Snap 2 40w laser, bracing and quickrelease kits. Bed operating area reduced issues

Snapmaker 2.0 (3-in-1)
1

I have installed the 40w laser, bracing kit and quick release kit. Now my bed operating area for the laser has reduced to 320mm x 310mm

Is there a workaround to get back to 320mm x 350mm working area

AI explains

You are completely correct. When you combine the 40W Laser Module, the Quick Swap Kit, and the Bracing Kit on a Snapmaker 2.0 (specifically the A350), the physical limits of the machine change drastically. Because these kits add physical bulk and alter the axis travel, the laser can no longer reach the full original bed area if the bed remains in its stock, centered position.

To regain a larger workable area, offsetting the linear modules or the bed is required, which triggers a domino effect of physical modifications to the enclosure and mounting feet.

2

Let the enclosure door open and mount the object at 310mm of the Y axis.

I would suggest to run a little square and check if the dimension fits. But it should work physically.

The only problem I see is the enclosure door safety and the laser safety itself.

What do you think to work on?

3

Kind of. You really don’t want to do it, but the size limits are enforced by turning the “Quick Swap” and “Bracing” options on the machine. When you do that, you specifically and explicitly lose 27mm of Y travel range: 15 from the swap kit and 12 from the bracing kit. ( Feature: add support for linear module reinforcement kit · Snapmaker/Snapmaker2-Controller@f594a59 · GitHub )

however: this happens because the new pieces change the Y position of the toolhead. The swap kit adds that plate behind the toolhead, and the bracing kit moves the whole Y axis forward, which means the entire toolhead alignment relative to the base (which remains exactly in the same place) has shifted forward by a lot. If your bed is in the forwardmost position (touching the door of the enclosure), the head is still more than 2cm away from the back edge. There’s just no way to get the head to reach behind that line, so if you try to send a job that does use coordinates over 310, the laser will just overburn straight X lines at those positions.

The only physical solution would be to move the entire bed forward by the same amount, however that would very likely mess up balance and make it hit the front of the enclosure.

This could work, if you disable the options to let the machine travel the full Y length. Shift the whole piece to the front (leaving the last 20mm dangling off the bed at the front) but… not really the safest option and would probably require some trial and error to get the coordinates right.

4

For what it’s worth: I thought about adding spacers/offset blocks to reclaim the lost area, but in the end I asked myself: How often do I need the full build volume? And for me, it is rare. So I said to myself: When the occasion comes that I need the max volume, I just remove QSK and/or bracing kit - simple as that. The effort to gain ratio is too small for me to bother with any additional modifications.

5

How about moving the Z columns back by the required amount and then switching off the settings for the QRK and bracing?
It would be easy to design an adapter block that could even restore the available Z height should you need it.
The bed movement would be unchanged so there should be no collision with the enclosure.

6

Oooh, didn’t even think of that. It’d probably defeat the purpose of the bracing kit though, unless the new placements were similarly reinforced.