UPGRADING A 3D PRINTER WITH A LEADSCREW

consumer 3D printers have really opened up the floodgates to personal at home fabrication. even the most affordable of 3D printers will yield functional parts — however the quality of the print varies quite a lot. one of the most significant downfalls to cost effective 3D printers is the cost cutting of important parts, like the z-Axis. practically all consumer 3D printers use conventional threaded rod for the z-axis, which ought to really use a leadscrew instead.

Threaded rod is not developed for accurate positioning — it’s mainly developed to be a fastener. You can have issues with backlash, wobble, and they typically aren’t even perfectly straight — not to mention they gunk up easily with dirt and grime. In other words, you’ll never see a threaded rod on a commercial machine.

Enter the lead screw. Lead screws are precision machined components used for pretty much all proper CNC equipment. They have practically no backlash, they’re perfectly straight, and they allow for higher load transfers without jamming.

In purchase to upgrade his Prusa i3, [Daniel] developed and printed his own z-axis carriages to use with the lead screw.

If you have a Prusa i3 too, he’s uploaded the design files to Thingiverse. and there’s plenty of info on his blog with instructions on how to do it.