I have already printed the parts, and now I’m buying the bolts and nuts. Where I live the steel rusts fast so I must use stainless steel stuff, and they are expensive here, something like 4x the normal ones price, and I am not finding all the specified lengths I need. One alternative I came across was buying stainless steel threaded bars with 1 meter each, cut them in the right sizes and using nylock nuts in both sides. I’ll save a lot of money by doing this. Is there anything wrong by doing this, or only the extra work I’ll have?
I’m thinking it’ll just the the mind-numbing tedium of cutting 1m threaded rods into appropriately sized lengths. And figuring out what that length actually is…
Well, that and getting the second nylock nut on without “driving” the rod through the first. Stainless doesn’t weld for love or money… Does it respond to super glue? Maybe a dab of that could secure one of the nuts at least long enough to get the other threaded.
Yeah, I was thinking about that annoying work… But maybe that’s gonna be the way I’ll have to make it. I still have to go to some stores to be sure of the economy I’ll have by doing this and if I can find the right length bolts, or any that I can use instead.
I don’t know if I understood, is it to put 2 nuts in the first side to lock its movement? If yes, thank you! It’s a solution! If not, thank you! You gave me that idea!
Actually, I think he meant drill a tiny hole through the nut and rod, and put a pin through it. You could probably also take an angle grinder and cut a slot in the end of the rod and nut, and put a bar/wedge of something in that. Two nuts together would probably work, but that’ll eat up a lot of space.
Drilling and pinning… That would b tedious… red locktight and blue locktight, one on each end would work but unless u have on hand it would b more expensive then the actual hardware.
You can just use double nuts for the “head” side, or locktight, or hammer the end a bit to mushroom it then thread the nut into the hammered part to lock it. Drilling and pinning stainless would be a last resort I’d think.
That extra space needed is not even the necessary to fully screw the nut in the bar, only sufficient to lock the other one. To express the economy, one M8 bar with 1m is R$14. It could make 4 M8x100 and 8 M8x75. M8x100 costs R$3,50, M8x75 costs R$3, and a nylock nut costs R$0,50. So with the bar, it would cost 14 from the bar, 24 nuts costs 12, with a total of R$26. With bolts it would be 8 M8x75 costing 24, 4 M8x100 costing 14, and 12 nuts costing 6, with a total of R$44. But the principal issue was me not finding the appropriate length bolts yet, so I thought it would be good to put this idea here. The cost is 41% lower too, so it could be of someone’s interest. Thank you guys for all the support. I’ll keep this post updated!
There are a few places where the head needs to be somewhat low profile, specifically the bolts in the xyz part adjacent to the Z axis. I installed the bolts backwards once and had to flip them to get the Z axis to clear. Just watch for that, perhaps check clearance early on to see if you need to buy 4 or 8 bolts or thinner nuts and glue them flush so they are low enough profile.
Other thing is that I’ll use plywood in a different thickness than the one that is the specified. I’ll cut the wood part this week and then I’ll get a better look at how pieces must fit.
Oops! I just realized you’re talking about LR2 and not MPCNC. The interference I had wouldn’t exist on the LR2. Just build it and if you have a collision, adapt.
Stainless doesn’t weld for love or money… Does it respond to super glue? Maybe a dab of that could secure one of the nuts at least long enough to get the other threaded.