z-axis counterweight
Posted by pbaughman
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z-axis counterweight September 08, 2012 11:06PM |
After reading the rep-rap wiki and some other posts on the forum, it seems like the z-axis thread rods have a tenancy to wear because they have to bear the weight of the entire x-axis. While assembling my first rep-rap, it occured to me that it would be fairly trivial to add a simple counterweight system to lighten the load a bit. Forgive the crude drawing, but you could use the ends of the top threaded rods as axles for two pulleys on each side of the rep-rap
.
Now, to keep the counterweights from swinging around and getting jammed up in something you would probably need to add another set of smooth rods and a little carriage that would clear the components that are already there, but it doesn't seem too challenging.
My questions:
1) Has something like this been attempted?
2) Does this have a chance of reducing z-axis wear, or am I misunderstanding the underlying problem?
If the answers are no and yes, this may be a good first project once I get this machine assembled.
Thanks!
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/09/2012 12:30AM by pbaughman.
Now, to keep the counterweights from swinging around and getting jammed up in something you would probably need to add another set of smooth rods and a little carriage that would clear the components that are already there, but it doesn't seem too challenging.
My questions:
1) Has something like this been attempted?
2) Does this have a chance of reducing z-axis wear, or am I misunderstanding the underlying problem?
If the answers are no and yes, this may be a good first project once I get this machine assembled.
Thanks!
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/09/2012 12:30AM by pbaughman.
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