Wanhao Dial Gauge Holder by 1bigpig

Last crawled date: 3 years ago

This is a "remake" of an XYZ dial gauge/indicator holder. I tried many different ones--one that clipped on to the extruder motor, one that "hung" on the X linear rails, but none were repeatable nor was I ever satisfied that I could get a reading over all of the bed. So, I took a design that I liked from an XYZ dial gauge holder but redid it to work with the Wanhao/Monoprice Maker Select/Cocoon 3D printer.
The gauge holder needs a 1/4-20 x 1inch bolt/nut or M6 x 25mm bolt/nut to retain the dial gauge to the holder. I purchased my dial gauge from Harbor Freight, but it seems to be a standard type dial gauge, so any Chinese dial gauge should work.
The holder has a nice snap action to hold the gauge in place and is very repeatable. One thing to watch out for, if you push/pull down on the holder, it will pull the Z-axis down IF the motors are not enabled. The simple solution is to re home the Z-axis after you move the dial gauge.
The dial gauge holder was designed so that the gauge reads about 1/2 of its travel when the Z-axis is homed. IE mine reads .570" of travel from the build plate when the Z-axis is homed. This puts most gauges in the "sweet spot" of accuracy but still allows for the additions such as glass build plate or when using the lower setting on the Z-axis home switch.