S5 Mods/Upgrades/Improvements

[mkaj2019 41]

Hey S5 Community,

 

I would like to know what type of mods you have installed on your S5 printers. It would be interesting to see what type of mods are possible, available and also functional tested.

 

Greetings

Markus

Edited February 17, 2020 by mkaj2019

[Smithy 1,144]

Except a few hooks on the sides to store some tools and a small box to keep the filament clips, I have nothing changed.

 

 

[DrCeeVee 19]

Interesting topic.

 

My impression about the Ultimaker S5 (and Ultimaker printers in general) is that they are not meant to be modded in the way that cheaper printers like Prusa, Creality, Anycubic, etc., are. I see this as more of a negative thing than positive. I'm an electronics engineer, and would love to be able to improve on my (not yet in my hands) S5. But the price/warranty and overall enclosed design of the printer discourages users to mod it. Maybe some external attachments for filament handling, helpful tools, things like that, but I'm not sure how easy it would be to mod the electronics and mechanics.

 

Would love to hear about useful mods from S5 users out there.

[LePaul 326]

I did a ton of things to my Ultimaker Original but on my personal Ultimaker 2+ and my work Ultimaker S5's...I have left them alone.  Asides some SD card holders and a guide pulley for the filament path of my 2+, they are stock.

 

I'm printing some Core holders for the S5's I setup last week and perhaps have the students find some novel USB holders to print.

[Framar 38]

On our S5 I add a "hook" to secure the print core facing cover to avoid it to open during printing (since the magnet are weak)

[Smithy 1,144]

11 minutes ago, Framar said:

On our S5 I add a "hook" to secure the print core facing cover to avoid it to open during printing (since the magnet are weak)

Opinions are mixed on this. I had also printed and mounted this part, but it only helps if the door opens first and is filled with filament afterwards. But there is also the theory that your part comes off the plate and then moves with the print head. The material then presses through the silicone from below into the print head and if there is still the clamp on it, the damage could be even greater.

 

I think both are possible causes, but it's hard to say which one will happen.

[ultiarjan 1,223]

I use filament spool holders hanging on both sides of the S5 as I find the spools at the back inconvenient (and don't care for the loss of filament recognition). For some materials, mainly PVA, I use a separate drybox to print from. 

[DrCeeVee 19]

@ultiarjan:

 

Sorry for the off-topic question but...

 

Can you share some info about yout drybox? I'm also interested in printing with PVA (it was the reason I chose a dual-extruder printer), but the problem is that it quickly degrades when left in open air, even for a short period of time. I used the spool that came with my S5 to print a small test print (which printed beautifully), and then left it in a zip-sealed bag with silica gels inside it. I tried to use it again about a month later, and it had become so brittle it broke in may places inside the Bowden tube. Not sure if it can be saved...

 

I'd appreciate it if you could share any information about your drybox, and how it performs when used with PVA. Thanks.

Edited February 11, 2020 by DrCeeVee
Added off-topic notice.

[Smithy 1,144]

For such cases I can highly recommend a Polybox.

[Carla_Birch 116]

3 hours ago, Smithy said:

For such cases I can highly recommend a Polybox.

Yep defo go with a Polybox, it’s what I use on mine.

 

[Ishy 8]

On 2/10/2020 at 10:29 AM, DrCeeVee said:

Interesting topic.

 

My impression about the Ultimaker S5 (and Ultimaker printers in general) is that they are not meant to be modded in the way that cheaper printers like Prusa, Creality, Anycubic, etc., are. I see this as more of a negative thing than positive. I'm an electronics engineer, and would love to be able to improve on my (not yet in my hands) S5. But the price/warranty and overall enclosed design of the printer discourages users to mod it. Maybe some external attachments for filament handling, helpful tools, things like that, but I'm not sure how easy it would be to mod the electronics and mechanics.

 

Would love to hear about useful mods from S5 users out there.

Be interested to know what you would like to change if you don't even have one? I haven't changed anything on my S5 and see no reason to as it does what I want. Unlike the Chinese POS I also have which I may change by throwing it in the garbage.

[ultiarjan 1,223]

22 hours ago, DrCeeVee said:

 

I'd appreciate it if you could share any information about your drybox, and how it performs when used with PVA. Thanks.

 

 

I just use a diy plastic box with diy spoolholder, filled with a large bag of silica gel, but considering the low price of the polybox just get that one... (probably get one myself someday..)  For me PVA keeps performing very good for many months.  Between jobs I store the fillament in printdry containers. I assume results will vary a lot depending on when you live in the world...

[mkaj2019 41]

I have done a few things on my S5 so far.

 

The first thing I did was to replace the UM glass plate with a spring steel print plate by Filafarm (for PLA, PETG, ASA, TPU...). The set came as 4 seperate parts: the spring steel, the print surface sheet, the magnetic sheet and a thinner glas plate. The magnetic sheet with an adhesive side is mounted on the thin glass plate and clamped in the S5 bed sheet metal tabs.  The thin glass plate broke in half a few weeks ago but Filafarm quickly send me a free replacement. They told me this has never happened before.

Nonetheless the trust in the glass plate was lost. That is why I have replaced the thin glass plate with a nice carbon plate and it looks like this at the moment:

 

 

 

I have also replaced the bowden tubes after one year of usage with capricorn tubings. 

 

I have also added a cheap thermometer to check the build volume temperature when I cover the printer for materials that are prone to warping.

 

Last week I also changed the nozzle of my oldest print core to a microswiss nozzle. The procedure is a little bit tricky but replacing the nozzle is still way cheaper than buying a new core. 

