The primary purpose of this attachment onto the Printrbot Simple 1401 model is to increase the overall height of the printer such that the electronics can be integrated under the body of the printer, and to increase the stability of the printer.

Having modified my printer in the X & Y axis from the initial fishing string Dremmel sanding attachment drive to the GT2 belt with Jon Lawrence's conversion, and extending the Z axis height, I noticed stability issues with the printer. Whenever the printer was in the homed X-axis position, the printer would want to tilt over rightwards (in terms of the front plane) due to the extra height and to the right-heavy design of the whole Y drive system and the extruder.

As a solution to the issue of electronics integration and stabilization, I devised a method to add "shoe"-like pieces to the bottom of the printer that would slide on the balsa at the base. Although it would raise the center of gravity of the whole printer, the fix would aid in increasing the stability by widening the effective footprint of the base.

Below, shows the variations of the printer with, without, and the first iteration of the design for this set of problems.

Doesn't Matter

No

Print settings:
Modified Printrbot Simple 1401
Neon Green PLA
Repetier Host V1.5.6
Slic3r settings:
-0.28mm layer height
-30% infill
-50mm/s perimeter speed
-8mm/s small perimeters
-47% external perimeters
-75mm/s infill
-17mm/s solid infill
-12mm/s top solid infill
-60mm/s support material
-100% support material interface (default)
-60mm/s bridges
-15mm/s gap fill
-1st layer temperature: 200C
-Rest layer tempertaure: 195C

Although by no means is this a complex part to make, it has greatly improved the stability of the printer, and made it possible to integrate the electronics into the bottom of the printer, like that of it's bigger brother model, the Printrbot Simple 1405. Further work may be necessary to ensure an ideal fit of the electronics which may require a even higher lift.