og ender 3 to switchwire help plz

[ositocraft3d]

Hey everybody. I'm looking at a conversion for my original Ender 3 not the pro or the v2 I found a decent one that has a built-in enclosure it does mention some of the frame Parts have to be cut but there's no actual assembly guides so I'm not too sure how I would know what parts need to be cut that they mentioned and stuff like that I found it on the voron mods site.I guess I could probably look at the cad that it comes with of the full built but I was hoping to get somebody else's input

[3dKaosMonkey]

Have you considered the cost and time between the ender conversion and just buying a switchwire kit... or better the Trident. 

https://www.formbot3d.com/products/voron-trident-corexy-3d-printer-kit-with-premade-wiring-harness

https://www.formbot3d.com/products/voron-switchwire-diy-corexz-3d-printer-kit-with-high-quality-components

Not LDO kits but they serve their purpose.

[ositocraft3d]

On 2/22/2023 at 10:42 AM, 3dKaosMonkey said:

Have you considered the cost and time between the ender conversion and just buying a switchwire kit... or better the Trident. 

https://www.formbot3d.com/products/voron-trident-corexy-3d-printer-kit-with-premade-wiring-harness

https://www.formbot3d.com/products/voron-switchwire-diy-corexz-3d-printer-kit-with-high-quality-components

Not LDO kits but they serve their purpose.

I wish I was able to I would rather go to the kit route I really want to get a 2.4 The 300x300 or the trident 300x300 but I lost my job back when covid started haven't been able to find work since so I don't really have money coming in to do that hence why I'm doing a conversion cuz I can slowly over time buy piece by piece i like the formbot kits a lot

Edited February 24, 2023 by ositocraft3d

[smirk]

Most of the guides I've seen are for Ender 3 Pro or the Ender 3v2, I haven't seen one for the previous generation (the basic Ender 3) but I haven't seen any mention of the need to cut  extrusions. Extrusions have to be moved around and slightly reorganised and theres a need for a printed spacer but I've not seen any cutting mentioned. Now I could be wrong, it's been a while since I've seen an original Ender 3 (my dad has one so I'll look at that). Does the ender-3 have a 2020 extrusion for the y-axis or a 4040 extrusion? Think the enderwire conversions will be based on the 4040 y-extrusions.

Your big expenses will be  the linear rails (you need four 300mm MGN12H, and the generics on the sourcing guide are good enough); new hot-end as the crealty hotends are appalling and could not be reused (triangle-labs do really good V6 equivalents which are cheap); F695 bearings, Fushi ones are cheaper than the Raindew ones which are the new favs on the sourcing guide (I've used Fushi ones with success); and GT2 belts, again triangle labs do genuine Gates ones for reasonable cost. There's also fasteners (M3 and M5) and a couple of new fans for the hotend (stealthburner or whatever you fit). You might also end up needing a new 4040 extrusion for the y-axis.......and this is probably a minimum of "extras"

Looking at that list makes me think that the point of the enderwire conversions is not really a more affordable route to a Voron but rather a way of improving another printer.

I might be over stepping the mark here but, despite the frustration, since time is not a factor a fully self-sourced Switch-wire is an option (rather than buying a kit). I think the switchwire is one of the "simpler" Vorons. I have recently collected the parts for a self-source switchwire (my next official build, once I get around to it) and it was not a major chore collecting the parts. I wouldn't say more expensive than a kit but not really cheaper, it just changed the financial burn-rate. The biggest single expense was the MK52 bed (carrier, bed and flexplate probably set me back a total of £80, but individually the bits are in the order of £20-£30 each).

You need to buy rails, bearings, hotend, fasteners and fans anyway so you can delay the decision point between doing an ender-wire style conversion or going full  sel-sourced route.

There's also the option of the half-way house of just converting the x-z motion part of the ender to corexz and retain the original y-carriage and upgrade that later?

In terms of the instrucitons, I have seen notes somewhere about which extrusions need to be moved (I'll find those) but I think the rest of the build is really covered by the switchwire instructions (e.g. building the bearing blocks or routing the belts, etc). The enderwire still uses many unaltered switchwire pieces and those which have been altered are because of differences in 2020 vs 3030 extrusion sizes but the parts look the same-ish.

