So, I got a 3D printer a month or two ago (it’s all been such a blur of learning curve since!).
Been wanting to do this for awhile. I have an older Avid pro with the proximity sensors that stick out on each corner and it’s always made me nervous while walking around or giving shop tours.
I played around with various designs which bolted the cover onto either the same bolts that hold on the proximity mount plate, or into the t-slots of the adjacent 4080 extrusions, but I couldn’t come with anything that made it easy to remove for adjustments, or more importantly didn’t require you to loosen bolts that could screw up the adjustments.
Then it dawned on me that the mount plates are steel, and it would be easiest to design a cover with a strong magnet for holding it in place.
I designed it with two recessed holes to fit over the 8mm bolts that hold on the plates. in between those is an embedded “print in place” (ie, NOT glued in) 1/2" x 1/4" 16 lb neodymium magnet.
The key for printing is to either have a non magnetic (ie brass) nozzle installed, or since I didn’t have one, to print the cover with the magnet on the bottom so that is close enough (1 mm thick layer in between) to the build plate so that magnetic attraction of the plate is stronger than any pull from the nozzle.
Pictures below. Let me know if there is any interest in getting the files for these.
The same design works on both the Y axis and X axis (gantry) locations. But of course, you need to mirror the model for various locations.
Printer: Bambu X1C, .4 nozzle, PETG-HF filament.
(some pictures are of the first PLA print, that’s ANOTHER story…)
Well the 3mf files are slicer project files that can be easily edited to change pretty much everything including printer type and filament, etc.
But attached are two stl files for left and right covers. They are just mirrored in my CAD system. The “right” side refers to the sensor on your right when standing at the “homing” end of the machine. You’ll need 3 left and 2 right.
As mentioned, you’ll want to print them with the magnet side down to ensure the nozzle can’t pull out the magnet. After slicing, go to the last layer before the layer that covers over the magnet, and put in a manual pause. During printing, the machine will pause, then you can manually move the print bed down to allow room to drop the magnet in, then you just press “resume”.
You’ll also need to add in a modifier that is a “support blocker” so that the magnet hole is left empty.
I already have this done in the .3MF file… so if you want to save that hassle let me know. The avid board won’t let me attach a .3mf file here (they must be worried about Trojan horse attacks!), so I’ll have to publish it to Makerworld for you.
Oh, one more thing I forgot, I did add in another modifier (in the slicer) to reinforce the thin wall on the outside edge of the covers, that switches to 100% infill for that area (had issues with the seam breaking). So I’ll go ahead and publish that to maker world today so you can just leverage that.
