I don’t know about anyone else out there… but I had bought the original snapmaker as a backer. I thought it was a great little machine (still do). Loud, but great. I was really excited when they released the enclosure, and I pre-ordered that as well. Then, when they finally had gotten around to the promised z-axis upgrade, I was disappointed to learn that there was no modification or upgrade kit for the enclosure to accommodate the new Z-Axis! I asked them about this point blank, and the answer was a resolute “No. We are not going to do anything about it”.
I became disillusioned, and put my SM1 aside. I purchased a Prusa i3mk3, and used that for a while, then the SM 2.0 came out, and I backed that as well… When I got it, I was a little disappointed with its performance as a 3D printer (I still haven’t used the other modules), so I went back to the Prusa. After a while, SM released the upgrades to the a350, and now it seems to perform much better (and a lot quieter). I am now actually enjoying myself when using it. So, since it has a bigger build plate than the Prusa, I decided to tackle my issue with the SM1 enclosure so I can get that up and running again. (Yes, I know, I could use it without the enclosure… but that was like $350 for that thing, I’m NOT throwing it away!).
So as I write this, I’m designing a fix… a way to add 50mm of height to the enclosure, so that it can accommodate the z-axis upgrade. It takes a while to print this, and prove it out… and it is looking like I won’t complete it this weekend, but perhaps next.
Is anyone else in this situation? If I’m successful (and I think I will be), would it be useful to anyone else out there?
It doesn’t seem like there are many Original users left in the forums. I’m making this up, with absolutely no supporting data, but my impression from reading the forums over the years is that somewhere between a quarter and half of Original users bought the Z axis upgrade, and about half bought the enclosure. I have no idea what the venn diagram of those users is though. I have data showing at least one user purchased both
Personally, I have neither. Just a stock Original, and the upgraded laser module. The laser and CNC are still in the box, but one of these days… That said, I’m definitely in favor of printing stuff for your printer, and I would be interested in seeing what you did.
You may be right, clewis. It may be that most people bailed on their original anyway. I personally don’t see why I wouldn’t still use it if I can. Since 3Dprinting is a relatively slow affair, it is nice to have a backup if I need something while my main printers are busy. I’ll probably equip it with a smaller nozzle, and use it mainly for tiny things. I always thought that printer did a great job. All my prints would impress the other people with other brands of printers back in the day. The laser module was fun too, obviously for small things.
We’ll see if anyone else is interested… but I’ll let you know what I come up with either way.
That looks like a good place to start. It’s too large to print on an Original, but I imagine it wouldn’t be too hard to design something that can be. Thinking out loud, I’d split the long panel into two pieces, and convert the corner clips into a straight clip to join those two pieces into something the size of the original panel. It wouldn’t be as sturdy, but a bit of glue should take care of that.
How about that. I haven’t looked in a while, so I missed that. I probably could have printed that on on my Prusa. Good catch, spaced.
My concept is a little different. The one I’m working on should look a little more seamless, I think (we’ll find out soon enough), but this one looks like you don’t need quite such a large bed to print it. The one I’m designing takes full advantage of the print height of the SM 2.0 a350. If all you have is the SM1, I don’t think my design would be ideal for you, though there would be nothing stopping you from splitting the panels in PrusaSlicer. It would still work, but have extra seams.
The fit is intentionally tight, because I wanted the thing as solid as possible – and it is. The snapmake is inside it, and the z-axis goes all the way up, though not with a ton of clearance. Keeping the extensions short also helped keep the build more solid.
