Aluminum angle iron for Y-axis support by Taz_3d

Last crawled date: 3 years ago

Update 2-5-17
noticed I was still having bed leveling issues, I replaced the y-carriage with a new one made out of Aluminum and 3mm thick ( https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01MUAMRN7/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 ) instead of the 1mm thick steel plate that comes on the machine - What a Difference that made. Picture shows the difference of the thickness of the 2 plates vs the heating bed
According to my dial gage ( http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2040422 ) the bed is now level within .010 mm (10 microns)
I noticed on my Wanhao Duplicator i3 V2.1 that my plate was not staying flat when trying to get the bed to level with the nozzle at all points.
Upon looking closer, it appeared that the bed the Y-axis bearings are mounted to, was flexing and this was causing 2 opposite corners to either be way too loose or too tight when screwing down the springs, due to the flexing.
Went to the hardware store and got a piece of 1/2 x 3/4 inch Aluminum angle iron (only size there that would fit - would have preferred 1/4 x 1/2 inch)
Drilled out 2 holes on each end on the 3/4 flat side, and mounted the angle iron between the Y-axis carriage plate and the springs, and releveled the bed.
What a difference it made.
All 4 corners came into acceptable tolerances and were not ratcheted down all the way. - Good thing too because at the back of the heated bed the wires are getting pinched a bit - not a good thing!! Adjustments will have to be made there.
there is enough material left over to run the angle iron down the sides as well, but there might not be a need for it now.