Sovol SV06 extruder mount for Anet A8 and Anet A8 Plus 3D Printers

My Anet A8 Plus has seen so many upgrades in recent weeks that I'm at a bit of a loss as to how I should go about publishing these modifications.  In an attempt to post these things in a way that will make sense to anyone interested using these parts, I decided to first post the carriage I designed for a classic Anet A8 that is still using the 8mm linear rods and bearings on both the X and Z axis's.

My classic Anet A8 is in the garage awaiting a steel frame upgrade, so I'm using my A8 Plus as a test bed for these upgrades.  The photo's I'm posting with this design are of my A8 Plus that is now using 10mm linear rods and bearings, but this 8mm version of this design will install on either the A8 or A8 Plus in their native states.  Note however, that the belt connector design I incorporated into this carriage is for the classic Anet A8 and as such, the direction of travel on the X axis for an A8 Plus will need to be reversed as the A8 Plus's factory design intends that the X axis belt be connected to the top at the carriage, rather than the bottom, as is the case for the classic A8.  Since you'll most likely have to rebuild firmware anyways to accommodate the new hotends location relative to the bed, simply reverse the direction of travel for the X axis in “configuration.h” for Marlin.  I'm unsure where you would make this change if you're using Klipper firmware.

My initial thoughts on installing a SV06 extruder on my Anets was that I'd orient the Sovol extruder in the same fashion Anet installed their extruders into the steel carriage.  When I had the SV06 extruder in my hand, I could see clearly how the filament release lever was not going to work within that confined space, so I started experimenting with carriage designs that would orient the SV06 extruder as it is on the SV06.

I wanted to continue using Juh's “Anet A8 Lightweight and Unobtrusive X-axis Cable chain” design, so included cutouts for the M4 nuts to be dropped in the top of the carriage for attaching Juh's carriage mount and my remixed “Double Wide” fence.  I only included nut cutouts for the top.  Having incorporated the bearing carriers into the carriage, the lower nut hole for Juh's carriage mount is no-longer accessible, so I left that bottom hole round, which will allow for a 4mm screw to be directly threaded into the plastic to hold Juh's mount firmly in place.

Since I much prefer touch type sensors over inductive sensors for bed leveling, and because I'm using the screw holes on the right side of the extruder for attaching it to this mount design, I put the BLTouch mount on the left hand side.  When I made my measurements for my first prototype of this design, I ended up placing the touch mount for a 0 Z offset, and figured I'd change that with the final design.  I was going to raise the touch mount by 1mm, and decided against it for this reason:  I'm using a Creality style MK8 heat block with the 3mm screw holes, a short Sovol SV05 bi-metal heat brake, and a brass MK8 nozzle.  All three of those parts will be taller if you're using a Sovol hotend.  I decided to leave the design as it was since most people who will use this design are likely to use it with a Sovol hotend, requiring a negative integer to be plugged in for the Z offset.  While on the subject of hotends, the Creality MK8 heatblock with 3mm mounting holes for attaching it to the heatsync is NOT perfectly alligned with the screw holes for attaching it to the extruder, however, the Sovol extruder screw holes are 2.5mm, so the slight difference in hole location falls with the 1/2mm discrepancy.  In any case, you'll need two 2.5mm X 10mm socket head screws for attaching the heatblock to the Sovol extruder.

The part cooling fan duct and mount I've included here is Sovol's design for the standard SV06.  If you intend to use Sovol's SV06 Plus hotend, you'll have to get or make a duct that will work with the tall heatblock.

This design is still a work in progress, and by that I mean, I need to come back and add printing and installation instructions soon.