Best CoreXY Designs on Thingiverse

This article has been updated with the newest info on Best CoreXY 3D Printers 2022.

While there are many open source 3d printer designs to pick from on Thingiverse. And when it comes to corexy printer designs there are a few that raise the bar. Here are some of the best corexy designs on Thingiverse.

What To Look For In a CoreXY Design

When you think about a good machine build you have to consider a few things. How developed is the design? Many common designs will have:

• Contributors designing fixes, mods and other spun off remixes.
• How many mods are there that could allow you to modify your printer for custom applications
• Is there a user group that you use as a resource to troubleshoot or upgrade and update your build. While there are many resources to draw upon User groups will keep you in the circle of news, updates and creative solutions.

HyperCube Evolution CoreXY

The Hypercube Evolution is one of the main Core-XY designs you’ll find on Thingiverse. The User groups are huge and active. There are a number of mods and add-ons that allow you to upgrade your printer.

The HyperCube Evolution also known as H.E.V.O is a CoreXY printer designed by Scott 3D and inspired by the original HyperCube 3D Printer by Tech2C. Scott liked the belt arrangement on the Hypercube compared to other core-xy 3d printers and designed his own remix to further develop the corexy design to reduce the number of printed parts and simplify the build.

Design goals for the HyperCube Evolution 3D Printer:

1. Increase the stiffness of the printer to further improve / reduce vibration artefacts.
   • 3030 extrusion used for the frame
   • 2020 extrusion used for the build platform frame
   • 8mm diameter X rails
   • 10mm diameter Y rails
   • 12mm diameter Z rails
2. Minimise the size of the printer for the chosen build volume.
   • Parametric CAD design in Autodesk Inventor
   • Excel spreadsheet provided to allow for customised printer size

The prototype printer, with a build volume of 300 x 300 x 300, met with all expectation but did show some small bed vibrations when printing at high speed due to the large bed and counter levered design. Therefore, two build options are available. Hypercube On Thingiverse

D-Bot CoxeXY

Another common design that follows the HyperCube Evolution’s stats is the D-Bot. This is a more heavy duty design even uses 20mmx40mm extrusions. It’s a elegant mechanical configuration that also has a large active community of users who love to update and upgrade their Reprap build. The Dbot design is a spin off of the C-Bot. They’re very similar but the differences are:

1) Z-Axis lead screws and motors are repositioned to the front to aid lifting the print bed from its center of gravity rather than use a fully cantilevered print bed.
2) Increased printable Z height to 330mm (~13″)
3) 20mm rails
4) Reinforced printed parts to add rigidity where needed or to minimize plastic.
5) Spool holder a cable chain accessories.
6) Relocated endstop mounting to maximize Y travel and utilize default homing scheme.
7) Overall reduction in cost compared to the original bill of materials

C-Bot 3D Printer Design

The C-Bot is a core XY printer design that utilizes open builds V-Slot rails.
It was designed by Carl Feniak with a couple goals in mind:

• To eliminate use of linear rod/bearings and I use V-slot for all guided motion
• To use two offset parallel belt runs instead of crossing belts as found in most core XY printers
• To run the belts through the extrusion when possible for a cleaner end product
• Make the entire setup easily modifiable and adaptable so others can use it for alternate bed sizes

Railcore CoreXY 3D Printer

Next let’s look at the Railcore design. Developed by J. Steve White & Tony Akens of RailCore Labs and produced by Project R3D. This core xy design has some kick. Although this a new open source build has a strong and active community. It is a well thought out design that has verity of CNC machined upgrades to pimp your printer. The prints that are made from the machine are absolutely beautiful. This 3d printer build is most commonly found using the Duet Wifi to power the system. The print quality is spectacular with it’s high precision 0.9 degree steppers. The pros of the Railcore corexy are:

• Linear Rails on X,Y and Z-axis
• Enclosure
• 15mm extrusions to reduce the price of BOM
• CNC machined upgrade parts
• Space & Cost efficient
• Flexibility and scalabiltiy in the design

The Railcore 3d printer’s ecosystem of parts also include a variety of CNC machined aluminum parts that can be found by 713Maker and Mandala Rose Works that can make your printer look like a hotrod.

forkLIFT CoreXY 3D Printer Design on Thingiverse

The forkLIFT was designed and published on Thingiverse by brunofporto and Token47. The design concept is:

• Be a platform for multi-tool development
• Easy to print – no supports needed! No aggressive overhangs or bridges!
• Components designed as best as possible to avoid fatigue and weakness due to layer adhesion.
• The parts should be resilient to common printing errors like too smashed first layers, etc. If not net me know!
• All motors outside the printer chamber! This render a free access from the front and no issues with chamber heating the motors.
• Belt tension at motor mounts. Easy to adjust and not prone to loose adjustment due to vibration.
• Very versatile X carriage! Just swap the “Plates 42” to whatever you want, from your legacy printer head to lasers! Also designed with tool changing in mind.
• Maintainability! All axis, bearings, etc. removable without touching the belts! All screws accessible.
• Easy to close the printer as components have a good clearance from the outer plane of the frame. Even with 3030R extrusions!
• Simple Z alignment: integrated parts!
• Good looking! (This is open to debate 😀 )

Vulcanus

The Vulcanus printer created by Thingiverse User Vulca man is a simple but elegant corexy design that doesn’t get as much attention as it should. The open-source Reprap machine has a 400mm x 400mm build area and a handful of remixed version that are just as nice as the original. The motor mounts and idlers are placed within the bounding box of the frame which makes it easier to install an enclosure unlike other core-xy designs.

