So after a few years of using my 3 mostly stock Wanhao Di3 printers, I decided it was time to do some upgrades to them.
When I first purchased the printers I modified them with a Z brace system that stiffened up the printer significantly, improving the quality of the prints dramatically. You can get the print files here:
All 3 printers have already had the electronics swapped out for Cohesion 3D mini boards running smoothieware, and that was a great improvement over the stock boards. But I ran into issues on long prints that the printers would lock up, or reset. After banging my head into the desk for a little while, I realized that the control enclosure was getting very hot inside due to a lack of airflow, causing all the problems. So I removed the PSU’s from their enclosures and mounted them to the outside of the control boxes. Problem solved. You can no longer purchase the C3D mini board, but many other alternatives exist, there is the MKS Sbase board, the SKR boards etc. I use the MKS Sbase on a custom large format printer that I built and have been very happy with it. Of course, if your budget allows, the original Smoothieboard 5XC is your best option.
Leveling the print beds has been a major pain in the ass due to the pressed metal carriages that shipped with printers. I invested in some CNC cut thick aluminum bed carriage plates recently and it has been a night and day difference in my ability to quickly and accurately level the beds.
I purchased mine from:
Next up on my list of upgrades will be replacing the extruder and hot end with Titan Aero extruders and E3D V6 hot ends. As I am not made of cash, these will be clone units. You can get the files for printing the required parts and instructions on how to assemble it all at:
I started the upgrade, however I am short a few screws necessary for the assembly so it is on hold for a week or so until the screws I ordered arrive. I’ll post some pictures of my modifications in the next few days. Once the mods are complete, I am pretty sure I will have some extremely accurate and robust printers in my print farm. Then I can concentrate on changing the electronics on my 2 PrintrBot Simple Pros, and make some changes to the design of my large format printer.