EDIT: Here you go. http://www.soliforum.com/post/93890/#p93890

I did fit the all bearings conversion, removed the brass bushings on the y rod, it is way smoother now. I have the spectra line fit in, did some custom Y idler pulleys, as I had some bearing pulleys laying around. I will post some pictures soon.

I did the two nuts conversion on the z axis, the one by lawsy, and I can't wait to try it, as now my Z motor doesn't have to force as much to move the platform. I'm scared I was loosing steps with the slop nut before, which will explain the bad Z height of my parts before.

Now, I installed the E3D v6, had to change the support for it, and I'm looking for a Gcode fan shroud to put on here that will fit the E3d V6 and the Lawsy carriage. I saw that jagowilson designed one pretty nice, but I kept on looking on the forums and couldn't find it. the other I found were to big for the V6.

It is great to have a good backup machine ( the flashforge) to print parts as needed !

Hopefully, I'll have a good looking SD3 by the time I'll be finished with it... I want to use it to print other filament (nylon, carbon fiber pLA...), and with good precision.

I abandonned the idea of the 1000 step / rev steppers, since those are 4 phase steppers, and you'll have to figure out a way to drive some 4 phase stepper drivers from an azteeg mini x5... Maybe later !!

Those are the updates so far, I'm not going as fast as I'd like to - family to take care of, and labor day week end with friends (social life is important too... hughhh) - But I'm getting there !

If someone can direct me to a good Gcode Fan for e3d V^, I surely will appreciate it a lot.

Thanks guys,

I got a sweet deal from craigslist this week end, and picked up a flashforge creator pro brand new with 8 rolls of abs! For a bargain: a third of its price, not including the abs rolls.

I'm amazed by the quality this thing can do. So it will help me having beautiful quality print to mod my sd3…!

I also got lucky and found three nema 17, 1000 step / rev stepper from a very good brand motor manufacturer. I got them out of an industrial robot machine that can for scrap. I was wondering if I could fit them in the solidoodle, to turn this solidoodle into a high resolution fdm machine. I know the x axis is nema 14, but I can design a carriage for the nema 17 and put all nema 17 1000 step/rev on the x,y and z axis.

Now that I have the flashforge, I can do things a lot better, by taking my time!

As for the Y axis calibration, here is a video for easy calibration.

But good call, i'll try to put a well nut, or a long brass nt in it to see the difference. Appreciate your input.

I'm not a big fan of this Z axis anyway, the flex coupling between the motor and the m5 rod gives it some axial flex, which I don't like. I always thought about puting the rod between two bearings and having the motor independently coupled with the rod on the bottom.

I have my SD3 for a couple years now, and already did a lot of mods on it...

To summarize real quickly :

- Lawsy carriage on linear bearings, new chrome rods (originals sucked !) and new extruder mk5
- Z axis M5 conversion, with slop nut by 2n2r5
- E3D v5, from elmoret
- Azteeg X5 mini from panucat, with Vikki 2 screen and control with custom case and cooling fan.
- custom 1/2 birch plywood case with ATX PSU integrated, glass door, tool drawer, and Octopi embeded
- Smoke and heat sensor with Wake up alarm !!
- silicon custom 8x8 heater bed, on a glass plate.(printing with hairspray, never got a problem.)
- So much hours spent on it that my wife calls it a 4d printer now... :-D

I'm printing right now some little goodies for it again.My goal in the next 2 weeks would be to do the following :

- Y axis all bearings conversion, by smithy505000.
- Y belt spring tensioner by pirvan
- spectra line 80 lbs conversion.
- E3D v6 ( tired of this kapton tape, that came off one time and almost fried my printer...)

Thanks for all you guys to bring us some good mods like that, I really appreciate it a lot.

The goal is to have the most accurate and reliable machine possible by the way :-)

Wish me good luck ! I'll take it all appart one more time... Poor machine !