How tight should the conduit be in the bearings? I’ve left the bolts that are designated as tension bolts loose but I find that the fit for the conduit is still tight enough that it causes a bit of spring in the plastic for the XYZ pieces unless I loosen very slightly the bolts holding the bearing in the XYZ parts. When the conduit is in place there is no noticeable movement of the bearing bolts. That is they are not loose enough to be flopping around but they are not fully tightened up. With the bolts tightened up there is maybe .5 to 1 mm of spring in the outer ends of the XYZ parts when the conduit is inserted.
I’m assuming that the tool mount will need to be removed from the Z axis in order to install the Z axis in the middle piece. The instructions for the new Z axis show installing the tool holder and the upper and lower motor parts and laying the assy over the edge of a table to check the rail alignment. I’ve done that but obviously you can’t slide the Z axis onto the middle assy with the tool mount in place.
Just wanted to make sure that I hadn’t missed a step somewhere.
I have the Z axis assembled as well as the middle and am about to pull the old assy off the CNC machine and work on the X and Y rails to get them square with the new middle and Z.
Looks really good so far. Everything with the new middle appears to line up perfectly, hole sizes are ideal and no trimming of adjusting was needed. A lot of that is due to finally getting the last tweaks on my 3D printer so it is as nearly perfect as is possible, and using the Zebra plate for the printing surface got rid of warping issues I was seeing with some of the parts before.
So I just wanted to check on the conduit tightness (it’s the opposite of the problems I was having with my original build where things were way to sloppy loose.
Thanks,
Burt
Ah, I see what fooled me:) In the middle assy pictures for the new middle the one that shows the Z axis rails did NOT have the tool holder mounted so I thought that was because you needed to remove it for some reason. But obviously that is not the case so I how have the middle put together and it appears to be pretty rigid. And the initial check of the X/Y rails show them to be perpendicular just as they should be.
So now I start tightening up the bolts that have been left loose, and in the morning I should have it up and running.
How tight should the conduit be in the bearings? I’ve left the bolts that are designated as tension bolts loose but I find that the fit for the conduit is still tight enough that it causes a bit of spring in the plastic for the XYZ pieces unless I loosen very slightly the bolts holding the bearing in the XYZ parts. When the conduit is in place there is no noticeable movement of the bearing bolts. That is they are not loose enough to be flopping around but they are not fully tightened up. With the bolts tightened up there is maybe .5 to 1 mm of spring in the outer ends of the XYZ parts when the conduit is inserted.
The parts should flex a bit sounds like its fine. Nothing needs to be all the way tightened up. The bolts are there to hold the bearings and add tension only if necessary.
I’m assuming that the tool mount will need to be removed from the Z axis in order to install the Z axis in the middle piece. The instructions for the new Z axis show installing the tool holder and the upper and lower motor parts and laying the assy over the edge of a table to check the rail alignment. I’ve done that but obviously you can’t slide the Z axis onto the middle assy with the tool mount in place.
You should be able to slide it in fully assembled. What hits? Please post a picture.
Just wanted to make sure that I hadn’t missed a step somewhere.
I have the Z axis assembled as well as the middle and am about to pull the old assy off the CNC machine and work on the X and Y rails to get them square with the new middle and Z.
Looks really good so far. Everything with the new middle appears to line up perfectly, hole sizes are ideal and no trimming of adjusting was needed. A lot of that is due to finally getting the last tweaks on my 3D printer so it is as nearly perfect as is possible, and using the Zebra plate for the printing surface got rid of warping issues I was seeing with some of the parts before.
So I just wanted to check on the conduit tightness (it’s the opposite of the problems I was having with my original build where things were way to sloppy loose.
I figured since everything printed very well for hole sizes, no warping, and fit together well that it was probably OK to have a bit of spring. I haven’t really cranked anything ultra tight, just enough to snug up and for all the bearings to be touching the conduit.
My confusion, as I mentioned in my earlier reply to my post was one of the assy pictures showed the Z rails without the tool mount so I was assuming that I would have to remove it, but I found as you mention that it clears just fine so that was just some confusion on my part.
Since use the Home function with GRBL the one thing I need to do is figure out how to mount the bottom Z axis limit switch and as you mention I’ll have to redesign my drag chain mount for the Z axis. That will take me a little time in the morning but I have everything rough mounted back on the CNC machine and will triple check squareness in the morning.
Thanks,
Homing as a huge pain with a cnc. You should start without them.