The100

Printing an new Set of Z-Joiners on my T250

Added 2025-01-20 16:33:00 +0000 UTC

I was incredibly lucky with my Z-Motors—the embedded leadscrews were 100% straight, resulting in flawless prints without any print bed-related artifacts. However, some of my alpha testers weren’t as lucky. Taking their feedback into account, I decided to design an option for Oldham couplers to accommodate those with bent leadscrews or who use motors without integrated leadscrews.

Since my T250 gets to a point where it's mostly tune, I chose to print these couplers on it. This allows me to provide you with an exclusive inside look at how a functional part like the Z-Joiners are printed and showcases the final quality:

Ignore the small black dots in the second picture. I usually print with black filament, but I have this ugly white one that I think looks terrible. I never use it for my regular prints, so it’s just my go-to for tuning while I try to phase it out.

The layer lines look almost perfect. However, there are some VFAs, which are common when using low inductance motors like the 2804. I have on my to-do list to do more tests to identify the optimal speeds where these artifacts are less visible. Additionally, these artifacts are not as noticeable to the naked eye compared to how they appear in the enhanced images taken with my smartphone.

For this print, I used speeds of 360 mm/s, 500 mm/s, and 1000 mm/s with accelerations of 38k, 55k, and 80k mm/s². The maximum flow rate achieved was 63 mm³, while the average flow rate was 44 mm³.