Smartrapcore alu build question

Started the clean-up work on my printer this weekend since I was down swapping out the extruder.

Thanks for the recommendation; I printed and installed your recommendation. Only thing I'm worried about is the M5 bolt holding the bearing in. Didn't seem all that secure. [www.thingiverse.com]

I've found a great deal of sanity (cable-mess-wise) printing a few of these clips: [www.thingiverse.com] I think there are better but having 4-5 of these laying around to gather up messy wires is really nice.

Printing out the two big parts for the z-axis upgrade now, hoping to make that upgrade yet this week if my i3 behaves.

The clips look good, will print some of those too. The extruder should help, its a tried and tested design.
I was thinking with this printer about making a compartment below it for the electronics and wiring which should make it much neater. Just thinking about a way to essentially extend the vertical frame extrusions by 100mm to create a power supply and electronics compartment. It will need to be quite sturdy so the printer is well supported.

Something odd is going on with mine in that I changed the x and y drive pulleys to 16 tooth ones as an experiment to see if it improved resolution, probably a little but not really noticeable. But now its printing with one side of a cube 0.5mm shorter than the other. I've tried changing the relative belt tension on x and y sides quite a bit but the 0.5mm difference remains. I am wondering if my pulleys are the same size or something like that.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/11/2016 03:07AM by DjDemonD.

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Simon Khoury

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

Unrelated to our ALU project but I was wondering how you have your bed attached to the Y carriage on your i3? I've been having a heck of a time keeping mine solid IE in the middle of printing parts for your Z-axis last night it wiggled lose and
messed the print up. Just curious what you found to work well. Right now I'm using the standard "spring" approach but I'd rather have something more solid.

I got a different y carriage from Leap3d [www.ebay.com] and used the aluminium bearing blocks instead of the standard y carriage which I always thought was quite wobbly. You can slide it on make sure its running well then tighten the bearing holders to the y carriage, there's a bit of wiggle room to ensure it slides nicely.

My bed is attached with m3 bolts and springs. Although when I got my i3 it was just bolts and washers, but attempting any sort of levelling by placing washers was ridiculous.

Just got some 50cm 2020 extrusions and longer 8mm smooth rods, I'm going to try to enlarge the machine in the x dimension so it will take a 30cm bed. I am not sure the 8mm rods will be stiff enough but I am going to try it and see if I end up with a "hill" in the middle of the bed, like I have on my i3.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/14/2016 10:16AM by DjDemonD.

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Simon Khoury

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

Managed to break my L rear pulley holder it split along the layers around the m8 bolt, under too much belt tension and a few axis crashes whilst I was beta testing marlin rc5. I think I'm going to reengineer this part for a bit more strength.

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 04/16/2016 06:05PM by DjDemonD.

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Simon Khoury

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

Mine actually cracked in half a couple weeks ago when I was replacing the belts and switching all the screws to m3's. I was lucky enough to secure it back together but forgot about it until now. Probably should re-print that myself.

Its a bit of pain to print this object I was going to re-orientate it to get the layers running front to back but this would mean modifying it quite heavily.So printing one in ABS now, see how strong it is once its done. Also attempting the Maker's Muse diabolical torture test on the smartrapcore alu. Should be fun

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Simon Khoury

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

[www.thingiverse.com]

These are the strengthened L and R bearing holders, just a little more meat around the M8 hole for the pulleys. Shame its a PITA to print rotated 90 deg around x as it would make it resist the tension of the belts much better. Still in ABS with high infill it should be a lot better than the stock parts.

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Simon Khoury

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

I finally got around to mounting your new z-axis today, its really nice but I am having several issues I wonder if you have encountered solved?

1. It seems my motor is "skipping" trying to operate the system, is this normal? I was going to tweak the voltage but didn't have the + handy.
2. I read your Thingiverse comment about the belts staying on the top bearings and I no matter how much I tweak I haven't been able to get them to stay put. I may try and re-design these pieces as the back one is awefully close to rubbing on the back xy belt as well.

Hope you're machine is running smooth!

Yeah I saw your make on thingiverse looks nice.

Definitely needs more current I'm running 0.9 deg stepper but vref is around 1.0v for z motor. Still doesn't get hot even holding for long periods, warm yes.

The top belts seem to have stopped walking on mine, not sure what I've done. Perhaps got the top brackets very level. Could always try some large washers as flanges. Either that or make the brackets slightly narrower then they act to guide the belts more. The white belts are very tough so given the small movement on the z axis a little rubbing is unlikely to result in much belt wear.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/02/2016 04:21AM by DjDemonD.

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Simon Khoury

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