 

[ositocraft3d]

26 minutes ago, smirk said:

Most of the guides I've seen are for Ender 3 Pro or the Ender 3v2, I haven't seen one for the previous generation (the basic Ender 3) but I haven't seen any mention of the need to cut  extrusions. Extrusions have to be moved around and slightly reorganised and theres a need for a printed spacer but I've not seen any cutting mentioned. Now I could be wrong, it's been a while since I've seen an original Ender 3 (my dad has one so I'll look at that). Does the ender-3 have a 2020 extrusion for the y-axis or a 4040 extrusion? Think the enderwire conversions will be based on the 4040 y-extrusions.

Your big expenses will be  the linear rails (you need four 300mm MGN12H, and the generics on the sourcing guide are good enough); new hot-end as the crealty hotends are appalling and could not be reused (triangle-labs do really good V6 equivalents which are cheap); F695 bearings, Fushi ones are cheaper than the Raindew ones which are the new favs on the sourcing guide (I've used Fushi ones with success); and GT2 belts, again triangle labs do genuine Gates ones for reasonable cost. There's also fasteners (M3 and M5) and a couple of new fans for the hotend (stealthburner or whatever you fit). You might also end up needing a new 4040 extrusion for the y-axis.......and this is probably a minimum of "extras"

Looking at that list makes me think that the point of the enderwire conversions is not really a more affordable route to a Voron but rather a way of improving another printer.

I might be over stepping the mark here but, despite the frustration, since time is not a factor a fully self-sourced Switch-wire is an option (rather than buying a kit). I think the switchwire is one of the "simpler" Vorons. I have recently collected the parts for a self-source switchwire (my next official build, once I get around to it) and it was not a major chore collecting the parts. I wouldn't say more expensive than a kit but not really cheaper, it just changed the financial burn-rate. The biggest single expense was the MK52 bed (carrier, bed and flexplate probably set me back a total of £80, but individually the bits are in the order of £20-£30 each).

You need to buy rails, bearings, hotend, fasteners and fans anyway so you can delay the decision point between doing an ender-wire style conversion or going full  sel-sourced route.

There's also the option of the half-way house of just converting the x-z motion part of the ender to corexz and retain the original y-carriage and upgrade that later?

In terms of the instrucitons, I have seen notes somewhere about which extrusions need to be moved (I'll find those) but I think the rest of the build is really covered by the switchwire instructions (e.g. building the bearing blocks or routing the belts, etc). The enderwire still uses many unaltered switchwire pieces and those which have been altered are because of differences in 2020 vs 3030 extrusion sizes but the parts look the same-ish.

The conversion I found on the voron's mod page does mention that one of the extrusions needs to be cut but doesn't say how or which one I believe the original Ender uses the 4020 extrusions and yeah it's not about the price really it's more of I just want to upgrade my ender 3 I'm running a micro Swiss Full Metal Hot end and I already have the stuff for the afterburner for that hot end just waiting on printed parts to arrive one of my buddies suggested doing one of the kids that does the extensions for the legs of the printer even though it's meant for the Pro and I can just use the files from the one I found for the y-axis since it uses a smaller Extrusion my main goal with this conversion is just to upgrade my under three as well as something to do on my streams

[smirk]

I was doing some rummaging and my best guess is it's the x-extrusion that might need to be trimmed - I found a video where a chap makes a comment about trimming his x-extrusion (around the 2:45 mark). As I say I cannot see a reason to trim any of the other extrusions. The ender3 is small enough, arguably not quite big enough, and it seems necessary to move the Y-carriage extrusion forward to provide a bit more room. However, trimming the x-carriage makes sense. If it was too long it would poke out of the backs of the XZ-blocks and interfere with the belts that are running past. You can trim an aluminimum extrusion with a hack-saw (I'm not talking the tiny little junior hack saw). Whilst we always love perfection here, the cut does not need to be perpendicular (in other words it can be a slightly wonky cut-by-hand affair). Nothing connects to the [cut] ends of the extrusions. The XZ-blocks connect to the side faces of the extrusions and those will be naturally smooth and parallel with one another. Granted a shonky end cut means you cannot rely on using the end of the extrusion to make the XZ-block perpendicular to the extrusion but that is not a show stopper. There are other ways of getting it perpendicular.

Bottom line is it's doable but requires a bit of diy.

