Several years worth of UMO hacks

[antiklesys]

Extruder

I was really fed up with the original extruder of my UMO.
The "improved version" they started selling is also a big piece of crap in my opinion.
The best design I found was the one of Geo Hangen, which is also quite old, but at least works reliably: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:15897

This is the design I used for some years. The only cons is that you need to fabricate a custom knurled bolt.

In my strive to improve the performance and reliability of this extruder, I began re-designing it and here's my version of this design: https://www.youmagine.com/designs/modif ... iklesys--2

This is how it looks now:

It's now much better as this spring design puts constant pressure on the filament.
Additionally I re-worked the top-mount to use a groove-mount addon for the bowden tube, so it's now really easy to plug in and out.
The groove-mount piece can be bought here: http://e3d-online.com/Mechanical/Bowden ... m-Filament

The Gear Grip design instead can be downloaded here: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:38311

A benefit of this extruder design is that it now should work flawlessly with both 1,75 mm and 2,85 mm filaments by just swapping the groove-mount adapter and the bowden tube.

This is compatible with the stock gears, but I prefer using this design: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:40334/#files
These herringbone gears reduced a lot the wobbling and increased the precision of the feeder.

[antiklesys]

UMO Bed:

For the bed I went through a series of small improvements.
First I switched to a 3 point leveling system. I still have to switch to a heated bed, but that's still work in progress (waiting for budget).
The bed is held in place by 3 magnetic spheres so it's also easily removable and the Z screw coupler was changed.

The design I used for the 3 points bed levelling system is: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:84754

Edit: May 2016
Printed also 2x https://www.youmagine.com/designs/weigh ... iginal-bed and fill them with lead weights
I then purchased 1kg of lead for sub belts and cut it in even pieces to fill the weight pockets

Next things to do for the bed are:
Print 1x http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:182295

[antiklesys]

Print Head:

For the print head, I switched to an impeller fan using the design: https://www.youmagine.com/designs/ultim ... er-fan-mod
I then wanted to use a more modular design which allowed me to switch between hot-ends in an easy and quick way, so I decided to use this design for the bushing part: https://www.youmagine.com/designs/uliti ... erlin-ubis
and I designed an adapter which could work with the stock UMO head and make it easily swappable and also faster to disassemble, so I came up with the design for this adapter: https://www.youmagine.com/designs/modul ... ck-hot-end

The other head I wanted to use for now, is the laser.
To mount the laser with the moduler print-head I used this design: https://www.youmagine.com/designs/foehn ... v6-adapter and printed a groove-mount which grips directly on the laser tube.

Now my UMO can quickly switch from 3d printer to laser cutter with just the removal of 2 screws.

Update 13/06/2016

The print head doesn't look any-longer like this.
I now switched to 1.75mm filament using an E3D universal 24v hot end with PT100 upgrade kit.

[antiklesys]

X/Y Axis

The X/Y Axis went through several modifications.

1- The default belts and pulleys have been switched for GT2 Belts/Pulleys

2- Actively cooled direct drive! No more ovals (and the adapter mounts on the back corner instead of the front corner): https://www.youmagine.com/designs/motor ... lternative
The cooling fans are directly attached to the IKEA led stripes.

This direct drive setup doesn't require you to use any additional hardware, but recycles the stock axes of the machine.
This is done thanks to printed bearing adapters which make the axes shift forward, this can be seen also in this picture.
The design for these spacers can be found here: https://www.youmagine.com/designs/beari ... m-original


Additionally I printed an end stop-adapter to compensate for the different print-head I currently have mounted.
I highlighted both those adapters in this picture:

To remove the friction between the axes and the end-caps, I've also been using a similar version ( C shaped instead of O shaped) of these rod-spacers: https://www.youmagine.com/designs/ultim ... rod-spacer

3- Twister blocks (modified for graphite bearings) : https://www.youmagine.com/designs/twisterblocks
Those blocks allow to quickly remove the smaller axes without having to mess with the belts and other annoying things.

4- Graphite self-lubricating bearings: http://www.robotdigg.com/product/175/Se ... Bearingthi


Huge thanks to Chopmeister for the twister blocks and the motor corner designs!

