Hi
Going shopping for 1" OD Stainless steel tubing. The conduits page refers to .049" wall thickness. Is this the maximum wall thickness I can use? I found a place where the wall thickness for Stainless steel tubing ranges from 0.028" to 0.25". I’d like to go as high as possible to increase rigidity. My concern is that the Z axis nut lock part will not fit.
Thanks
Rdk
You can just sand it down to fit. Your biggest worry is weight. Thicker tubes weigh more, so more moving mass for the steppers to throw around the table.
At Speedymetals.com, the .065" is cheaper than the thinner .049" stainless steel tubing. I haven’t built a MPCNC yet but I’m considering it. If I did, I plan to use the .065" for the XY, which should be plenty strong and give some necessary heft to keep things from moving too much. But for the Z, where weight is key, I plan to use carbon fiber tubes, of which I found some on Amazon pretty inexpensively. This would allow you to use thicker tubes where the weight would be a benefit while keeping weight down on the Z where that is key. Just a thought.
Thanks Bayry and David…I checked my supplier and 0.065 is what they stock. I was going to go with that, but the carbon fibre approach seems for the Z maybe an option. Do you have a link for ?
Rdk
Here is the link to the carbon fiber tubes I was considering. Note, I haven’t purchased these but this is what I would purchase if I placed an order tomorrow. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00RX737R6/ref=ox_sc_sfl_title_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A37EFSP4QP9HL5
Well, at least they’re cheap. Don’t have high hopes for longevity though. You’re basically just using plastic tubes, which probably won’t wear well with metal rollers.
Carbon fiber seems like a terrible idea as the steel bearing surfaces are going to grinding the polymer to dust in a few passes with the weight on it.
This post is 4 years old. Be careful with what discobot recommends to you…
Heh I was not even paying attention to the date, my bad LOL