Aluminium part for Ormerod

One independent check of bulging would be to use a straightedge (eg a steel ruler) and see if it rocks.

A potential problem of going too thick with the glass is that it may affect the achievable surface temperature (since the heat flow through thicker glass would be slower, but the rate of surface cooling would be the same).

Ray

Ray
A very valid point. I rephrase. A trade off of rigidity, weight and conduction.
John

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Joar107

I have prepared for direct drive from motor anyone that have tried it yet?

/Joar

That makes a lot of sense, you get closer to the z-axis and a bit forward out of the x-axis line, all together closer to the center line of the load the z-rod move, minus the two gears drives, another plus in the book of accuracy

I guess you will keep the ability for the z-nut to slip out of its socket for safety reasons, I put a hardware stop underneath my X axis assembly, sometime I forget and hit the z-home in pronterface and the silly nozzle starts to headcrash the glass bed - no more!

Did you choose to float the front bearing under the bed?, can't quite make it out from the pictures

Looking forward to read about the accuracy of your touchdown readings

I will do a ditto aluminum x-axis, no problem there, I live in a industrial sweet spot, neighbor to the left got fine plasma cutters, neighbor to the right a laser cutters, still thinking about how to design the bed though

Many thank for the update and the pictures

Erik

I looked into the clearance on mine (I coupled a 6mm drill bit inline with the stepper shaft and trued it with no wobble, then lowered the acrylic, and it rubbed a little on the smooth rod) and it's maybe not adequate with the motor in the position it is currently - the rubbing I got with the 6mm bit may not matter since the threaded rod is only 5mm so should be clear, but a free nut might cause problems. I've decided to leave it as is for now (though if the motor had been fast /torquey enough to drill through the acrylic, I'd have continued)

you'd also need to extend the x-home tag so the probe would fire, or find a suitable place mount a microswitch instead so X could home properly Ithink.

Ray

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rayhicks
you'd also need to extend the x-home tag so the probe would fire, or find a suitable place mount a microswitch instead so X could home properly Ithink.

Moving the IR sensor to a different position as I have done - see [forums.reprap.org] - would work well with using direct drive to the threaded rod.

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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].

Can you share your design files

Best regards,

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Chaisaeng
Can you share your design files

Best regards,

Who is that question addressed to?

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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].

I would also be interested in both the file for getting the aluminium bed printed, as well as the files for printing the supports. I was considering an (one on one) aluminium replacement for the MDF parts, but this looks like a more thorough design, and if available, I'd love to get the files to have it made.
Thanks,

Onno

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dc42

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Chaisaeng
Can you share your design files

Best regards,

Who is that question addressed to?

Sorry did not quote it, I was going to ask joar107 for the design aluminum part he manufactured
And the printed part for the aluminum bed support. I like to have the aluminum part laser cut by
local manufacturer near me but they need dxf or drw file.

Here is my files the x rib i prepared for direct drive, I have made my parts in 6 mm Alu so I have some problem with clearance for the direct drive I am using, but with 5 mm it will be perfect.
I have printed about 40 hours with my new x axes and I can see a lot of wear on the alu so I need to do something soon.

/Joar

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/09/2014 11:29AM by Joar107.

Hi Joar,

Thanks for sharing those. I have a couple of questions:

1. Where is it that you can see wear on the alu? Where the x-runner bearing runs along it, or somewhere else?

2. I like the idea of direct drive, but I am concerned that the bearing in he stepper motor may not be designed to take the weight of the x-axis, and is difficult to get at for lubrication. Have you considered this? I guess it would be possible to include a bearing in the coupler, and support the outside of that bearing somehow from the z-motor bracket, so that the stepper motor doesn't have to bear the weight.

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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].

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dc42
Hi Joar,

Thanks for sharing those. I have a couple of questions:

1. Where is it that you can see wear on the alu? Where the x-runner bearing runs along it, or somewhere else?

2. I like the idea of direct drive, but I am concerned that the bearing in he stepper motor may not be designed to take the weight of the x-axis, and is difficult to get at for lubrication. Have you considered this? I guess it would be possible to include a bearing in the coupler, and support the outside of that bearing somehow from the z-motor bracket, so that the stepper motor doesn't have to bear the weight.

@dc42 yes it is the c runner bearing the wear on the alu.

No I have not thought about this , it could be critical but alot of repraps has a solution like this we will se how it works

/Joar

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Joar107
@dc42 yes it is the c runner bearing the wear on the alu

Perhaps you should put some tape on the aluminium bearing surface? Prop tape (which is available from LAS Aerospace, and also on eBay) should be hard-wearing,

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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].