[atrushing]

18 minutes ago, smirk said:

You can trim an aluminimum extrusion with a hack-saw

For those with wood working tools, aluminum extrusions can also be cut with a chop saw or on a table saw with a cross-cut sled. Just take it a little slowly and wear eye protection.

[Franchester]

I'm just in the middle of converting the non-pro Ender 3. I won't talk about if it's worth it, although many claim (myself included) that the proper switchwire is simply a better printer, manly because of it's sturdier and better designed frame, extrusions on an ender are simply of low quality.

I follow this guide by thomasfjen: https://github.com/thomasfjen/enderwire_nonpro which is a non-pro modification of DarkDog's rev.2 conversion: https://github.com/boubounokefalos/Ender_SW/tree/Rev.2. It uses Gizzle's y-axis: https://github.com/VoronDesign/VoronUsers/tree/master/printer_mods/Gizzle/ender-3_(pro)_switchwire  and some other slight mods to DarkDog's excellent work.

Here is also a nice documentation about all of this and many more by RobotRogue: https://github.com/RobotRogue/Enderwire_Docs

About the cutting of extrusions, yes you have to shorten the x-gantry extrusion to 310mm so that the xz belts can clear it. Also you have to drill holes in the bed mounts so that it can be mounted directly to the y-linear rail. Two more holes need to be drilled to the bed mount for the cable chain mounting plate. It's best you follow CAD for precise locations of the drill holes, maybe try finding a good drilling guide as I used the one from the switchwire repo and it isn't the best.

I also rotated one of the bottom extrusions so that one of the top screws wouldn't interfere with the z motor mounts and I had to chamfer the existing now rotated holes so the screw would fit inside the grooves. I also threaded an M5 thread in the front of the y-extrusion so that I could screw in one of the pieces that connects the y-axis to the grills, but you can probably force the screw in the existing hole, I just had the tools to do it. That's mostly it from what I can tell.

On the voron discord in the switchwire channel is a vibrant ender conversion subchannel which will happily answer any more of your questions and problems.

[ositocraft3d]

9 hours ago, Franchester said:

I'm just in the middle of converting the non-pro Ender 3. I won't talk about if it's worth it, although many claim (myself included) that the proper switchwire is simply a better printer, manly because of it's sturdier and better designed frame, extrusions on an ender are simply of low quality.

I follow this guide by thomasfjen: https://github.com/thomasfjen/enderwire_nonpro which is a non-pro modification of DarkDog's rev.2 conversion: https://github.com/boubounokefalos/Ender_SW/tree/Rev.2. It uses Gizzle's y-axis: https://github.com/VoronDesign/VoronUsers/tree/master/printer_mods/Gizzle/ender-3_(pro)_switchwire  and some other slight mods to DarkDog's excellent work.

Here is also a nice documentation about all of this and many more by RobotRogue: https://github.com/RobotRogue/Enderwire_Docs

About the cutting of extrusions, yes you have to shorten the x-gantry extrusion to 310mm so that the xz belts can clear it. Also you have to drill holes in the bed mounts so that it can be mounted directly to the y-linear rail. Two more holes need to be drilled to the bed mount for the cable chain mounting plate. It's best you follow CAD for precise locations of the drill holes, maybe try finding a good drilling guide as I used the one from the switchwire repo and it isn't the best.

I also rotated one of the bottom extrusions so that one of the top screws wouldn't interfere with the z motor mounts and I had to chamfer the existing now rotated holes so the screw would fit inside the grooves. I also threaded an M5 thread in the front of the y-extrusion so that I could screw in one of the pieces that connects the y-axis to the grills, but you can probably force the screw in the existing hole, I just had the tools to do it. That's mostly it from what I can tell.

On the voron discord in the switchwire channel is a vibrant ender conversion subchannel which will happily answer any more of your questions and problems.

thank you this is what i have been looking for

 

[pwnyourace]

https://github.com/SW-Conversion/mod-regisistry

join the voron discord. In the switchwire channel there's a thread #ender-conversion-chat there's plenty of us to help you out and the authors of these mods are usually there too.

[ositocraft3d]

On 3/14/2023 at 12:52 PM, pwnyourace said:

https://github.com/SW-Conversion/mod-regisistry

join the voron discord. In the switchwire channel there's a thread #ender-conversion-chat there's plenty of us to help you out and the authors of these mods are usually there too.

im on there but ppl didnt really help at all but its ok