list of top mods?

You can go to thingiverse and search for solidoodle and you can see the upgrades that people have done from the forum alot of great mods like Lawsys mk5 extruder upgrade, spool holoder, carriages replacement, glass bed, etc.

Actually I think the mods here, like pretty much anywhere are so personalised that it's hard to get a coherent view of what might be a 'standard' set of upgrade.

I've only been around a few weeks, but I've started to get a feel for things and I think this may be a good starting point:

1) **EDITED** Add a filament dust remover and a filament guide of some sort

Thingiverse: http://www.thingiverse.com/search?q=fil … st&sa=

Thingiverse: http://www.thingiverse.com/search?q=sol … de&sa=  (I like my own clip-on design best, but I am biased)

2) Build an enclosure
3) Upgrade your bed to glass or ceramic, this may require modifying the adjustment screws and possibly making some clips.

Thread: http://www.soliforum.com/topic/160/glass-bed/

4)Cable management, either a 'cable snake' or a clip on guide for the frame.
5) Add a filament 'wiper' to clear the nozzle before a print job starts
6) Upgrade your Z axis with M5 rod, this is getting more advanced and will require disassembly of the Z-Axis and purchase of assorted parts.  (a definitive guide with parts list and suppliers in different countries would be great)
7) Upgrade your print head bracket to an ABS one, I believe it's called Lawsy's Mk5.
8) Print replacement parts for the X and Y carriage, again, this requires a teardown and confidence that you can rebuild it.

Thread: http://www.soliforum.com/topic/2813/pri … -consumer/

9) Add a fan to your extruder to cool printed plastic.

Thread: http://www.soliforum.com/topic/3045/mk5 … -consumer/

10) Add fans to your stepper motors
11) Replace your HotEnd, possibly with an all metal one that can print different materials at higher temps
12) Upgrade your Power Suppliy
13) Change your electronics

I'm sure there are others, and this list needs some more links, but IMHO these should all have their own stickies. If there are better guides than thos I list, or other specific mods, please add them here and I'll update this post.

Useful things:

a) You may also like to get a Pressure Gauge and build a mount for it for bed levelling, this is more of a tool than a mod.

Hmm, that's a good idea. I could probably modify my own guide to pretty easily wipe the filament as it passes.

I've done only about 3-4 of those mods and have been happily printing for almost a year now with it.  I would say essential mods are glass bed, enclosure, filament guide / wiper.

It would look uglier, but I could modify my filament guide to have a slot where you put a bit of foam. If anyone wants that, let me know.

Otherwise there are quite a few filament cleaning things on Thingiverse.

this has me interested also.  I've been printing pretty much non stop for two weeks now and had no idea i needed to clean the filament as it was being unspooled.  is this an issue with all filaments or just certain brands?  Right now my 2 spools are from sainsmart.