The All New Ender 2 Upgraded...

[The Hat]

I got this crazy idea a while ago to switch the hot plate platform over from 3 adjusting screw positions to the standard 4 as most printers have, because the original Ender 2 was made very compact, and so they had to compromise on the build somewhere. (Very cheap printer)

I had repositioned the control panel in a previous upgrade 10cm to the left to open up the working space but on this latest upgrade I am going to redo everything, from the base board up. (It may take two posts to explain and to show everything, limited space)
Click on one Photo to enlarge all..
I removed and cleared all the bits and pieces from the base board, but I left the control panel where it was for now because it won’t be in the way when moving the major parts.
Repositioned control box.
Here is the Original Ender 2 as it was when I first assembled it after unpacking

now it looks like this..
The hot-bed carriage plate was very small and only had room for 3 bearing wheels, but the new one I want to replace it with comes with 4 and I plan on adding an extra one.
Old... New...
I started by drilling 4 new holes in the hot plate, carefully avoiding the electric contact stripes on the back, the original holes are the ones closest to the middle. (I had earlier carefully peeled off the blue Adhesive cover) to use later if that were possible.
4 New holes.. Curled but undamaged..
When I was finished repositioning the adjusting screw holes, I stuck a piece of rubber floor tile on the back of the hot plate, Fig 1. I then drilled and attached a fifth bearing wheel to the underside of the new carriage plate Fig 2. and added an extra rail for that wheel to sit on. Fig3.
Fig 1 Fig 2 Fig 3
As ten photos are the upload limit here, I will continue this Post as a Follow up below...

 

[The Hat]

If I haven’t bored you to tears yet, here's some more as promised...
Click on one Photo to enlarge all..

Now because the footprint (board) on the Ender 2 was way too small, I made a new 2.5 mm thick piece to overlay the existing base board and extended it by another 6 cm wider on the right side. (Original size) wider section with support.
Then it was a matter of assembling the scaffold horizontal and vertical frame pieces into their new positions, (Shown above) then fit the hot-plate to the scaffold runner, I also raised the height of the Extruder motor and finally I added the motor drive for the hot-bed.
Raised Extrudger Motor. Drive & belt.

I used all new rubber belt drives (Shown above) because I had extended both the X and Y scaffold runner bars, and new extenion brackets for the Y Micro Switch, and to reposition the Z motor.
Switch extension Motor spacer
I then went totally mad and repositioned the control panel at a 70 Degree angle for two reasons, I was trying to get it closer to the Micro Switches and Drive Motors, but I still had to use some new wiring on the Hotbed Motor and X Micro switch as well as the newly positioned Z Micro Switch.
Newly positioned Control panal.

Then it was time to see if all my handy work paid off, I placed the printer in its new operating position and to my surprise was able to stick back the blue soft adhesive cover to the hot-plate and then power on the printer for the first time.
New Posion. It stuck back down.

If anyone is interested: I used 6 binder clips on the corners to hold the edges of the blue sheet down and applied some heat to the Hot Plate for ½ hour and that seem to wok brilliantly, but I did have a new one on the way.
I made the usual adjustments to the Micro stop Switches and after a few more test moves of X, Y, Z positions, I reckon the best test was to print something for real, but one last job first, I leveled the hot bed manually, the printer comes with auto levelling, but I don’t use it.

The printer seems to run smoother and quieter and except for the printed object not sticking down on one corner, (Front right) it finished the print ok, and with a quick adjustment of the hot-bed in the offend position, she was as right as rain again.

First print off..

Was this upgrade necessary, well I taught so, besides it makes the printer that much easier to use and less likely to get my fingers caught some place and the whole project was very educational and fun to do..

 

[stratman]

Well done, my friend. Great job upgrading and explaining.

Is one of the benefits of your upgrade that you can print larger objects?

What causes the linear scratches seen between bearing wheels and the upper right hand large circular cog in Fig.2 of Post #1?

 

[The Hat]

What causes the linear scratches seen between bearing wheels and the upper right hand large circular cog in Fig.2 of Post #1?

Cause: when I drilled out the hole to fit the new wheel, there were some burrs left around the hole that needed to be clean up, so I dressed the carriage plate with a rough hand file, but a bit to heavy handed leaving the scratches..

 

[Nifty]

Wow, what a great project!!!

Was this upgrade necessary, well I taught so, besides it makes the printer that much easier to use and less likely to get my fingers caught some place and the whole project was very educational and fun to do..

This is fantastic! Totally worth it in my opinion!

As ten photos are the upload limit here, I will continue this Post as a Follow up below...

Oh, I didn't know we still had that limit so low. I've changed it to 50... hopefully more than enough

 

[Redbrickman]

Great project - Thanks for sharing it