Converting belt driven delta to leadscrew driven. Yes or no?

I have had delta printer for a while now and I am wondering if converting it to a lead screw system is even possible and if it is would it increase print quality. The current problem I am having is I can push the effector and it will deflect about 2-3mm with little force and that is causing ghosting and exclusions on prints. Would lead screws solve this problem?

Yes, but they will slow it down too.
If you have glass core belts then try to use steel core ones. They will wear out sooner but they are about 2 times stiffer. You can also go for wider belts (more than 6 mm). Other option is about Ø 1.5 mm steel cable and custom machined drums.

Are you sure that the reason you can move the effector is the elasticity of the belts, and not a loose joint, loose pulley or something else? Are the belts taut?

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Large delta printer [miscsolutions.wordpress.com], E3D tool changer, Robotdigg SCARA printer, Crane Quad and Ormerod

Disclosure: I design Duet electronics and work on RepRapFirmware, [duet3d.com].

If the motors are powered, then it should need more than 'a little force' to move the carriages on the towers. So first check the carriages are not moving.
Then check for any slack in the belts, and the pulley mounts (as previously suggested).
Then check the screws holding the rod-ends (if your printer is like my Koseel XL) are not loose - they do not need to be forcefully tightened, but should not have any play.

Like that, the spider platform on my Kossel would still wobble with a light finger touch.

A friend with the same printer advised adding two tension springs between each pair of rods, one near the spider and one near the carriage. He used engineering wire springs with little (printed) clips to hold them to the carbon rods. I used rubber bands which are much cheaper, but perish after a while. I now have printed some PETG springs. With any of these, the spider platform is now very steady, and needs a lot of force to move it at all.

I hope this helps

John

What about the carriers? Are they rolling on V-wheels? If there is any play, replace them with linear rails. MGN12 are pretty popular.

I also had rubberbands installed. Helps alot against poor Traxxas rod end quality.

I do have some steel core belt I was going to use for another project, but I'll replace the belts and see if that helps.

I also found a screw to tighten the wheels against the v-slot and I have tightened those to.

[reprap.org]

I made a leadscrew delta and it works, theres a few things in that thread worth bearing in mind if you build one. Ignore the acrylic tube that was just a gimmick. If I had chance I'd rebuild it with a 2020 frame and have the screws on the outside of the towers, possibly the linear rails also, so that they take up less of the build volume with the carriages wrapping around the towers.

Speed wasn't an issue unless you're aiming for really fast delta printing, 400 steps/mm was no issue for a duet controller.

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Simon Khoury

Co-founder of [www.precisionpiezo.co.uk] Accurate, repeatable, versatile Z-Probes
Published:Inventions