After several iterations, I have a Y axis design that works quite well. I ended up using smooth rods 40 mm longer than normal and clamping them to the underside of the extruded aluminum. I used steel clamps, but plastic could be used as well. I moved the rods as far apart as I could. Next, I mounted bushings to a Di-Bond Y plate as Nophead describes in his blog . I used these bushing holdersby bilsef - General
martinprice2004 , thanks for the link to the video. I knew the original design was not so over constrained, but hadn't seen that explanation. What you are describing as "natural flexibilty of the parts and tolerancing of the bearings" is just slop that has to be designed into the system in order to allow it to work. After using my MM 1.5 for a while, I decided to re-design the X ends to use a 1by bilsef - Mechanics
You will also need the printed plastic parts. Alternatively, you could make parts from wood, metal, or whatever to hold it together until you can print your own plastic parts . That's what I am doing (using metal).by bilsef - Reprappers
Are you having trouble getting your carriages to ride smoothly on their axes? The root cause of the problem is most likely that the axis is over constrained. This seems to have gotten worse with the popularity of linear bearings and the propensity to put them on all four corners of a carriage. It's probably because cars have four wheels that we are accustomed to seeing it that way. I will attby bilsef - Mechanics
TimGS, I have the same problem. When connected to the RAMPS 1.4 board, I cannot upload to Arduino. After loading Marlin FW, it is difficult to upload FW again, even after removing it from RAMPS. I have been able to do it, but it seems like I have to load something else (like blink) first. Even that requires some resets/power cycles. Once I get something else loaded, it will take Marlin withby bilsef - RAMPS Electronics