Do the belts matter?

Yes I know you need one. What I mean is does it matter what type? T5, T2.5, Spectra line.

Other then size of the belt does it matter which you put on your printer? I'm self sourcing and have not yet acquired belts.

Thanks

Conscripted.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/21/2013 06:31AM by conscripted.

I think it does. I switched over to t2.5 some time ago. less slipage, and seems to work better. also if possible use metal pulleys. precision is much better.

I also used t2.5 with metal pulley, and had great results.
but have recently switched to fishing string, I think the prints are better and
the printer is almost silent now, the only sound is the extruder.
As you can also print your own pulley for string, the cost is greatly reduced too!

i currently use both T5 and GT2 belts with metal and printed pulleys on several different printers, currently my best prints come from the printer with the falling T5 belt and the printed abs pulleys , so in practice it really comes down to the tuning you do,

somthing worth pointing out is that most fo the t5 belt seems to come in a steel polyurathane composition and don't really cares about rubbing and such, where as gt2 belts mostly come in a rubber and fibre and powder off at any point of rubbing

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Hi,
I use braid line on my printers now. I have used T2's before but have not had any issues with the braid line on my Prusa i3's.
I also use bowden extruders. A bit more tricky to tune then a normal extruder setup but much lighter.
Will be testing normal extruder setup soon to see how the braid line keeps up with the weight.
And as mentioned above you can print your own pulleys as well.
In regards to slippage have not noticed any at all. My parts have never been better.
To me it's a win win.

Regards
Jan

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/21/2013 09:17AM by IceMan.

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I wonder what requirements you guys with dyneema/spectra/fishing/whatever-you-may-call-it line printers have:
for organic and artsy models, holding very close tolerances do not usually matter, but as soon as you want parts within close tolerances across the whole build volume, I imagine that because the line has to wind several times across the spool (and thus, the initial point of contact wanders slightly), uneven tension might become a problem eventually. I am not that much concerned about the change of braid line length since that is within 1/100 to 2/200 of a mm, but since these products are extremely stretch resistant, tension could become a problem.
So belts for the technical/engineering users with strict(er) tolerance requirements and dyneema for anyone else?
Or is my thinking way too pessimistic?
Also keep in mind that all this pretty much only applies to designs where an axis is driven by one motor only. H-Bots have a non-linear tension pattern since one dyneema line drives two axes. So the deviation of tension is exacerbated by the parallel design (still within 0.02mm difference in length for a 200x200 print bed).

uGen,
I am very impressed with the tolerances, I am using spectra line on my Mendel,
with a 0.3 mm nozzle at 0.2 mm layer height, my prints have never been better.
Printing a smaller pulley also increases the steps per mm a little.
I have designed parts that fit together perfectly. Attached is an example. The 2 parts each have a printed bearing and run smoothly on a rod.
As I rate quality over quantity this is definitely an improvement.
My extruder is direct, mounted on the carriage and the extra weight doesn't seem to be a bother.
Nor does the weight of the heated bed with glass.
One of the obvious advantages is the cost, £3 for 100 m and printing a pulley. Oh, and a clothes peg spring.
The other advantage is the sound, almost silent.
All I can add is : try it, you might like it

> All I can add is : try it, you might like it

I'm definitely interested in using fishing line in replacement for a belt. I've seen how to do a pulley for the filament. How would I drive it? As this is my first printer I can't exactly print one myself. Maybe an empty thread spool attached to the stepper?

Conscripted.

Conscripted
If you are in the UK I would be happy to print a couple for you and stick them in the post for free.

Anyone care to share a few pics of their filament drive? I'm definitely leaning that direction.