[hoff70]

Looks silky smooth in the videos! Congrats on the nice work.

[hoff70]

Thanks Q! I guess I assembled it correctly because the PVC pipes are indeed stressed around one another. Perhaps 1″ deflection when “un-sprung”

It looks like I’ll have to move the top platform forward a bit because the Z bracket appears as if it will hit the front PVC legs. Everything is level and square so I imagine it will be a simple job of adjusting the top plate fastening points a bit.

Friggin’ brilliant how the drive tubes stay square with the linear slides \o/ I don’t expect this machine to be very “fiddly” once set up and calibrated. Seems like it’s going to be a really solid tank-like printer.

I’m excited to say the least!

[hoff70]

I say stick with ramps 1.4 and a J-head. I use both on my current printer and they are both pretty solid performers with lots of support and good track records. For a first printer you’ll probably be well served by sticking with the less exotic stuff. Setting up a printer can be frustrating enough! Very rewarding, but frustrating at times.

I got my j head from hotends.com and I have no complaints. Maybe stick with a genuine Arduino Mega as well.

You can follow some of our ball screw adventures here: https://www.morgan3dp.com/?topic=threadless-ball-screw

I’m sure Q will respond soon but I thought I’d share my experiences.

[hoff70]

A bit more progress before beginning a busy weekend:

How does one upload an avatar? I’ve looked really hard and cannot figure it out…

[hoff70]

Frame is about done:

I haven’t glued the caps on yet because I may need to trim them a bit to get everything level and run the wires.

Q, have you considered cross-bolting the PVC together to prevent any torsion type movement or do you think it’s overkill?

Thanks for a great design! It’s much sturdier than I expected!

[hoff70]

So how much was the total if you don’t mind me asking? The parts are rather big and I used a lot of filament on mine,

[hoff70]

Good news! I thought you were in the states?

[hoff70]

Thought I’d update with a picture:

That’s a mock-up of the center column. It’s hard to get a scale of things until they start going together. She’s gonna be a pretty big machine!

[hoff70]

Good point Jade. I’m hoping that just the tension provided by the adjustable bracket will be enough. I’m thinking that since the string will not have to wind around the drive wheel it will, hopefully, stay in the capstan grooves. I did a mock-up here:

And it seems pretty stable moving it by hand. Under power may be a different story!

This deal is a must-have for stringing though:

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:36366

[hoff70]

I went ahead and printed the Kossel pulleys:

I may have to fidget with the height a bit but it will be fun to mess with!

[hoff70]

OK, Found the files. I really need to learn openscad.

[hoff70]

Thanks for the kind words about my prints Robert! I started the Morgan with black PLA which was printing great. This silver PLA is proving a little troublesome so the prints aren’t as good as I would have liked but are serviceable. Different colors and different batches can behave very differently with the same settings…

Concerning the support material, it’s not just the wasted material it’s the fact that slic3r just doesn’t handle it well and sometimes buggers up prints. I’ve used Cura as well and it’s not much better 🙁 You’ll generally have nicer prints if you can prevent using it.

The 1st Z bracket you designed is great! I like the symmetry of having the bracket in the center. I’d suggest adding it to your reprap page as an alternative to the other brackets.

And thank you as well Q! I think I’m going to run with this ball screw version. I’ll use hardened rod for the final build and see how it goes.

[hoff70]

Oh and Robert. Hopefully you will have a printer soon and thank you for the work you are doing! I’m still amazed at how fast a rapid prototyping machine can spread ideas so… well… rapidly :O

I assume you are in Germany and it’s amazing the way you can design a part half a world away and send it to my desktop in the US where it materializes within minutes or hours \o/

Exciting times!

[hoff70]

I too was surprised at how well it seems to work. I chose the 38.5 deg because it seemed to closely approximate the fast thread of your brilliant lead screw. The pitch is approx. 5 TPI but I’ll have to put an indicator on it for exact numbers.

Incorporating the module into the bracket is a superb idea and would knock 6 parts off the BOM. You’d have to take care to allow access to the bolts because they go through at such sharp angles.

Any input on the thread pitch Q?

[hoff70]

A vid showing the speed:

[Author]

Posts