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Ok, so I am in the midst of upgrading my 2015 model to 9mm gt3 belts and 269oz steppers. Both y-axes are done and z is done (swapped with a ball-screw model). I am trying to remove and replace the 2 idlers inside the x-carriage box. I managed to get one idler mostly loosened by turning the screw on the back while sticking a flat screwdriver through the holes on the front face and pinning the nut to try and turn against it, but the last bit is actually hard and I can’t imagine this works for tightening it to the tightness necessary to take advantage of the new motors and belts. How could one get any sort of wrench in there? If the hole across from the nuts was larger I count stick an 8mm nut-driver in but the holes aren’t even aligned.
Thoughts? @NeilFerreri1? You always have good ideas for these kinds of things.
Oh, haha. You have encyclopedic knowledge about it… I certainly can get it off the slide (I recently replaced the entire maker-slide, from the horrible 2-slide 2025 system to the much stiffer newer single extrusion.
You can’t take the box apart (it is a single extrusion). I even have a spare one (I got one extra when I upgraded the x-axis extrusion since I wasn’t sure the original box was the exact same (hint: it was)
I did in fact read the directions (I mean it’s been 5 years since I assembled it). The challenge I had was the nuts are sunk inside the hub of the idler wheel, so they are not proud of the surface so no way for a regular wrench to get to the nut… I tried a regular 8mm socket but while I could get the socket inside no way the ratchet was getting in there! I suppose I could 3D print an 8mm fixed right angle socket wrench since the wrench doesn’t need to move, just hold the nut). The good news is those nylock nuts hold really well!
Not sure why the opposite side didn’t have holes for a nut driver (would make this so easy). Not that I couldn’t mill some on my spare x-carriage extrusion! Maybe I do have to remove the carriage from the slide (was trying to avoid that if possible obviously)
