LaserCutZAxis
General
This page and its peers should guide you through assembling a RepRap Lasercut Mendel from the TechZone kit, or from parts you have lasercut which are the same as the TechZone parts. It is a work in progress, and needs some help, feel free to edit this document to add comments of you your own, or contact us [here] and send us messages asking us for better clarification or details.
I am starting by posting the pictures I have, and over the next few days, I will fill in the instructions and detials (6 April 2011)
Thanks,
Lambert (TechZone R&D/Support/Documenter)
You can access this page and it's peers (for the other parts of the Lasercut Mendel assembly from the TechZone Lasercut Mendel Page
The Z Axis should be put in after the frame and Y axis have been squared, and trued. Information about how to do that can be found here. You should have tightened all nuts and used threadlock on them if you are going to (I recommend that you use threadlock). If you perform the following steps before squaring and trueing up the frame and Y axis, it will be in the way and will make that process more difficult.
Drive Rods
On the left is a picture of the parts used to assemble and prepare the drive rods for the Z axis. On the right is an assembled and prepared Z Drive rod
Install the X Axis onto the Z drive rods
You will need the Huxley, the assembled X Axis, the two threaded drive rods from above and the drive cogs, along with the3mm bolts, nuts and washers.
When you are done with this step, your huxley should look something like the top right picture of this section.
Aligning the Z Axis
Aligning the Z axis can be a little tricky, because the assembly of the X axis is affected.I start by measuring the distance between the Z smooth bars at the bottom. In my case they are 265mm apart (top left photo). I want to adjust the Z smooth bar clamps, until they too are 265 mm apart (Photo on the Right). While making this adjustment, I want the frame vertices to stay centered, so I adjust both ends, carefully to keep them equidistant from the vertices. To make it more complex, you may need to adjust the X Axis, to space it correctly for the Z Smooth bars.
When we assembled the X Axis, we did not tighten all the nuts and bolts on it as we built it. Now is a great time to tighten them. With everything in the correct place.
You may find that you need to adjust the tension of the bearings on the Z Axis. You can do this by tightening or loosening the straight bearing on the 360 end - in some cases you may need to install an additional 3mm X 30mm bolt to pull it tighter onto the smooth bar. When I get everything else adjusted just right, I have not had to do this on any of the machines I have built so far (only three of them).
The 180 side also has a pair of holes for an adjustment bolt if needed. So far, I have been able to get my tension about perfect, by tightening the middle vertical bolt on the idler end to cause it to pull the arms together a bit.