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4.5
I wore out the original POM wheels on my Ender 3. I've been doing a lot of upgrades and changes on it. When I realized that I couldn't tighten it, I had to make some decisions. I could replace the wheels, and then replace them again in 8 months. Or I could upgrade to the linear rail. Obviously, I went with the linear rail.Stripping down the stock carriage was probably the hardest part. The instructions aren't bad, but it could do with a few more lines.The big one is, it didn't say which side of the angle bracket goes up. Try aligning the rail to it. The rail only aligns with the holes on one side, and that is up. Also, the side with threaded holes is for the rail, and that still goes up. If you try to do it wrong, you'll find the screws are threading in where they shouldn't, or you can't screw the rail in.There has been a product upgrade, that isn't reflected in the item photos. The part of the carriage that holds the extruder stepper has options. There is a bracket for the stock extruder to be in the stock position. That's what I'm using. I printed a bracket to handle the offset for my dual extruder.The second looks just like the stock bracket, except it is shifted over to the left a bit. According to the instructions, that's for the BMG extruder. And the flat plate is for the Titan extruder. You can also opt to just leave it off, if you are using the stock extruder and bowden tube.This is actually *GREAT* for me. As you can see, I've been printing parts, to move things around. I will likely design and print some replacement top brackets, to move the extruder for other hotends I'm testing, so things can stay lined up nicely. I already had that grey bracket, for the stock carriage.If you're using one of the thicker dual gear extruders, that bolts onto the stock stepper, you'll need to add a spacer behind the hotend, to offset it by 2mm or so. There are a world of options here. Hopefully you have a spare printer to make parts, or you'll have to disassemble and reassemble your machine repeatedly to get them all done. :)On the lower half of the carriage, all of the stock holes are present and in the stock locations. It has one extra threaded hole on the left side, possibly for the pro or v2. It doesn't have the bolt heads that are present on the stock carriage, but nothing should require them, you'll just have some gaps in your hardware.So moving. It's perfect. Without the belt on, it just glides left and right. There is absolutely no off-axis motion. Exactly what you want. Once the belt is on, the motor is the biggest restriction, which is again exactly what you want.Getting my belt on was rough. I had to remove the idler pully from the right side, hook up the belt, and then squeeze the pully into place and reattach it. You might be able to do it with loosening the X stepper too, but that seemed like unnecessary effort. Some comments said they had to make a new belt, but it isn't necessary. I have replacement belt material, I just didn't use it.When you're reassembling the rest, make sure your wires go up, on the left side of the stepper. Secure them as shown, and they won't get pinched in the frame.In my picture, I have custom brackets, in yellow and grey. The yellow one is to handle the larger blowers for hotend cooling, and part cooling. The grey bracket on the hotend is to compensate for the difference in height from the screw holes to the top. And the grey bracket the BLTouch is on, is necessary to lower the BLTouch to the right position for the bottom end of the hotend. Those will all be on Thingiverse eventually, but aren't yet until I've tested them more.
