Now, it is time for the Stepper Motor Supports for the Z Axis.

This support is designed in a strange way. Most of the time the support for the stepper motor is implemented parallel to a beam in order to minimize the material used for it and take advantage on the rigidity of such beam. I have something different in my case where the support seats only on a beam that is horizontal and I do not have a vertical beam to use as a foundation for the support.

The support has to be very rigid, due to the weight of the heat bed.

You can see that it has very large pillars and contact area with the beam. However 3D printing with FFF is anisotropic: it is "easy" to break the part along the slices. In order to avoid this, the support is fixed with 4 brackets that are covering most of the pillar of the support to improve the rigidity on the support and that are printed flat on the bed.

If it is not rigid enough on the 4 brackets, it is quiet easy to increase its size and to distribute more evenly the load on the beam.

Parts are made of PETG with the following slicing parameters using my ChopChop3D Slicer:

• 240C HotEnd
• 65C Bed
• 0.2mm Layer Height
• 2 Insets @ 0.4mm
• 5 Top/Bottom Layers with 120% LineInfill & 20% Overlap
• 30% ZigZag Infill & 20% Overlap
• Wipe, Dynamic Retraction/DeRetraction and few funky features at the toolpath

It takes around 7 hours for each Supports and 3 hours for the 4 brackets: I am printing at very low speed to have a good interlayer adhesion.

Forthcoming Part

The Bed assembly will be covered with supports to the Z axis.

Previous Parts

• https://steemit.com/technology/@boucaron/why-building-yet-another-3d-printer-part-1

• https://steemit.com/technology/@boucaron/why-building-yet-another-3d-printer-part-2

• https://steemit.com/technology/@boucaron/why-building-yet-another-3d-printer-part-3

• https://steemit.com/technology/@boucaron/why-building-yet-another-3d-printer-part-4

• https://steemit.com/technology/@boucaron/the-hotend-head-3dprinter-part-5

• https://steemit.com/technology/@boucaron/xy-stepper-motor-supports-3dprinter-part-6

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