@dc 42 I will fit some doctor blade with tejp on the x axis tommorrow.
[www.swedev.se]
I just hope i get it even

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Joar107
[attachment 26568 Ormerod.JPG]Here is my files the x rib i prepared for direct drive, I have made my parts in 6 mm Alu so I have some problem with clearance for the direct drive I am using, but with 5 mm it will be perfect.
I have printed about 40 hours with my new x axes and I can see a lot of wear on the alu so I need to do something soon.

/Joar

Thanks for sharing your design I just have time to have it manufactured. Will put it in soon

Chaisaeng, I hope you don mind me asking, but where did you get it made, and what were the costs? I tried finding a shop that could do the laser cutting, but prices kept me off, as single parts are too expensive to produce. Unless a large number of users want this bed, it's not worth pursuing for now (at least for me)

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onno
Chaisaeng, I hope you don mind me asking, but where did you get it made, and what were the costs? I tried finding a shop that could do the laser cutting, but prices kept me off, as single parts are too expensive to produce. Unless a large number of users want this bed, it's not worth pursuing for now (at least for me)

I am lucky living near an industrial area which having laser cutter around. Usually they manufacture in a huge lot of
Laser cutting part which priced varies. For a single part I paid $5 which they have calculate from the drawing file
feed into a specific program and calculate the price which having a formula
fix operation cost + n * (variable cost + profit) as they told me so my single part is quite expensive.
I have to supply my own material and I'm quite lucky that in my area having metal merchant which can sale me
Some scrap material left over from other customer that cut their aluminum sheet, and they sell it in kilogram,
So total cost of this part after laser cut is almost $10. I went too far on the part to let them do anodizing which cost another $5
On single part, it a bit expensive though. Btw. I live in the East side of Bangkok, Thailand

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Chaisaeng
...I went too far on the part to let them do anodizing which cost another $5..

Hi Chaisaeng

I think you will find those money very well spend, especially on the x-axis where the bearing run along

Erik

Thanks for the info. I'm in the Netherlands, where the costs for these things is probably at a different level. I will try other materials for now. I just ordered a plate of carbon. It can easily by cnc'd, which is more cost effective, and hopefully equally rigid, and probably a tad bit lighter.
For now I got most of my hopes for easier and better printing set on dc42's upcoming production of z-probes

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Chaisaeng

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Joar107
[attachment 26568 Ormerod.JPG]Here is my files the x rib i prepared for direct drive, I have made my parts in 6 mm Alu so I have some problem with clearance for the direct drive I am using, but with 5 mm it will be perfect.
I have printed about 40 hours with my new x axes and I can see a lot of wear on the alu so I need to do something soon.

/Joar

Thanks for sharing your design I just have time to have it manufactured. Will put it in soon

Really nice! Mine is working perfect I had to do it with water cutting so I had some tolerance problem when doing the M3 Thread.
My next step will be to extend the bed to double size, but so I can go half size with small prints.

/Joar

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ormerod168

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Chaisaeng
...I went too far on the part to let them do anodizing which cost another $5..

Hi Chaisaeng

I think you will find those money very well spend, especially on the x-axis where the bearing run along

Erik

Do you mean the Z axis where the Z runner cramp attaches

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Chaisaeng

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ormerod168

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Chaisaeng
...I went too far on the part to let them do anodizing which cost another $5..

Hi Chaisaeng

I think you will find those money very well spend, especially on the x-axis where the bearing run along

Erik

Do you mean the Z axis where the Z runner cramp attaches

I was thinking of x-runner bearing wear on the bare aluminium as Joar107 discussed before in this thread

[forums.reprap.org]

anodizing makes the surface very hard and should prevent that, the extruded z-axis is also anodized and I see no wear there at all

Erik

Good point Erik- My Z runner became slack a few weeks ago, I replaced the bearing with an acetal piece while I printed the new adjustable idler bracket, but haven't fitted that yet. The acetal seems to be holding up well (and cant wear the aluminium without grit encroaching) and I'm thinking of replacing other bearings with the aluminium/acetal combo (and getting rid of the smooth rods altogether- supporting and constraining the bed on acetal skates that run in the extrusion grooves).
The replacement I used was a short length of 15mm acetal round rod machined to a D with the flat being the bearing surface (it slides rather than rotating)

Ray

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rayhicks
...and I'm thinking of replacing other bearings with the aluminium/acetal combo (and getting rid of the smooth rods altogether- supporting and constraining the bed on acetal skates that run in the extrusion grooves).
The replacement I used was a short length of 15mm acetal round rod machined to a D with the flat being the bearing surface (it slides rather than rotating)

