{"id":405,"date":"2016-08-31T15:56:42","date_gmt":"2016-08-31T15:56:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tgaw.com\/wp\/?p=405"},"modified":"2016-08-31T15:56:42","modified_gmt":"2016-08-31T15:56:42","slug":"z-endstop-hack-for-the-makergear-m2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tgaw.com\/wp\/z-endstop-hack-for-the-makergear-m2\/","title":{"rendered":"Z Endstop Hack for the MakerGear M2"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/A_k37IHoIbM\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>As some background information, the way the MakerGear M2 Homes its Z axis is it has a bolt on the platform that raises and lowers your bed.<\/p>\n<p>Above it, just beneath the X-axis rail, is a switch that triggers when there is contact.<\/p>\n<p>When the printer is homing its Z axis, it raises the bed until the bolt triggers that switch.  At that point, the printer considers itself a Z-Home.<\/p>\n<p>MakerGear has some great videos for the maintenance and setup of your machine, including <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=j0Cz6jPPECM\" target=\"_blank\">how to do your Z Endstop calibration<\/a>!  Basically you raise your bed until a business card can just fit under the nozzle and then you raise the bolt to ensure it trips the switch at that exact height.<\/p>\n<p>Disclaimer&#8211; I love my MakerGear M2 profusely and I will continue to love it profusely.  That said, I find the bolt awkward and tough to raise.<\/p>\n<p>One day I needed to update my Z Endstop application and I struggled getting that bolt to do my bidding.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;If only&#8230;if only I had something to stick on top of this bolt to make it taller.&#8221; I thought.<\/p>\n<p>It turns out I did have something, something that was already a part of my 3D Printing arsensal&#8211; Painter&#8217;s Tape!<\/p>\n<p>I cut out little squares of painters tape, made a tower, put it on top of my bolt.  I fine tuned the tower&#8217;s height until my nozzle was a business card height above my bed.  BAM!  ZEndstop calibration!<\/p>\n<p>Honestly, I never expected this solution to have the staying power it has, but I continue to use it to this day!  I was worried about the repeatability of the Z-Home, that there would be variances in run to run in how the painter&#8217;s tape compresses, but it has proven to be consistent and reliable.  I have also been shocked (SHOCKED) that it weathers travel well.<\/p>\n<p>I have found this painter&#8217;s tape hack to help speed up my process of switching nozzles.  When I switch to my 0.5mm nozzle for woodFill, I just have to add or remove squares of painter&#8217;s tape and I am ready to print.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Not For You?<\/strong><br \/>\nIf my painter&#8217;s tape hack is not for you, there are other options in calibration your Z Endstop for the MakerGear M2.  <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=j0Cz6jPPECM\" target=\"_blank\">This video by MakerGear<\/a> shows you how to do it the &#8220;right&#8221; way.  In addition, you can <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thingiverse.com\/thing:933094\" target=\"_blank\">print a tool to make that bolt adjustment less awkward<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As some background information, the way the MakerGear M2 Homes its Z axis is it has a bolt on the platform that raises and lowers your bed. Above it, just beneath the X-axis rail, is a switch that triggers when there is contact. When the printer is homing its Z axis, it raises the bed &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/tgaw.com\/wp\/z-endstop-hack-for-the-makergear-m2\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Z Endstop Hack for the MakerGear M2<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[128,132,133],"class_list":["post-405","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-3d-printing","tag-makergear-m2","tag-z-endstop","tag-z-home"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tgaw.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tgaw.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tgaw.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tgaw.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tgaw.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=405"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/tgaw.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":407,"href":"https:\/\/tgaw.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405\/revisions\/407"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tgaw.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=405"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tgaw.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=405"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tgaw.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=405"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}