X Axis won't move once belts are attached

Hi All,

I've been having problems with the x carriage on my mendel. When I have the belts loose or not on at all, the axis glides smoothly along the two rods. However, as soon as I tighten down the belts, the axis becomes impossible to move, it just gets stuck!

I've been able to do prints on super slow speed in this way, but it's not right for it to be like this. I've checked to see that the belt with just the motor works fine and moves with little resistance.

Does anyone have some experiences to share about their own build process and fixing a similar issue?

Thanks!

--Jake

The only possibility I can think of is that you have the belt too low in the belt clamps so that it runs over the two bottom bearings and stops them rotating.

---

[www.hydraraptor.blogspot.com]

Our latest build suffered from this. Check that all the bearings turn freely. We had some that didn't get the washer installed on both sides of the bearings. That was not enough to resolve the issue here though. On inspection I found the belt was riding up and binding aganst the X end breacket on the idler end. A thin coat of 3 in 1 oil across the top of the belt seems to have freed it up here. I'm not really satisfied with the fix, but after several hours of printing it still moves freely.

Hi nophead, I've checked the belt and those the two bearings it comes closest too are moving very freely, so that's probably not it.

johnnyr, I think this may be close to what I'm experiencing too, how tall is your belt? I used a slightly different type of belt (XL) from Mcmaster and I think it's a bit thicker than the normally recommended one so it could ride up against it a bit more than I would like.

My belt is 6mm tall is that too much? Can someone with a working please report what their belt height is? I can probably split my belt if it's too tall.

--Jake

Yes that will be it. Mendel belts are made with the belt splitter and are 5mm but off the shelf ones tend to be 6mm. I recently switched to a 6mm belt and had to put an extra washer between the bearings and the plates. My belt the runs against the washer at the bottom and is clear of the plate above.

---

[www.hydraraptor.blogspot.com]