the “original” firmware does not work with this bowden-type extrusion so I calibrated the software side a bit but it’s not perfect (yet 
) so in short It has known issues, mostly because these old threaded rods are not really straight. The original bearings are almost useless, it’s a totally custom assembly, so I could not play with downloadable parts and I didn’t have docs for this combination on the software side…etc
But! I have the 3d model, so now I can change anything in a few minutes, and I will because I’m not totally happy with all my solutions yet.
Even if it’s a relatively simple machine, I’m proud that there aren’t any imported models, It was completely created in Shapr3D (Windows ) It fits perfectly with the unchanged frame, and new parts.
If you want to do something like this, never forget where you left your caliper… like me. Otherwise, the reverse engineering part is a bit painful
Does it work? It’s not a question.
//Thank you guys for the Product!