 

One of my sliding blocks is still broken/ worn down but I am still waiting for the machined replacements from China. For now I have simply swapped the sliding block from the y axis to the x axis. On the y axis it is not that critical if the rod is not clamped anymore. (for more infos visit the topic below)

Greetings
Markus

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited February 17, 2020 by mkaj2019

[Smithy 1,144]

LOL the thermometer is great 🙂 

 

[ultiarjan 1,223]

my first real S5 mod 🙂

 

 

[mkaj2019 41]

Thanks to your recommendation I have also bought a Polybox now. Because I want to use it mainly for 2,6kg spools I had to modify the box. The box is not high enough for xxl spools other than the 3kg spools from Polymaker. Fortunatly there are a lot of box extensions already on thingiverse.

I also printed conical tubes for the rollers. My hope is that this will always keep the spool centered. 

I fixed the Polybox tubing to the S5 with a cable clamp zip tie. Otherwise the extruder pulls the tubing inside and gets jammed during printing.

How did you fix your tubings to the S5?

 

Edited May 11, 2020 by mkaj2019

[mkaj2019 41]

The Cable Clamp holding the Polybox tubing does not work. It slowly deformes the tubing until the filament is clamped too. I am using a tubing holder now that I made. If you are interested, I will upload it soon and post the thingiverse link here. The holder can be simply clamped into one of the slotted holes below the extruder.   

Edited May 13, 2020 by mkaj2019

[ultiarjan 1,223]

On 5/11/2020 at 1:46 PM, mkaj2019 said:

How did you fix your tubings to the S5?

 

I just don't... I just leave the filament between my DIY box and the printer exposed.

[Carla_Birch 116]

This is how i have mine done, i drilled the holes out in the box with a step drill and added some real fixings to it as i found the PTFE would move and start to wrap around the spool in the box.

 

Only other thing I'm doing, is I'm going add a PVC tube that clips into the box lid also as again i found with PVA filament it ends up pulling the spool off the rollers, so making some bits to fix in the lid so it keeps the spools in place.

 

.  

 

[Gero 54]

On 5/13/2020 at 8:59 AM, mkaj2019 said:

The Cable Clamp holding the Polybox tubing does not work. It slowly deformes the tubing until the filament is clamped too. I am using a tubing holder now that I made. If you are interested, I will upload it soon and post the thingiverse link here. The holder can be simply clamped into one of the slotted holes below the extruder.   

 

This clip looks really great and might be just what I currently need. I took all my printers in the basement where the humidity already killed some spools...
I got some filament boxes now, but need a solution for the tube-to-the-feeder problem. 
It would be really great if you could share your clip design. 
I thought putting tube couplers into them, might be a good idea as well...

[Carla_Birch 116]

I have personally made some little anti-vibration feet for my S5 now because its on a wood desk so hopefully it will take out some the vibration and sound when printer is in use, more so because i have 2 s5 side by side printing.

 

Best to use a TPU filament with around 50% infill, have added the stl files below for both right and left hand feet. It also gives about 6mm of extra height under the printer what gives better air flow for the fan under it. Or like i do i store the 2nd glass build plate under the printer.

 

Body1.stl Body2.stl

Edited June 23, 2020 by Carla_Birch

[mkaj2019 41]

On 6/21/2020 at 3:56 PM, Gero said:

 

This clip looks really great and might be just what I currently need. I took all my printers in the basement where the humidity already killed some spools...
I got some filament boxes now, but need a solution for the tube-to-the-feeder problem. 
It would be really great if you could share your clip design. 
I thought putting tube couplers into them, might be a good idea as well...

 

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4544757

[LePaul 326]

On 2/14/2020 at 7:32 AM, mkaj2019 said:

I have done a few things on my S5 so far.

 

The first thing I did was to replace the UM glass plate with a spring steel print plate by Filafarm (for PLA, PETG, ASA, TPU...). The set came as 4 seperate parts: the spring steel, the print surface sheet, the magnetic sheet and a thinner glas plate. The magnetic sheet with an adhesive side is mounted on the thin glass plate and clamped in the S5 bed sheet metal tabs.  The thin glass plate broke in half a few weeks ago but Filafarm quickly send me a free replacement. They told me this has never happened before.

Nonetheless the trust in the glass plate was lost. That is why I have replaced the thin glass plate with a nice carbon plate and it looks like this at the moment:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We installed magnetic spring steel / PEI (Buildtak) sheets from PrintedSolid a while ago.  

Lately we have great difficulties with Tough PLA sticking to the PEI.  After a few failures we went back to glass.

 

[mkaj2019 41]

I have also a spring steel sheet from Buildtak. I use it with a Magigoo PA Stick for my Nylon Parts. This works like a charm. The glass plate is completely damaged because of my nylon prints. The parts stuck so well that I ripped big glass chunks out of the surface. 

With the plain spring steel sheet (no PEI Surface) from Buildtak it is extremely easy to remove the Nylon parts now.

 

BTW, I have also purchased a structured PEI coated spring steel from Energetic on Aliexpress (similar to PRUSA). They are great people and also build custom size sheets for you. The bottom side is also coated with PEI but with a smooth surface.

 

I send them a small sketch over chat and arranged the payment and a few weeks later I received the spring steel sheet for my S5.It costed me 30 bucks. A magnetic pad with 3M Adhesive tape was included, which I did not need. Compared to Buildtak the price is still great. 

 

 

Edited November 23, 2020 by mkaj2019

[Smithy 1,144]

Very cool, I was always looking for such a solution because it gives a nice surface finish.