Hey. Nothing wrong with pink parts. Makes mine look like a Willy Wonka machine.
Just something wrong with a pink LowRiderā¦gold sounds so much more fittingā¦actually gold sounds perfect. Just have to find some matching rims and tires for it now. Gold prints, black flat parts, green wheels? Sounds like a color scheme only a low rider can pull off.
Not sureā¦ can you somehow imbed glitter into the filament for a flake effect?
Iāll have to ask for a gold blend, I think we are getting somewhere with this.
It would add to the part count, but can you print fuzzy dice?
Hairy lion style fuzzy dice for sure!!
In hot pink?
Actually. The hairy lion would work great like a hood ornament. We can mount it on one of the corners so it doesnāt add weight to the Z axis.
I donāt know, dice sound perfect, purple hairy lion dice.
You saw the brace I made that connects a leg to an adjacent wall. I only installed 2 of them. One on each leg furthest from the corner of my shop where the MPCNC is located. My SWAG is that it reduced movement in the rails by 75% and that is with only 2 legs braced. The problem is that many machines are not in a corner. My alternative there would be lock collars that not only held the vertical legs, but also held a gusset at a 45Ā° angle down to the bed. 4 gussets total would work.
I like the ball screw on Z better than the threaded rod. The threaded rod has enough advantage to push the entire machine up and out of its leg locks. Thereās room to dial that down. I donāt care about that so much that Iām going to tear down the machine to swap though. It works now.
Thanks Tom, I appreciate the feedback. I have to start making some clear constraints on the machines size so I donāt spend so much time telling people to stop making it so big. I will have to find the place place to clearly state 4" Z travel is the max you should go unless you want to use these braces, these midspan supports, etc.
The machine seems to be working very well and the questions now are all getting much more technical so I feel we are making progress.
My immediate non-daily routine todo list right now is,
-More clearly defined dimensions, and why.
-Portfolio page or some sort of ālook what this can doā gallery
-Find a way to database some feeds and speeds (not easy with such a variable machine)
-Update the z axis.
-update the parts, links page
-forum spacing overlap on phone browsers.
-Maybe hire some part time helpā¦
The new Z is pretty easy to swap out, I just did it. I need to put up the parts soon so a few others can try it out, but I am 90% sure the kits will start shipping this way in a few weeks.
Well, Iām going to kind of reply to multiple posts at once.
For the legs - what Iāve done is I took the leg parts, combined them in tinkercad, then added on a ~3" rectangle in Tinkercad along with 4 screw holes, basically my legs are 1 printed part, nearly full infill, screwed down to my bed tightly on all 4 corners of each leg. That really helped with my legs, and also made sure all 4 were the same height. I painted them red, even though they were red originally because the plastic I used was $2-3 a pound ABS (I make my own filament with a Filastruder), and it had glitter like reflective material in it that I tried to cover up.
On the lead screw - glad youāre thinking of using them now - Iāve been using one since the early days (remember when I first mentioned the whole 32 microstepping, throttle issue because the Z axis needed so many steps with what we were using originally). I kept having problems with the coupler early on - this was with the early early version. The printed coupler kept failing and I kept having to run and do emergency stops as the router went too low and was eating my table (and the flexible coupler seemed to cause Z problems back when I tried it), so going to a leadscrew both solved all that (integrated leadscrew motor - no coupler), and really enabled me to do 3D carvings at good speed.
As for rigidity - the XCarve I donāt really think of it as being more rigid than a MPCNC. The Shapeoko though - itās just so heavy I feel like it probably would be - although I know thatās your pet peeve - I āfeelā like it would be, I donāt know that it would be. I think the production of a MPCNC, the way we make it, can lead to way different results for different people. Sometimes peopleās printers will just be slightly off. Other times - people will make mistakes that make things worse. I know Iāve made some real bonehead mistakes. āI know, Iāll print this in polycarbonate.ā āI know, Iāll print this in PETG. Itās so much tougher.ā Yes, they donāt break like PLA - but they also donāt hold things rigid like PLA. PETG I can flex in my hand with 90% infill parts - so I really messed up when I printed all the 525 revision middle parts in PETG.
Right now I actually do want more rigidity, and need to find out why my MPCNC keeps going out of square. If I square it up, then turn the motors off, one side actually visibly moves 2-3 notches on the belt. I need to replace pretty much everything Iād printed in PETG back in PLA for rigidity, so hopefully that problem will resolve with new parts. Luckily I do have about 20 pounds of 4043D and 5 pounds of 3D850 (I tried sanding a 3D850 part once - and the metal file broke, talk about strong). I havenāt decided yet if I want to convert my MPCNC to a 3D printer/experimental base (things like trying to make a CNC Airbrush painter) and get a steel CNC (not steel cutting, steel components) Iāve had my eye on (nearly $2k for the frame, and then you still have to buy 425 oz steppers, and a 1.5K spindle seperately, with a 48" x 48" cutting area). I want to start cutting things faster, things like using a tapered ball nose bit, and doing 3D carvings without a roughing pass, just straight down full depth (the tapered bits can take it amazingly).
Alternatively Iāve thought about changing over to the 1" stainless steel tubing version - one of the things Iāve never liked is over my 36" span the EMT conduit seems to sag a bit in the middle. The last time I went looking it was kind of hard to find with the wall thickness I remember reading we needed to aim for (everything I found was either thinner or much thicker). Iāll admit Iāve also pondered the Lowrider, or even making another printed CNC after they hit their 2nd revision (I wonāt mention the name, but you can probably guess. I donāt know if you consider them competition or what - they donāt sell a kit so they arenāt direct competition anyway).
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With the 1" stainless 525 version @ 2āx2ā x/y and 4"z cutting area, I only see play in the feet. This is even with the whole machine printed in petg. Also, I needed a pretty beefy tool mount. I havenāt challenged the machine much, but I have seen some movement at the feet when something went wrong in the cut or I just lean on the machine a bit.
I did have coupler problems and just ended up putting in a brass coupler. I would be interested in a lead screw on the z. I noticed big improvements when I switched to a proper z lead screw on my 3d printer. Just my personal experience. Keep up the good work.
Oh, I think something that would help me is some videos showing too slow/too fast/just right for feeds and speeds. What should it sound like? What should the debris look like etc? I guess Iām kind of a visual learner.
What kind of leadscrew should be used ? There are two common sizes available: tr8x2 and tr8x8
8mm diameter, 8mm lead, 2mm pitch, 4 start is what I use. You can use anything really.
I can buy two models here : tr8x8 that moves 8mm per turn or tr8x2 that does 2mm per turn.
Most 3D printer seems to use tr8x8
The ones I sell are as stated above and the part was design to fit that nut.
What are the settings for Merlin ? How many steps per mm ?
Depends on a lot of things without knowing all of them this might help.
https://www.v1engineering.com/t8-leadscrew-compatible-parts/
If that doesnāt please start a thread with all the details of your build.
Ryan, do you have an ETA on when the kits will start shipping with the new T8 leadscrew? I will be done printing my 3D parts today and ready to pull the trigger on the kit order.