Reading the specs, there it says that the belts need to be 5 mm wide. But I only seem to get 6 mm belts. Are those going to be ok or do I need to trim them down to 5 mm, as well?

Buy 10 mm belts and split them into two 5 mm belts (using the belt splitter jig).
Then you have a spare for the x, y, and z belts.

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Bob Morrison
Wörth am Rhein, Germany
"Luke, use the source!"
BLOG - PHOTOS - Thingiverse

My guess is that yours will be fine. Try it and see

If I remember correctly the z-driven-pulley is 6mm high. Also the 604 bearings are 5mm high. But it should be fixable with some extra washers here and there.

Ok, thanks, I'll try!

Hi

>Ecir Hana You said
Reading the specs, there it says that the belts need to be 5 mm wide. But I only seem to get 6 mm belts.

>My reply
I supply the mendel belts as per the Mendel specification.
I.e. At the correct width with no belt splicing.

For a Mendel belt kit the price is $A35 (about $USD30) +P&P
or For 5 Meters of uncut belt the price is $A25 (about $USD21.25) + P&P

If you are interested please give me a private email plus your address and I can tell you what the P&P is

regards

Stephen

P.s. $A= Australian Dollars, $USD = United States Dollars

Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 06/07/2010 09:52PM by stephen george.

Maybe I'm missing the really, really obvious here but the belt splitter page at http://reprap.org/wiki/Belt_splitter_jig talks about wearing leather gloves to prevent cuts from the blade...but WHY use a bare blade in the first place?

I just left the blade in a properly designed handle and cut my belts in literally minutes with the jig sat on my kitchen worktop, one hand holding the jig and blade, the other pulling the belt through.

No blood or cuts to flesh, and the tip of the blade barely appeared on the lower side of the jig.

Hi m100

You said:
> I just left the blade in a properly designed handle and cut my belts in literally minutes with the jig sat on my kitchen worktop, one hand holding the jig and blade, the other pulling the belt through.

I glad you found it so easy. Other people have had issues where the metal "ribs" have been more of a spiral than a circle and so they were unable
to cut them perfectly. Did you get the correct width of belt?

> but WHY use a bare blade in the first place?
When this project started I believed they used lego and mecano in their design. We have moved on as people improved the design
and came up with new ideas. I presume you have updated the wiki with your jig to show us how you have improved the process? Pictures would be nice. Thanks.

>Maybe I'm missing the really, really obvious here but the belt splitter page at [reprap.org] talks about wearing leather gloves to prevent cuts from the blade...but WHY

Why not? I wear safety googles when I do lathe work and I have never needed them yet. But I still wear them. If I was writting instructions
to cut a belt I would include all safety instructions.

On a personal note. I have cut the tip of my finger off. That cost me a trip to the emergency room in an ambulance. Fortuanately they
sewed it back on. It still feels numb even two years later.

Let's be careful out there. Or not its a free world.

Stephen

Next time I have a belt to split I'll take some photos and update the wiki

I always use safety goggles when using my lathe too but despite taking great care with other DIY activities I've had drills, screws and splinters in my fingers over the years and they hurt like hell.

The the point I was trying to make was that by using a bare blade you are exposing yourself to an unnecessary hazard which the leather gloves try to correct. Doing it that way wouldn't be acceptable in industry. A bare blade didn't appear to be achieving anything, the blade extension when held in a handle is still long enough to ensure the belt is properly cut.

I had the spiral wire problem too, so I just cut the wire back so it wouldn't snag with a pair of sidecutters.

I just checked my belts, they were all within 0.3mm of the centreline, which I put down to the accuracy of the jig and operator error. Given the clearance to the pulley / bearing flanges I guess they would probably be ok with a cut tolerance of double that.


Martin

Hi m100

>Next time I have a belt to split I'll take some photos and update the wiki
Thanks

And good luck with the build.

Stephen

P.s. How much did you spend on the belts?

I bought them from RS in the 10mm width (16mm split 3 ways was more expensive!) It worked out at just over GBP 19 per set - it wasn't worth ringing or driving round some of the industrial suppliers locally that might stock them cheaper with the state of weather here this past week.

474-5791 840mm £9.01
474-5836 990mm £10.37
474-5886 1380mm £13.38
all plus the dreaded vat

I rewired a PC power supply and fitted the steppers today, just waiting on a few key bits to arrive like the Y chassis, print bed, Gen 6 electronics and some plastic from mendel-parts.com.

I still have some issues with keeping the bearings concentric to the studding due to excessive clearance. Plus the z axis bearings are slightly loose in their housings which are also slightly too thick so the group of three M4 bolts with washers isn't clamping the outer race correctly. I've got a well equipped workshop with lathe and milling machine so I'll probably make some cone shaped adaptors for the concentricity problem and some thin annular spacers to fix the excessive bearing to washer clearance.

I still need some extra long (circa 60mm) M4 bolts and the brass insert so I can complete the extruder. Once I've got this one building some viable parts and its made another Mendel I want to make a bigger machine and maybe lay down something other than extruded plastic.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/07/2010 06:38PM by m100.

The bearings work fine loose as gravity holds them down. You might find that if you clamp them tight they might make the studding wobble as the face of a nut is not accurately perpendicular to the axis.

To centre the studding in the bearing you might try wrapping it in AL foil to pack it.

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[www.hydraraptor.blogspot.com]