Upscaling upper vertex blocks to improve clearance

The downside of the newer extruder designs is that the engine block is hanging out due to the gears. I have a Wade extruder design in my Mendel and together with the rather big stepper motor, the whole thing is hanging out.

I 'solved' this by restricting the accessible build area to make sure the carriage will not bump into the electronics or the A-frame.

But since I need to replace the vertex blocks soonish (I had no loctite during the build, so I resorted to tensioning the nuts by hand... resulting in cracks after 3 months of use) I am wondering: has anybody tried upscaling the top vertex blocks? By increasing their length by a couple of centimeters on each side, the A frame will become wider at the top.

This would move the electronics and the frame itself outside the reach of the X-carriage, restoring the original range on the Z-axis.

I am also playing with the idea to modify the extruder and carriage to rotate the whole extruder-assembly 90 degrees so the width is reduced. But even then I think the carriage will not 'fit' in the top of the machine.

Is this done before? Did it work? I tried searching but most people try super-sizing their machine; I just want it to have the same specs as the original Mendel but with a better extruder on board

If i understand you correctly, making the gap at the top wider would also change the angle of the threaded rod at the bottom vertexes, so you'd need to print out new parts there, too.

Also if i understand you right, the major axis of the extruder is perpendicular to the x axis, correct? Most of us that have a geared extruder eventually move to a x carriage that allows us to mount the extruder parallel to the x axis. just doing that can bring your bot most of the way back to spec.

Cheers for the input.

Is there a design for such a carriage? I only found a conversion plate that bolts onto the top of the original carriage design.

I designed one a while ago, the OpenX. it's been updated and improved by others, though. but there are other carriages that might work better for you. I like GregFrost's carriage, if you have lm8uus and Prusa x ends. his actually puts it at an angle, which i think is a good compromise between maximum X travel and Z travel.

You can also do a search on thingiverse for x carriage or x axis and see what you find.

I found your design before posting all of this so I had the feeling that it might come up

I like the idea of a lighter carriage with more room for my fingers when I need to fiddle with stuff. Does it hold up above a heated bed as well (and does it need to made from ABS in order to do that)?

Since the image host on Thingiverse seems to be on holiday break as well: how does your design attach the belt? I read something about tie-rips in the comments but I'm not really sure how thats supposed to work...

It's also posted up on the wiki, with pictures: [reprap.org]

I have only printed with PLA, without a heated bed, so i can't answer. But i'd assume that PLA might warp eventually if printing in ABS.

I need to adjust it a little to hold my new light bars but it seems there are plenty mounting holes.

Last question then: why do I see people adding wooden mounting plates to the carriage? Is that for heat issues or for structural reasons?

mostly it's used as an adapter to make it compatible with your hot end/extruder combo. Some people use a metal plate as a heat sink, though.

So if I use a Wades Extruder which uses the vanilla mounting holes, I can just bolt it on your design, right?

I was not aware that other extruder designs used custom mounting solutions...

it's all a hodgepodge of parts. it's nice when everything is standard, but often it isn't, or is a standard that doesn't work with your particular parts.

But, yeah, a vanilla wades will work with the OpenX.

:-)