My Name is Kelly and I’m hooked on making V1 machines.
Does ZenXY have any span limitations? I’ve got half a mind to cut a giant hole in our dining room table…
I’m serious.
Well, there’s a limit to the amount of steel readily available, unless we mine asteroids…
I think there actually is, but it’s not a line in the sand, it’s a smooshy region that makes a big mess in the middle. As the pipes and belts get longer, the magnet will sag, but maybe worse, the bottom of the basin will sag. Maybe you can make it perfectly balanced so they sag the same amount :). Having said that, there are some big ones out there. It’s the same amount of hardware for a 20"x20" as a 36"x48" though. Just a lot more belt and a bitore conduit. Try it out without ruining your table and report back. If it sucks, make a coffee table.
Har har!
I think it would be prudent of me to wait for my wife to go to bed before I crawl under the table with a tape measure. In the meantime, how about more questions?
If the sand bed were a very large rectangle, could I (in setting up the drawing patterns) split it so it behaved as two squares side by side? Or four quadrants? Or ten full width strips like a football field? I do recall seeing one ZenXY video where they had it set to draw four different patterns in each corner, splitting the square into four.
And what if I had a mid-point span left in the table so I actually had two squares cut out? I could support the middle of the bed using that and as long as I knew where the mouse hole was for the ball to get from one side to the other it’d be free to roam?
The one I started and never finished sagged in the middle. It was going to be a new coffee table in the living room, which is kind of big. I think it was 3 by 4 ish feet. Used 1/8th inch hardboard for the bottom. You could see where the magnet was rubbing the board after a while. It worked, but I’m sure eventually it was going to start tearing up the board, or the magnet.
Here I was thinking the sag was caused by the rails - not the bed material. And of course it would sag if it has to be thin enough for the magnet to work through it…is there any merit in thoughts of mid-point span supports down through the top helping hold the bed up?
Not sure how that would work. It’s either going to get in the way of the magnet, or the bearing. I’ve been thinking of trying some of that corrigated plexiglass that they use for greenhouses. Could probably even side light it.
I used tempered glass on mine, both top and bottom. I think that is about the only way to get larger builds. The rails can probably go pretty large before anything starts to sag as they really are not supporting more than a few ounces total.
If you wanted to I would think you could add a second magnet in there to split it in half (or more) and draw a duplicate, like that multi-head printer I had made.
Well, one step closer. I got to Home Depot today with the calipers. Our conduit selections are either 23.5mm (3/4") or way way too big. MP3DP is spitting out PLA as I type ; ) Order coming soon Ryan, I’m just doing the mental consoling over the $$ exchange rates.
Question: Is there a max bed material thickness whether I use tempered glass vs a hardboard vs metal sheet (would metal sheet even work?)?
Sheet aluminum will work, we’re not moving fast enough for eddy currents to take affect.
Hey Ryan - how thick was the glass you used for the bed surface?
Hmmm ~3/16" for a 28.5x28.5"
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How thick do you think it could handle? Or could I fashion a means to mount a stronger magnet? I mean - I know I have skills required to fashion a mount…could a stronger magnet be a good cure if I had to go like 1/2”?
Just got off the phone with the glass shop - he’s going to get me some prices. He suggested 3/8" would be the min thickness for the spans involved (30" X 58" approx - this, minus what I need for the hardware mounting). I’ll clarify with him that the lower piece doesn’t have to be “dinner table worthy” thickness - just the top piece. Would 3/8" be ok?
As I was measuring it occurred to me that I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a rectangular ZenXY, have I? Can they be made rectangular?
Yup
For sure.
I tried two glass shops around here. There were not very receptive. I think I need to remember “casual Friday” attire, my daily attire does not do well in these situations. One of those things that was okay in San Diego does not seem to be the same around the Bay Area.
Do you think I’m better to have short Y rails (the 30" span) and a long X rail assembly (roughly 56-58") or longer Y rails? My brain feels like longer X assembly since it’s doubled up. But that’s also double the moving mass…
Shorter X, but I don’t think it really matters.