Icarus 2 - QIDI X-Max / X-Plus / I-Mate / X-Maker Carriage (Orbiter, Sherpa Mini, LGX Lite)

Support

All my designs and mods on Printables are free to use and remix. They have a non-commercial license. If you enjoy this or any of my other designs you can send me a small donation using the link below. Thanks :)

https://www.paypal.me/humebeamengineering

Update June 6, 2023

A few more carriages for the optional LMUW8 bearings were added. These you can find in the icarus-2-current.zip under the special bearings for 8 mm rod printers folder. Both versions with and without dial holders are available.

Update July 5, 2022

The Icarus fan duct has been updated to version 2.3 with optimized airflow from each outlet, the rear outlet has been removed as well as it caused to much bias from that direction.

Although both the previous version (2.2) and the current one (2.3) do a great job with unsupported overhangs up to around 70 degrees, I've found that with the new version shows an improvement over the previous version in most test prints and it is more versatile.

Here is the new 2.3 printed in Prusament PC-CF:

Comparing a Benchy printed in standard print direction (left 2.2, right 2.3) you can see a clear improvement to the bow where the earlier lacked sufficient cooling at 60 mm/s print speed with my particular brand of PLA. The same gcode is printed with both ducts.

Update June 6, 2022

Icarus 2.1 is here! It's the first update of the series and a fairly big one as it allows for much cheaper builds, here's what's new:

- Support for BMG extruder - Support for V6 hotend - Support for Rapido K500 HF hotend - Support for LMUW10 and LMUW8 bearings (see alternative-carriages in zip) - Ribbon cable holder turned and strengthened. This is mostly for printers with a coupler on the Y motor that interferes with the ribbon cable as the printer homes. For those wanting to upgrade but don't want to reprint the whole carriage a remix will be uploaded shortly. - Cutout for easier inserting the front mount heated insert. - Minor aesthetical fixes. - Print files hosted externally. The new mounts are also compatible with Icarus 2.0.

About

Icarus 2 is a strong, lightweight and dimensionally accurate one-piece carriage for the QIDI X-Max, X-Plus and I-Mate (and I-Mate S) that was designed focusing on strength and ease of maintenance while keeping it very lightweight.

Icarus 2 is based on my popular Icarus 1.x mod but with a number of key improvements:

- A universal carriage for all supported printers, regardless of extruder and hotend. Instead, you print a mount for your chosen extruder and hotend that install with just four screws meaning you can quickly swap to another extruder and hotend while still using the same carriage, improved maintenance. - Hotend fan upgraded from 4010 to 4020 - improved cooling performance and lower noise level (4010 fan is still supported with optional printed distances). - The belt teeth are now on the belt peg and tensioner instead of the actual carriage. - Proper belt tensioner for both open and closed (stock) belts. For the stock belt the tensioner is optional but recommended, you can attach the belt peg alone if you like. - Support for the new wider Qidi PCB supplied with some printers. - Increased blower fan stability. The whole carriage is very light and only around 70 g depending on infill and filament type used and the extruder and hotend are easily accessible without removing any other parts. Once the carriage is installed, there is no play between the bearings and the carriage.

Using one of the supported extruders makes the Icarus printhead very capable and lightweight. This allows for higher print speeds as there is less mass to move around when printing and it will also print flexible filament with ease.

This means the Icarus printhead is about 250g lighter than stock .

Supported Extruders

- Orbiter 1.5 - Orbiter 2.0 - Sherpa Mini R1 - Sherpa Micro R1 - LGX Lite - BMG Supported Hotends

- Dragon - Dragonfly (both BMO and BMS) - Mosquito (and clones) - V6 (and other hotends with V6 groove mount) - Rapido HF K500 You can use any combination of the above, just print the appropriate mount.

Why?

I have earlier developed the Hercules mod. While print quality with Hercules is just as good as this, the BMG extruder and the V6 groove mount are not ideal for flexible filaments. This design uses a rigid mount and has a much shorter filament path from the extruder to the hotend.

I also wanted to offer a truly lightweight option which this is.

What to print:

Print these files from your extracted zip file:

icarus-carriages/icarus-2.1-normal.stl belt-pegs/icarus-belt-peg.stl belt-pegs/icarus-belt-tensioner.stl fan-ducts/icarus-fan-duct-2.5.stl

You can also print the optional dial holder if you're going to use one. Also, print the mount for the extruder and hotend you have chosen as well as its corresponding PTFE cutting jig. For example:

mounts/mount-sherpa-mini-r1-dragon-2.1.stl ptfe-cutting-jigs/sherpa-mini-r1-dragon-and-mosquito-ptfe-cutting-jig-14.70mm

The PTFE cutting jig is for a short piece of PTFE tube used between the extruder and the hotend in the cold zone where it does not deform from heat, it's required to lead the filament to the top of the hotend. Dragon and Mosquito use the same length of PTFE tube which is why they share jig.

BOM - Bill of Materials

I buy most of my 3D printer parts from quality stores on AliExpress. Shipping takes a while from China but quality is excellent and the prices are good. I might add more stores to the BOM later but it's a lot of work keeping it updated and current so I will try to keep it short.

If the links do not work disable your adblocker or use a VPN.

1. Extruder (pick one)

All of the supported extruders below are low weight with dual gears and are excellent for flexible filament out of the box (excluding the BMG, not very good for TPU).

Use whichever you like and fit your budget.

Orbiter 1.5 Extruder (genuine)

Orbiter 2.0 Extruder (genuine)

Sherpa Mini R1 Extruder (genuine)