20 Tooth X/Y Drive Roller S2M20

My ultra cheap CR-10 clone printer, marketed as "CTC A10S", came with nylon driver rollers on both the X and Y stepper motors. The Y axis roller was actually glued solid on to the motor shaft, however, the X axis roller was so sloppy, it made my first test prints 8x9mm oval, when they should have been 9x9 round.

The nylon rollers that came installed on those two steppers had only a tiny area of flat to hold against the flat of the shaft. Out of the box, my X axis was hosed. My first thought was to order a pair of aluminum drive rollers, which I did, from China, but they were going to take a few weeks to arrive. I wanted to use my printer right away, so I wedged a small sliver of paper under the loose roller and modeled these to be printed right away.

I used these printed rollers for nearly 3 weeks. My printer operated flawlessly the entire time. The aluminum rollers arrived a few days ago and I installed them immediately. There is no improvement in quality where my prints are concerned, but as for durability, I can only assume aluminum is better than plastic.

Both X and Y printed rollers were still snugly on the motor shafts when I removed them, and there was no visible wear on the teeth, so I call these printed rollers a win!

I was almost tempted to see just how long the printed rollers would hold up under heavy use, just not tempted enough not to put proper rollers in place once I had them. :)

The correct 20 tooth roller for these stepper motors is called "S2M20". I modeled my version as closely to the original nylon rollers as I could. They measured 16mm on the outer diameter, roughly 12mm for the tooth diameter, and had a 5mm shaft bore with one flat.

Not all of the CR-10 clones are as cheaply made as mine, so they won't all have nylon drive rollers, but if you have any printer that needs a 20 tooth drive roller and uses stepper motors with 5mm shafts, these might be of use to you.

I hope somebody can benefit from these as much as I did.

UPDATE: I have a 2 piece updated version of this roller available at: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4561125

The updated roller prints in 2 pieces, eliminating overhang, which allows it to print much better vertically at higher resolutions.

Category: 3D Printer Parts