Hello, 3D Printing Friends!
Today on the BV3D Channel, we’ll discover yet another enlightening AND affordable mod
for your 3D printer.
Stick around and we’ll get into it right after this.
I’m Bryan, and YOU… are watching BV3D!
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OK, so today we’re going to see a super easy way to add lighting to your 3D printer
with just a couple of 3D printed parts, and a couple of screws and T-nuts.
And with a price tag that won’t break the bank!
See, the problem I’ve got is that the lighting in here—while it looks plenty bright on
camera—isn’t really all that, ordinarily.
I’ve got a couple of LED panels to light things up when I’m recording the videos,
but those aren’t usually on.
So that’s why I like having lights directly on the printers.
And I’ve made videos about that in the past, showing you how to add a bit of an LED strip
light to the underside of the top crossbar of your 3D printer.
And that one’s cool because it’s almost like a stealth upgrade.
You don’t even know it’s there unless it’s on.
However, after using that for a while, I noticed that the higher up the X axis arm is, the
larger its shadow on the bed tends to be.
I was kind of in the dark about how to work around this.
But then one day, while I was setting up to take a close-up shot of a printer, it dawned
on me that I could reduce shadows and get some excellent lighting on the bed by having
a ring light up at the top of the Z gantry, shining down from on high like some kind of
gloriously bright halo of goodness.
So for a while now, I’ve been thinking, off and on, about how to mount one of these
to the printer.
I experimented with zip ties, and while that worked, I’ve heard it said that “real
engineers don’t use zip ties.”
Besides, it looked inelegant.
Well, eventually, inspiration struck, and I had the perfect solution.
Before I get to that solution, though, I want you to see the light.
And here it is.
This is a six-inch ring light.
It’s USB powered, and I got it on Amazon for like five bucks.
It doesn’t include a USB power supply, but I literally have dozens of those laying around
so, honestly, I didn’t need another one.
The included cord is reasonably long, and the controls on it are easy to use.
It’s got a power on and off button.
It’s got three different color temperatures, which you can select by pressing this button.
And it’s got brightness up and down buttons, so you can get the light level just the way
you like it.
OK.
I know you want me to get on with it, and talk about the mounting solution.
And that solution is this: A little printable clamp that screws down
onto the upper 2020 aluminum extrusion, holding The One Ring in place.
You need two of them, and they take just a few minutes to print.
These are the prototypes, and they worked the first time, so I’m really super happy
with them.
I designed these to work with a ring light that’s about seventeen millimeters thick,
and to be secured to the printer with M5x8 screws and T-nuts.
Many of you may already have screw and t-nut assortments laying around, but if you don’t,
I’ve got links in the description to check out.
These are pretty inexpensive for what you get, and since a lot of 3D printed printer
mods rely on these fasteners, buying them means you’ll already have the fasteners
you need when you print other mods out.
So, once I had the printer’s halo in place, I realized I needed to do something about
the wire management for the ring light.
For this, I searched on Ringiverse…
I mean Thingiverse… and found some cable clips that twist into place on the aluminum
extrusions.
I figured I’d need five or six of the smallest ones, so I printed eight of them.
And it’s a good thing I did, because I broke one trying to get it in.
So instead of cable clips, I searched for v-slot covers to keep the cables neat and
tidy and tucked into the channels in the extrusion.
And that seems to work a LOT better, because it actually hides the cable while keeping
it in place.
We’ll need to print out two of the clamps, and also print out the V-slot covers.
Links to the STL files are in the description.
Let’s slice these parts, and I’ll show you how to scale the V-slot covers to get
the length you need.
On the back of the printer, on the 4040 extrusion, you need a V-slot cover that’s about 130
millimeters long.
That’ll leave an opening at either end for the cable, and it’ll cover up the rest of
it.
On the back of the right side Z axis extrusion, that’s about 400 millimeters tall.
Well, three of the 130 millimeter-long covers gets you to 390 millimeters, and that’s
more than enough to keep that cable in place and covered.
So we need four 130-millimeter-long V-slot covers.
Three for the back of the Z axis, and one for the back of the printer.
Let me show you how to scale these covers to the length we need.
It’s pretty easy.
Let’s drag a V-slot cover onto the plater in PrusaSlicer.
We need to scale it so that it’s 130 millimeters long, but we don’t want to affect the width
or the height.
So, click this padlock icon here.
When it’s locked, it scales things proportionally.
Most of the time, that’s what you want, like if you wanted to scale a model up and
still have it look right.
But in this case we actually do want to make the model longer in only one dimension.
So set this this one dimension to 130 millimeters, and leave the others untouched.
Now that we have the covers set to the size we need, let’s use the duplicate button
to make three more of them.
Perfect!
Next, drag in the clamp.
This prints on its side, without supports.
Most printers should be able to bridge that gap without a problem.
Duplicate this, so there are two of them.
And then, slice it up and print it out.
I printed these at a layer height of zero point one six millimeters, but using a zero
point two millimeter layer height should be fine.
No printer time lapse because this is a pretty flat print job, and flat is boring.
So, with the files printed, let’s get everything together and get this installed.
I’ve got the clamps, the screws, the T-nuts, the covers, and the ring light.
Let’s put the screws and T-nuts on the clamps, and kind of get them into place on the top
of the printer.
If you’re not familiar with how T-nuts work, as you tighten the screw, the nut rotates
inside the extrusion, and stops when it’s rotated at 90 degrees relative to the slot.
That allows it to grab onto the inside of the slot, so everything stays in place.
So, with the two clamps on the top of the printer, center the ring light on the top
crossbar, move the clamps into place, and tighten the screws.
The clamps go inside the ring, not outside.
This way the light won’t get pushed out of the clamps.
It also takes up less space on the crossbar that way, so you’ll still have room for
the spool holder.
I’ve got my spool holder facing the front of the printer because I’ve got a direct-drive
extruder installed.
If I still had the Bowden-drive setup, the spool holder would be facing the back.
You may need to move the spool holder as far to the side as you can, or you may need to
move the ring light a bit further away from it, if the filament spool rubs against it.
But with the six-inch ring light, this shouldn’t really be a problem.
Okay!
We’ve got the ring light installed, so the next thing to do is just route the cable inside
one of the channels in the aluminum extrusion, and snap those covers in place.
I started at the top and worked my way down.
With the way the covers are sized, there’s plenty of room for the cable to enter and
exit the channel.
With the ring light plugged into a USB power adapter, I can now turn the light on and off…and
on again, and cycle through the different color temperatures, and adjust the brightness.
If you want, you can use some double-sided adhesive to stick the buttons somewhere on
the printer, or maybe print something it can snap into, but I’m OK with just leaving
the cable and buttons draped around behind the printer.
I can always reach behind and grab the buttons if I need to.
So, there you go.
You can brighten your day with a simple solution to adding lighting to your 3D printer, and
it’s well under ten bucks to make it happen.
As usual, links for everything can be found in the description.
Well, 3D Printing Friends, that’s about all the time we have for this episode.
And now that we’re at the end, let's go print something cool!
Hey, real quick before you go.
I wanted to say thanks for being one of the super-awesome people who sticks around all
the way to the end, and thanks for all the likes, comments, and shares.
And an especially big thanks to those who directly support what I do.
You’re all wonderful for doing that, and I really appreciate it!
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Well that’s it for this one.
Thanks again, and I'll see you next time, here on The BV3D Channel!