[antiklesys]

Electronics

Cooling Fan:

I replaced the extremely noisy cooling fan with this design: https://www.youmagine.com/designs/ultim ... ronics-fan
I haven't taken a picture of this yet, but this made my UMO go really quiet, so if anyone is looking for quieter prints I can definitely recommend this modification.

Update: 25/05/2016

24V capability:

Replaced the LM7812 on the UMO electronics with a DC-DC converter. This allows me to plug anything from 19V to 24V in the PSU socket and the printer will just work (ofc I will need also to have the appropriate heater cartridges and temp sensors or they'll not work properly)

Update: 13/06/2016

PT100 Sensor:

Added the PT100 sensor with the whole upgrade kit from E3D.
It's basically a drop-in replacement and connects to the same pins (different order) of the UMO thermocouple.
This allowed me to use the E3D heater cartridge too (still running at 19V) and get up to higher temperatures.
Additionally, I was able to remove the stock UMO black cable that connects to the fan and thermocouple amplifier.
That cable was really heavy! Now the whole bowden feels way lighter.

[antiklesys]

Extras

Spool Holder:

As the original spool holder wasn't a great thing, I replaced it with this awesome design: https://www.youmagine.com/designs/low-f ... poolholder

This can be seen here:

As this design is only for UM2, I designed and printed myself an adapter so it could be fit on the UMO.
If anyone needs a similar design for the adapter, you can also print the mount from this design: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:262924
The difference with this design and my design is that this design is made out of 2 pieces and the printing direction is not 100% optimal to give the piece a good mechanical resistance. My design instead is composed of 3 pieces which are printed in different orientations and it helps holding everything in place and can sustain a high amount of weight or mechanical stress.

Ikea Led Stripes:

I used this design to keep the stripes in place: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:32373

[antiklesys]

29/02/2016 - Finally updated

On my to-do list:

1- Convert the printer from 19v to 24v. ---DONE

The first step for this operation will be done by replacing the LM7812 on the UMO electronics with a cheap DC-DC converted like the following one:

The rest of the electronics works fine at 24V instead of 19V, but it will be required to change the temperature sensor and heater block.

2- Increase the reliability of the Z axis (probably will get the UMO hot-bed)

The UMO hot bed has been reported to have some issues with the Z nut (at times). This could be resolved by either using an anti-backlash nut or a more precise nut. Both options should be quite cheap as a drop-in replacement for the stock nut.

3- Get an e3d v-6 universal hot end and enable the printer to use 1,75mm filaments ---DONE and with a PT100 sensor

4- Switch to a direct extruder?

Update 22/06/2016.

5- Use a PEI printing platform instead of blue tape

[ivan.akapulko]

Great worklog!
Spoolholder look not parallel to the backside of printer. It gives some benefits, or just a specific of adapter?

[antiklesys]

Great worklog!
Spoolholder look not parallel to the backside of printer. It gives some benefits, or just a specific of adapter?

It's just the adapter and the weight of the spool. No advantage, no disadvantage as of now.
Probably it's adding some additional force on the bearings but so far it's still frictionless

[drayson]

Great work !!

[antiklesys]

Update:

Currently in the works to switch to E3D Universal.
This will also result in me switching from 2,85mm to 1,75mm filament.
For now I will still use the original parts in the heater blocks, by running the printer at 19V, but I will make the first upgrades for a future switch to 12V.
The E3D head will not use run on the stock nozzle, but it will be immediately assembled with one of the Ruby Nozzles from Anders Olsson and the whole gantry block will be changed again. I can't yet share any additional detail regarding the gantry block as it is currently being discussed in a closed project, but I shall keep this thread updated.

[LePaul]

You know after doing atomic pulls I am wondering if I have a bobbled XY rod...but wonder if the slider blocks would be a good idea to upgrade too

[antiklesys]

I haven't done any atomic pull yet in the whole life of the printer
I think the rods are just low quality anyway, they may need to be replaced with something more "high precision" but that's a low-pri point for me now.

[LePaul]

I think Neo upgraded his, as he has most of his Ultimaker

What's a good source?

[Neotko]

Misumi, igus. They sell nice shafts. And (without delivery cost) they ain't much more expensive then ultimaker dealers.