Y axis positioning - quick advice needed

During the assembly of my Y axis for my Prusa Mendel i2, I attached my smooth rods underneath the threaded rods as directed in the i2 assembly directions. I'm talking about the blue rods, positioned exactly as shown in the picture below:




After attaching my Y belt to the print bottom plate with the belt clamps, the bottom plate hovered in the air above ~5mm or so above the bearings on my smooth rods. It's a 6mm plate; the guide said a 10mm plate should fit perfectly, but 6mm plates would need a second set of belt clamps to act as a spacer to position the lower plate down onto the smooth rods. Since I don't have access to a second set of belt clamps, I positioned the smooth rods above the threaded bar, instead of below it, which boosted my lower plate up so that the plate would fit against the bearings without the gap.

My question is, will it be a problem if I continue the build of my prusa with the smooth rods on top of the threaded rod instead of below it? I have since realized I could probably find some hardware that I could use to build the spacer it's talking about, had I put the bar on the bottom of the threaded rods. Would you try to make some spacer and push the lower plate down, or will the prusa operate fine with the lower plate sitting ~15-20mm above the belt axis/higher than described in the guide? I assume I'll set a relative 0 and it won't be an issue, but I'm interested in what you think. A picture of my setup is also below for reference



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/20/2012 09:49PM by picklemonkey.

Yes the belt should be closer to level. On the standard Prusa it does sit a little higher than the pulley but only about 5mm.
The y-axis smooth rods should be below the threaded rods and depending on your y-carriage setup you might need to secure the belt below the table instead of above it.
In the standard Prusa the y-carriage only travels so far before the bearing blocks run into the end cross bars. Your Y-table should pass over the skate bearings at each end so put the smooth rods under the threaded ones then if you have to adjust the height, add something between the table and the bearing carriers.
I designed a y-carriage to make this easier to setup here: [www.thingiverse.com]

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/22/2012 12:36AM by Wired1.

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Richmond, New Zealand
Thingiverse ~ YouTube

Thank you. I was hoping I could avoid the work, but I guess I shouldn't be lazy

A few 8mm nuts work as a handy spacer, once you printer is working you can make some flash ones out of PLA

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Richmond, New Zealand
Thingiverse ~ YouTube