Carriage Design

I've been working out the geometry for a modular y-carriage design for the SolidCore printer. I prefer to have the hotend and sensor interchangeable. Here's some different models I'm working on.

• Independent hotend/probe mount.
• Combined hotend/probe mount.

The carriage and gantry are designed to be light weight and strong. We currently use c-shaped aluminum stock because it reduces machining time. The reduced machining time and minimized waste helps but it’s a compromise. Thats going to change soon. We’ll probably make some changes such as reorienting the the y-axis linear rail into a vertical position similar to the RailCore but the current horizontal version will be easier to adapt an E3D Toolchanger. 

Carriage Assembly Mounted to MGN12 Linear Rail

Balancing the pull to the center of carriage instead above it or below seems to be more rigid and minimize deflection. The belts are somewhat within the same plane of the three linear rails to avoid rocking cantilever loads that other designs may have with the belts up high or down low.

Belt Anchor And Tensioner

The new carriage design has M2 tapped holes to mount the y-axis endstop switch and act as a self locking post. For now the motor mount plate has slots to tension the belts.