Lift Gate LED Lighting Fixture for Creality CR-10 & Ender 3 3D Printers

I always had a plan to add better lighting to my Creality CR-10 and Ender 3 3D printers. Unfortunately, after I moved my office, all of my plans were in shambles. I had bought a couple of inexpensive LED light bars meant for under cabinet lighting that I wanted to use for the lighting arrangement.

In this IBLE, I'll show you my idea of a "Lift-Gate" style, LED light bar mounting arrangement that works with the Creality CR-10 and Ender 3 family of 3D printers.

You can watch my YouTube video here on the steps I went through to test my idea and put it together.

Let's set up some lighting ...

I wasn't sure if there was something that was readily available for the type of light bars I had. Therefore, I decided to quickly bring my design idea to life in Fusion 360 Personal with the following design criteria in mind:

The lighting fixture must not be a monolith - meaning, the part attached to the body of the printer must be detachable from the one that attaches to the LED light bar

Why?

• If I want to change out the light bar to something else, then I won't have to change the part that attaches to the 3D printer
• I wanted a generic bracket that could mount to any 3D printer that was built out of a 20 mm x 20 mm T-channeled Aluminium profile with the help of a standard T-Nut

It must be simple to mount - no fancy knobs, just normal, off the shelf nuts and bolts, and no modifications to the 3D printer of any sort!

Generic - meaning, if I wanted to use it for a different shaped LED lamp (such as a round one), I must be be able to do so using just one bracket, two or more if the LED light bar requires support in the middle in addition to both ends

Reversible - if I needed to provide lighting to the back of the printer, then I must be able to reverse the entire set up and mount the lighting arrangement for the rear part of the printer bed

Finally, I wanted to have a "Lift-Gate" functionality, which we'll get to in the end.

Andy make sure to watch my video!

The obvious 3D printers aside, here are the parts that I've used for my set up:

1. 4 Pairs of M5 Philips head or Hex Head Bolts at least 20 mm long and matching nuts
2. Two Slim M5 T-Nuts for 20x20 European Aluminum Extrusions available here
3. A FYD-1611 USB powered LED light bar similar to this one that comes with a couple of mounting clips
4. Two #4 1/2-inch standard wood screws available from Harbor Freight (Brass plated ones shown here) or your local hardware stores - these will be used to attach the clips to the 3D printed bracket
5. A Micro-USB cable and a way to connect it to power your LED light bar
6. The STL files attached to this IBLE on the last page

You can watch my YouTube video on this project for more details.

The two images above shows the general idea of how the bracket mounts to the top horizontal member of the CR-10 or the Ender 3.

The main bracket is held on to the printer frame with a T-nut and an M5 bolt.

If you have shorter 15 mm M5 bolts, you can dispense with the spacer shown in the assembly. I have 30 mm bolts , and therefore used the extra spacer to accommodate the longer bolt.

An M5 nut is pressed into the Hexagonal recess in the side of the bracket - makes it easier to mount the LED fixture to this bracket later in the assembly.

The End results speak for themselves, but i want to elaborate on the Lift-Gate function.

The way my work area is set up, I'm surely bound to bump into the overhanging LED fixture and knock it off it's composure.

Besides, my CR-10 is set up closer to the ground - and I don't want to bump into the fixture as I bend down or get up while dismounting a completed print.

Therefore, I wanted a simple way of moving it out of the way, by "lifting" it out of its natural position.

The last picture shows LED light bar raised out of the way when not in use .

This arrangement has other advantages - if I want to use the LED for additional lighting in the general vicinity, I could sure use it in the lifted position!

The STL files have been attached for you to download and print.

This should be super simple and even beginners with a CR-10 or an Ender 3 can set it up without much of a hassle!

As seen here, this lighting is definitely a lot of help when monitoring my prints via the Octo Pi Webcam!

Thanks for reading my IBLE and don't forget to watch my YouTube video!

Cheers!

NOTE:

Only one set of STL files have been attached. Remember to print a second set by using the Reverse Part Functionality in your 3D slicer!

This way you can print mirror opposites of the parts attached to generate a pair of brackets on each end.