The Vulcanus MGN12 linear rail upgrade was a remix by Thingiverse user MacNite. The remix is re-design that uses MGN12 linear rails instead of the typical smooth rods. MacNite had some problems with the x-axis carriage rubbing on the enclouser and had some MGN12 rails laying around so he redesigned the reprap. His design uses the z-stage and frame of the original Vulcanus V1 but the x-y-stage now runs on MGN12 rails. He also made the hotend mount fit the E3D V6 and Titan extruder along with an auto bed leveling probe.

HyperCube Upgrades

HyperCube Parking Etruders

Thingiverse user MCabra wanted to experiment with multi material designs and after many failures ended up his Hypercube parking extruder design that can quickly change between an 0.6 and 0.4 nozzle. Inspired by similar designs on the Internet he worked out the geometry and details on Onshape.

“With this design you can add as many print heads as your board supports” – Mcabra

Mcabra’s Slic3r Settings and G-Code ScriptStart Gcode

G21 ;metric values
G90 ;absolute positioning
M107 ;start with the fan off

M140 S[first_layer_bed_temperature] ; set bed temp
G28 W ; home all without mesh bed level
M104 S[first_layer_temperature[current_extruder]] T[current_extruder] ; set extruder temp
M190 S[first_layer_bed_temperature] ; wait for bed temp

G29 ; auto bed leveling

M913 E0 0
M906 T0 E1000
M913 E1 0
M906 T1 E1000

T[current_extruder]
{if current_extruder == 0}
G0 X122 Y0 F5000 ; move close to T0
G0 Y-40 ; catch T0
M109 S[first_layer_temperature[current_extruder]] T[current_extruder] ; wait for extruder temp
G0 X90 ; slide T0 off the hook
G0 Y0 ; move back to print area
{endif}
{if current_extruder == 1}
G0 X235 Y0 F5000 ; move close to T1
G0 Y-40 ; catch T1
M109 S[first_layer_temperature[current_extruder]] T[current_extruder] ; wait for extruder temp
G0 X205 ; slide T1 off the hook
G0 Y0 ; move back to print area
M290 P0 Z0.25 ; fine tune second extruder height
{endif}

G92 E0 ;zero the extruded length
G1 F9000

M117 Printing... ; Put printing message on LCD screen

Tool change Gcode

; Tool Change to [next_extruder] start
G91 ; relative mode
G1 Z1 ; drop bed for tool change
G90 ; absolute mode
G1 E-1 ; retract
G92 E0

{if next_extruder == 0}
T0
G0 X205 Y0 F5000 ; move close to T1
G0 Y-40 ; move closer
G92 E0 
G1 X235 E4 ; park T1
G92 E0
G0 Y0 F3000 ; unhook T1
G0 X122 Y0 F5000 ; move close to T0
G0 Y-40 ; catch T0
G0 X90 ; slide T0 off the hook
G0 Y0 ; move back to print area
M290 P0 Z-0.25 ; fine tune first extruder height
{elif next_extruder == 1}
T1
G0 X90 Y0 F5000; move close to T0
G0 Y-40 ; move closer
G92 E0 
G1 X122 E4 ; park T0
G92 E0
G0 Y0 F3000 ; unhook T0
G0 X235 Y0 F5000 ; move close to T1
G0 Y-40 ; catch T1
G0 X205 ; slide T1 off the hook
G0 Y0 ; move back to print area
M290 P0 Z0.25 ; fine tune second extruder height
{endif}

G91 ; relative mode
G1 Z-1 ; raise bed back to position
G90 ; absolute mode
; Tool Change to [next_extruder] end;

End Gcode

M104 S0 T0 ; extruder heater off
M104 S0 T1 ; extruder heater off
M140 S0 ; heated bed heater off (if you have it)

G91 ;relative positioning
G1 E-1 F300  ;retract the filament a bit before lifting the nozzle, to release some of the pressure
G1 Z+0.5 E-2 X-20 Y-20 F9000 ;move Z up a bit and retract filament even more
G90 ;absolute positioning

{if current_extruder == 0}
G0 X90 Y0 F5000; move close to T0
G0 Y-40 ; move closer
G92 E0 
G1 X122 E4 ; park T0
G92 E0
G0 Y0 F3000 ; unhook T0
{endif}
{if current_extruder == 1}
G0 X205 Y0 F5000 ; move close to T1
G0 Y-40 ; move closer
G92 E0 
G1 X235 E4 ; park T1
G92 E0
G0 Y0 F3000 ; unhook T1
{endif}

M84 ;steppers off

SolidCore CoreXY

Also check out our newest 3d printer project on Thingiverse. It’s still a work in progress but we decided to go ahead and publish the file we had so our friends could use them. Here

CoreXY Kits & 3D Printer Parts