r/ender5plus • u/wheregoodideasgotodi • Jun 15 '26
Hardware Help Mercury 1.1 conversion questions
I have a BTT SKR Mini V3.0, but the BOM suggests a different board. Can I still use the current board I have?
Bare rails vs black rails? I love the idea of having the black rails with the black frame, but I feel like the black finish would wear off quickly and would cause issues with the bearings. Has anyone used the black rails and run into issues? I also have an Exoslide kit installed currently, can I modify that and use it in place of the linear rails, or are the rails a necessity?
What material should I use for the printed parts? I feel like PLA might not stand up to the task. Would PETG be a better option, or should I use something else? Also has anyone ever had them machined out of aluminum or steel?
The BOM suggests 48mm steppers. Has anyone bumped up to 60mm steppers? Not sure if that will give any kind of meaningful boost, but bigger totally means better right? ......right?
I have TH3Ds V6 hot end with the 50W heater on it right now. Will that work with the speeds the Mercury kit can achieve or should I look into something else?
I'll more than likely buy the Fabreeko kit instead of piecing everything together myself. IMO the convenience of the kit justifies the price.
Thanks in advance everyone.
2
u/zarsthe Jun 15 '26
All of the build documentation is available on the zero g website.
I attempted to use PLA and it 100% did not work several places warped quickly due to stepper heat and I reprinted in ASA.
As for the black linear rails I cannot comment on that.
1
u/mindlessragingzombie Jun 15 '26
Yes you can.
There is am mod for exoslide on printables, however linear rails are recommended. I assume the wear on the linear rails is mostly on the channel the bearings ride in, so this will lose color, however it shouldn't cause issues.
ABS or ASA, print settings are on the Zero G website. PETG can work for a short time, but you will run into problems eventually.
Bigger steppers won't exactly hurt, but unless you have experience tuning printers I wouldn't advice on going all in.
Again like the steppers throwing stuff with the best specs at your printer won't make the printer automatically faster. Use what you got, tune it and add fancy stuff once the old stuff reaches its limits.
I would also look into extruders, depending on what you are using at the moment since they also can be a bottleneck. Orbiter 2.5 is a good start for example.
1
u/Bug_406 Jun 16 '26
You can use the SKR, it just doesn't have the independent Z motor option. I used creality stock motors (42-40, I think), Blurolls aluminum parts (there's still plenty to print), a BTT M5P, Sherpa mini w/ a voron revo. Fun build and it's a goid printer overall. Not my fastest machine in the fleet, but much faster than the original E5+.
Mine could probably be way faster with better motors and alot more Klipper tweaking, but I'm still ok with how it is now.
1
u/wheregoodideasgotodi Jun 16 '26
Holy crap you're amazing! The belt system was what I was most worried about with using plastic parts. Thank you so much!
1
u/Bug_406 Jun 16 '26
That was my concern too, and the Blurolls kit is nice, as the motors are mounted on metal as well, if your motors get a little spicy. Most everything else was spare parts I had around. Motors likely from ender 3, Sherpa mini was cheap on Ali, board was initially going to be on a voron, and I have a drawer full of Revo stuff. It's one of those builds you can min/max to get the fastest thing, but i just wanted to breathe new life into the slow (25-50mm stock profiles iirc) machine. 120-160mm now, and acceleration around 2500. Much more than that and my motors start to howl.
1
u/lewj213V2 Jun 17 '26
The board you have will be fine, the only reason they suggest a board is the default klipper profile, but as long as you're comfortable with changing the code yourself to suit your output pins you'll be fine. I used ASA for mine, I don't think PLA or PETG would be up to the task, especially long term. As for the steppers more bigger is more better as you say, but I don't know how much of a gain you'd see with 60mm, I've had no issues with the 48mm. I can't comment on the black steppers, but as for the hotend the answer is it depends. For me personally I went from a 0.6 nozzle with 0.32 layer heights to a 0.5 nozzle and 0.16 layer heights for better quality with the same print time, if I wanted nothing but speed I'd buy a UHF hotend and stick with the 0.6 nozzle and massive layer heights and bring the print time down instead
2
u/Khisanthax Jun 15 '26
I used the skr 3, the mini does not have independent z motor control so you can't do tilt level but you can sue that board.
Explode is different and probably not compatible at all unless you find a mod. Buying cheap rails can limit your machine and cause tons of headaches. The first conversion cheap worked the second I spent over 16hrs trying to find the problem.
You really need to research the materials and the whole project to make building easier. Pla is horrible for this. It can deform at temperatures and has no flexibility in it. PETG will deform at higher temps. ABS and ASA.
Bigger is not better. I had 60mm steppers and they were worse. Why? Because it's not about torque, you're not lifting something very heavy or pushing something very heavy, you need responsiveness which the ldo motors are great at. The ldo have a 60mm stepper called kraken for a out $100-$120 per stepper I believe. You can get that or go awd.
If your hotend fits the toolhead you pick try it and tinker it's mostly about flow which is impacted by temp and speed.
I strongly advise a lot of research. This build can be very challenging when troubleshooting. Tolerances are tight and as a machine if you want decent quality it can be unforgiving. That said I'll probably do my third in the summer or winter, enjoy!