Aluminium Y Axis Supports

Hi Folks,

I've just finally got my disassembled printer out of the box from moving from Australia to Canada and found in the process that one of my acrylic Y Ribs has snapped. I'm wondering if there is an Aluminum upgrade for this part or not. If not i'll just go ahead and get it cut from Acrylic. I'm also interested in the aluminium bed / XAxis arm upgrade if anyone would be so kind as to direct me to the best source of these on the forum it would be appreciated.


Thanks,
Tim

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Green Machine - slowly becoming multicoulored!

I am not aware of an alu upgrade for the end plates. You can get the alu bed support here [www.ebay.co.uk]. Or you could ask RRP to quote you a price for an Ormerod 1 to Ormerod 2 Y axis upgrade kit, which would include new end plates and a plywood bed support.

To get the alu x arm kit, send a PM to Davek0974. He's also the supplier of the alu bed support I linked to above.

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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].

To just get the printer back up and running, you could probably just glue the broken bit back together, possibly with some reinforcement across the crack.

Replacing it with aluminium would make it a lot stronger, but it might not be ideal precision-wise. The end-piece "squeezes" on the two steel rods to keep them in just the right place, and it might be tricky to get the right "tight fit" with aluminium and still have them mounted exactly parallel. If the two rods are non-parallel by just the slightest amount, that will cause the bed to rotate around the Y axis as it moves along it, which would make it seem as if the bed is warped (two opposite diagonal corners on the bed being "higher" than the other two). Regular bed compensation cannot handle this, but i think the 5-point compensation in dc42's branch does.

Quote
jstck
.... just glue the broken bit back together, possibly with some reinforcement across the crack.

@parper101
Make a pair like these and adjust the smooth y-rod once and for all and never again
Very easy to make, all you need is a length of ageled alu (scrapyard), a hacksaw and a drillpress



..more in this tread
[forums.reprap.org]

Erik

I like this proposal... does anyone see any negatives to this? You would need to reduce the length of the smooth rod, yes? And you through-bolted the existing YAxis plate to it?
Great, thanks!

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Green Machine - slowly becoming multicoulored!

That's great guys, thanks for the ideas.
I think I'll go ahead and get the alum bed too... not sure about the XAxis support upgrade if RepRap are going to be changing it anytime soon.
Any thoughts?

Thanks again

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Green Machine - slowly becoming multicoulored!

On my Ormerod, the edge of the rods are flush with the acrylic endplates, so an extra plate behind it wouldn't interfere. If the rods do stick out, you can just make holes in the aluminium. That is probably a lot easier than cutting the steel rods.

Quote
parper101
...You would need to reduce the length of the smooth rod, yes?..

Not at all as you can see, top view:

Quote
parper101
..And you through-bolted the existing YAxis plate to it?

Exactly, to make sure nothing moves




...and the horizontal side of the angled alu is bolted to the y-extrusion underneath with t-nuts, I think you can see the strength in this




Erik