Wanhao Duplicator i3 mods I’ve done

Category : Electronics

wholeprinter

I’ve had my Wanhao i3 for a few months now, and I must say it’s not perfect. I wasn’t expecting a perfect printer either.

But there are a few very annoying issues that needs to be fixed IMO, even tho many users have had no big complaints. My major struggle on this one are uneven bed adjustments. I can have a perfect print, and the next time I print it screws up at the first layer. It’s almost like I have to re adjust for each print.

You might be thinking that this is my first printer and I’m just not used to this, but I have been using 3d printers since early last year and now own 6 printers. And my latest in the collection is the Wanhao i3, and I feel I’m quite familiar with bed leveling. Not claiming to be an expert.

Anyhow, these are the mods I have done so far:

Heatbed isolation.
heatbed

This can be done several ways, but I choose a rather quick fix for it. Simply cutting a cork mat I bought off ebay, and taping it to the underside of my heatbed with kapton tape. This helps on heating up the bed faster, and makes for a more evenly distributed heat pattern.

MicroSD to SD card adapter.
sd-card

Easy fix, you can find one here. I used some adhesive tape to keep it locked in place on top of the electronics box.

LED lights.
ledextruder ledtio

Many ways to do this one, but I used a pair of led strips with adhesive tape on them, and a 1W led emitter on the extruder. Just make sure you order some 12v ones.

Z-Axis stiffening.
screwdetail2 screwdetail

Link to all parts are on this post on thingiverse. As you can see on the first picture I have added two threaded rods and stiffens my Z-Axis. This mod I would really recommend, makes the whole printer much more rigid, resulting in higher quality prints.

After you have attached the threaded rods and nuts, you need to use some angling tool to make it perfect 90 degrees.

There are other useful parts in that post too. And I also recommend printing the front and back Y brace. And adding a ziptie to make the bed belt go more evenly.

strips

This summons up all mods I’ve done to my i3 so far. It’s still not as good or reliable as I want it to be, but it’s much better.I’m far from done, my next mod will be a replacement of the hotend part with a all metal one from Swiss Made. It will be interesting to see how it performs with that one installed.

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