Polished vs. non-polished rods?

What's the functional difference? Does it affect the quality of the printed parts, or just the speed?

How can one acquire chromed polished rods on their own (outside of kits)?

My local hardware store just has standard non-polished metal rods.

I don't think polished rods are necessary.

It's more a matter of standard rods wearing out pretty quickly. And I guess having chromed ones makes things worse, because this chrome, especially cheap chrome platings, will peel off after some time.

The cheapest solution are plain steel rods. Medium quality are "silver steel": [www.maedler.de] . Best choice without getting custom made ones are ones made of hardened steel: [www.maedler.de]

All the above is for usage with ball bearings, linear or axial. With bushings, the situation is a lot more relaxed, Igus even recommends aluminium rods: [www.igus.de]

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Generation 7 Electronics	Teacup Firmware	RepRap DIY

You can also find polished rods in printers. Broken ones are easy to get for free. I went through about a dozen printers and got a bunch of good rods ranging from 6mm - 12mm I now have enough for like 3-4 printers. Plus you can find gears, limit switches and all kinds of good parts. It takes a little time but its well worth it for quality rods.

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Thanks, these are helpful responses.



Traumflug Wrote:
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> The cheapest solution are plain steel rods. Medium
> quality are "silver steel":
> [www.maedler.de]
> rstahl-din-175-geschliffen-und-poliert . Best
> choice without getting custom made ones are ones
> made of hardened steel:
> [www.maedler.de]
> sions-wellenstahl-werkstoff-cf53-gehaertet-und-ges
> chliffen

Do you happen to know of a supplier in the US as well?



REPRAP SQUAD Wrote:
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> You can also find polished rods in printers.
> Broken ones are easy to get for free. I went
> through about a dozen printers and got a bunch of
> good rods ranging from 6mm - 12mm I now have
> enough for like 3-4 printers. Plus you can find
> gears, limit switches and all kinds of good parts.
> It takes a little time but its well worth it for
> quality rods.

How long were the longest rods? Were you able to find any above 470mm?

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My (rarely updated) Prusa i3 build log: [3dtheorist.wordpress.com]

"Do you happen to know of a supplier in the US as well? "

Probably McMaster.com McMaster Carr

Yes my current build on my blog WORDPRESS. I HAVE 400 mm rods on my bed and even longer ones on my z axis. If you want to see the rods click the WordPress link below. I got the z axis ones that are over 400+ mm from an old scanner. They were 8mm and 12mm but each scanner and printer have a matching set usually. The older the printer/scanner the better typically. Some of the old skool printers even have usable nema 17,s. Happy hunting.

---

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It really depends on what kind of bearing you are using.
Linear bearings like LM8UU's require hardened steel shafts because the balls will after some time wear the shaft down. I have seen V2A (stainless steel) shafts with pretty deep grooves because of that. Hardened Cf53 steel is the standard linear shaft material that you should be able to get quite easily on ebay and the like. Also comes in chromed. Maybe also try Misumi (expensive for some parts, but they carry a lot of useful stuff. May only sell to companies in some regions).
Bushings, like Traumflug already said, distribute the load more equally, so a soft shaft surface will not wear down like with ball bearings. It may be best to have a look at the manufacturer's datasheet to see which shafts work best with their bushings.
If you are considering polymer bushings, it depends on the bushing material which shaft is suitable. Some plastics like POM (Acetal, Delrin) and PA (Nylon) require rougher surfaces in order to work well. When the surface of the shaft is too smooth, wear increases (this is a little bit counter-intuitive, but it has to do with stiction if I remember correctly).
Other plastics like UHMW-PE and PET require smooth surfaces.
My printer for example features hardened, polished Cf53 shafts because I need the high surface quality for my DIY UHMW-PE bushings.

I got lucky finding my rods in a scanner but they are way better quality than what I had previously bought. I don't think I will ever buy rods again unless I have specific needs within a timeframe. Then again they where out of a full size office scanner that was really old and they don't make them like they used to.

---

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---------| For Everything Prototype Related |------
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well i will prefer polished rods cause it give great quality to the printing........