Threaded rods

I've just been cutting up my 1m lengths of threaded rod and have a couple of questions and observations to make:

I've been trying to make the least number of cuts possible and use the least rods possible and have found the following...

If you buy 1m lengths of threaded rod as I have you need 9 of them. You get a little under 950mm of offcuts and one of these is long enough to use so that next time you'll only have to buy 8 x 1m rods. And for the third one, you can also get away with 8. But I think you have to buy 9 for the 4th one (the permutations of what lengths of offcuts you could have get a bit much for about then :-)

My main question really is, how accurate do the Vertical (Z) post (465mm), Y Idler rod (472mm) and Y Drive rod (452mm) need to be? If one of more of these is fine at 480mm then you can cut a 1m threaded rod once at the 520mm/480mm mark and have one of the above and one of the 2 X carriage rods as well and save yourself one cut (they're not hard but after a while they get annoying).

Are 1m threaded rods the common standard way of getting them? If so I would also suggest that a cutting plan be added to the wiki.

I was thinking of something like

1. 500mm XY Frame|500mm XY Frame
2. 500mm XY Frame|500mm XY Frame
3. 500mm XY Frame|500mm XY Frame
4. 500mm XY Frame|500mm XY Frame
5. 500mm Vertical (Z) posts|500mm Vertical (Z) posts
6. 500mm Vertical (Z) posts|70mm Y bearing housing|40mm X idler|390mm offcut
7. 520mm X carriage| 465mm Vertical (Z) posts | 15mm offcut if need be
8. 520mm X carriage| 472 mm Y idler Rod | 8mm offcut if need be
9. 452mm Y Drive rod|548mm offcut, reuse next time to same buying 9x1m rods.

where each | is a cut.

Only the Z drive rods and the frame diagonals are threaded rod the rest is plain 8mm

---

Ian
[www.bitsfrombytes.com]

Dman. It looks as if I mixed up the threaded and non-threaded rods. And I find this out, after I've cut them!

Oh, well, I guess I'll be buying a bit more rod then. I'll do a bit of mixing and matching and see if I can use what I've got anyway.

Once I've put it all together I'll post back an updated list. If nothing else it will stop others making the same mistake I just did :-)

Reece,
Where are you located? Some of us have not purchased our threaded rods yet. Can yours be salvaged for other Darwins?

Dunedin, New Zealand.

What I'll probably do, seeing as I have the threaded rods and am waiting for the no-threaded, is put everything together out of threaded rods and see what is obviously not going to work and swap it out when my order comes in.

I can get my threaded rods for a range of prices at the local hardware suppliers but it looks as if I have to order out-of-town for the plain 8mm rods (which may make them dearer for me than the threaded rod, I'll know in a couple of weeks once I've got quotes and samples from a few places).

I took what I've got alone to the local LUG tonight and there was quite a bit of interest so I'm sure I can recycle any extra threaded rod around the group (although it would only save 20 or 30 bucks).

OK, heres what I've got so far:

The following need to be made from threaded rod:

Studding Idler 384mm x 3
Studding drive 260mm x 1
Base diagonals 660mm x 2
Y drive rod 452mm x 1
Side diagonals 610mm x 8

The following need to be made from non-threaded rod:

Y idler rod 472mm x 1
X idler 40mm x 1
X motor bracket 520mm x 2
XY Frame rod 500mm x 2

And with the following it doesn't matter:

XY Frame rod 500mm x 6
Y bearing housing 70mm x 3
Vertical Z posts 500mm x 3
Vertical Z posts 465 x 1
XY Frame spacer 355mm x 1 (Don't really need, just makes things easier)

So, assuming 1000m lengths for the most part heres the optimal way to cut them...

If threaded rod is cheaper:

Threaded (15 x 1000mm lengths or 10 x 1000mm and 1 x 3000mm)
--------
XY Frame Rod (500) | XY Frame Rod (500)
XY Frame Rod (500) | XY Frame Rod (500)
XY Frame Rod (500) | XY Frame Rod (500)
Vertical Z Post (500) | Vertical Z Post (500)
Base Diagonal (660) | Studding drive (260) | Y bearing housing (80)
Base Diagonal (660) | offcut (270)
Y Drive rod (452) |Vertical Z post (465) | Y bearing housing (83)
Side Diagonal (610) | Studding idler (390)
Side Diagonal (610) | Studding idler (390)
Side Diagonal (610) | Studding idler (390)
Side Diagonal (610) | offcut (390)\
Side Diagonal (610) | offcut (390) \
Side Diagonal (610) | offcut (390) | or 5 x 600mm from a 3000mm rod.
Side Diagonal (610) | offcut (390) /
Side Diagonal (610) | offcut (390)/



The Y bearing housings are supposed to be 70, and the Studding idler 384 but there is some leeway so I'd just not do the additional cut to make them their correct sizes :-)

Non-Threaded (3 x 1000mm lengths)
------------
XY Frame rod (500) | XY Frame rod (500)
X Motor Bracket (520) | Y Idler rod (480)
X Motor Bracket (520) |X idler (40) | XY Frame spacer (355) | Y bearing housing (85)


The Y idler rod is supposed to be 472 and the Y bearing housing 70, but again there is some leeway so I just wouldn't make the additional cut.

Or, if non threaded rod is cheaper:

Non Threaded (8 x 1000mm)
------------
XY Frame rod (500) | XY Frame rod (500)
XY Frame rod (500) | XY Frame rod (500)
XY Frame rod (500) | XY Frame rod (500)
XY Frame rod (500) | XY Frame rod (500)
Vertical Z post (500) | Vertical Z post (500)
X motor bracket (520) | Y idler rod (480)
X motor bracket (520) | Vertical Z post (465) | offcut (15)
Vertical Z post (500) | Y bearing housing (70) | Y bearing housing (70)| X idler (40) | offcut (320)

The Y idler rod is supposed to be 472, but again there is some leeway so I just wouldn't make the additional cut.


Threaded (11 x 1000mm or 6 x 1000mm and 1 x 3000mm)
--------
Base Diagonal (660) | offcut (340)
Base Diagonal (660) | Studding Drive (260) | Y bearing housing (80)
Side diagonal (610) | Studding idler (390)
Side diagonal (610) | Studding idler (390)
Side diagonal (610) | Studding idler (390)
Side Diagonal (610) | offcut (390) \
Side Diagonal (610) | offcut (390) \
Side Diagonal (610) | offcut (390) | or 5 x 600mm from a 3000mm rod.
Side Diagonal (610) | offcut (390) /
Side Diagonal (610) | offcut (390) /


Again, the Y bearing housing is supposed to be 70, and the Studding idler 384 but there is some leeway so I'd just not do the additional cut.

That took a bit out of me :-)