Ray

Sound like a plan, the self-lubricating acetal will not pickup any grit as there is no lubrication to cling to and you can design the bearing surface to your liking - I have been thinking hard about doing so for the y-extrusion side of the bed, it really make sense when I (you make me) think about it, the back corners of the bed, the two most important adjustment point for the glass bed rides just above the slot of the aluminium extrusion, it can't get more solid than that - everything added after that, the y-axis-end-plates and the y-rod, the bearings, rib and the cross-rib, the MDF bed - just ads variables

What are you thoughts about the x-axis (..getting rid of the smooth rods altogether..) are you thinking going all alu-extrusion in stead of the floppy acryl plate?

Erik

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Ormerod168
What are you thoughts about the x-axis (..getting rid of the smooth rods altogether..) are you thinking going all alu-extrusion in stead of the floppy acryl plate?

One problem maybe with X is that the greater weight (and angular moment) of the extrusion might jam the runners (though I think that a 20X20 extrusion should be stiffer than the acrylic and not weigh much more), and I've been considering using a dual support and maybe drive for the Z axis to allow this (currently most of the load is borne by the vertical smooth rod, and the Z drive acts as a fulcrum) using two linked Z drives, one at each end of the X arm, would remove the moment (though maybe add to drive complexity). I'm not keen on the current boom because it's easily swayed in the +y/-y direction (though it tends to spring back if the runners are tight), and because there's torsion around the X axis, and this isn't elastic (it's possible to rotate the bar holder at the end of X quite easily, and it stays where you rotate it to this could lead to a drift in apparent nozzle height along X as the angle of the rib changes with increasing X - maybe not well described, but if you try twisting the bar clamp containing the X idler, you'll see what I mean)

My initial plan is to mirror the rear Y extrusion with another at the front, and have the bed supported at the corners on adjustable skates (I've been looking for an easily assembled light subframe for the bed, and KimBrown's aluminium composite may be the right stuff). - if this works, then I'll add another upright and support X on both ends. I'm also planning on getting rid of the Y belt and seeing if rack and pinion drive would be better - I'll try this on X too if it goes OK on Y (I was going to use leadscrew, but bought stuff with too small a pitch to be practical - I'll use that on Z instead!).

I think that using slide bearings (rather than ball bearings) has the triple advantage of less wear on softer surfaces, and quieter running (now I'm printing at 100mm/s generally, the machine is a hell of a lot louder, and it mainly seems to be the balls rattling in the bearings) and they're really cheap to make or buy [www.aluminium-profile.co.uk] (though these ones are a little loose maybe). Kind of like a low cost igus slide.

Maybe I'll get time tomorrow to try putting some of this stuff together (It's been piled in a box for weeks!),
Cheers

Ray

I've got a waterjet cutting machine so I replaced all the acrylic and mdf parts with aluminium and cut them from the same thickness as the supplied parts. I've not had a single problem weight wise momentum etc. I used the supplied dxf files and didn't change a thing and it all works well. I would recommend it.

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Waterjet Tim
I've got a waterjet cutting machine so I replaced all the acrylic and mdf parts with aluminium and cut them from the same thickness as the supplied parts. I've not had a single problem weight wise momentum etc. I used the supplied dxf files and didn't change a thing and it all works well. I would recommend it.

Hi Tim I have alot of wear on the x axis where the bearing for the carriage are running have you seen any problem with that?
Did you mill the surface on the x axis rib to get it straight? Or does it work any way?

/Joar

You've GOT to post at least one picture

What's the going rate for water cutting by the way, relative to laser cutting?(which is looking pricey in Europe)

Cheers

Ray

I Used 6082 (HE30) grade aluminium which is quite a hard aluminium and it seems to hold up okay, there's no pitting on the surface and more wear shows on the X axis rail shaft.

As for costs Lasers are usually cheaper on the thin guage materials and Waterjets for the the thicker.

I've attached a pic of some of the parts

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Waterjet Tim
I Used 6082 (HE30) grade aluminium which is quite a hard aluminium and it seems to hold up okay, there's no pitting on the surface and more wear shows on the X axis rail shaft.

As for costs Lasers are usually cheaper on the thin guage materials and Waterjets for the the thicker.

I've attached a pic of some of the parts

The cut surface on your parts looks really nice!!
I have had some questions about manufacturing this parts for fellow Ormeroders but I will recommend them to ask you.

/Joar