X and Y slider issues

[animoose]

I am slowly building my Eclips3d (very slowly - I seem to have little free time). Steps 15 and 16 of the instructables guide gave me a few problems:

The A14 piece on one side was very tight and the A13s on both sides were very tight. I had to do a fair bit of filing down to get them to fit. I think this is mostly due to overshoots on the corners which can happen as a result of printing too fast. I have seen this on my previous printer, and wrote a little about it here forums.reprap.org/read.php?262,631886,631886#msg-631886. I got the A13s in OK, but I could not get the M3x16 bolt for the A14 to engage with the square nut. For now I've placed it with a M3x20.

Similarly, I've been having a lot of problems getting the M3x16s to engage with the square nuts in the A16/17 pieces for the X slider. I don't think it's that the nuts are misaligned (for example, not lying flat enough), as again a M3x20 has worked on the ones I've tried.

On the X slider, it seems like it's really essential to get the chrome rods all the way into the A16s and 17s so as to get the exactly the right distance apart. Even a small amount off and they won't like flat on the Y slider B4 plates. I'm also taking a look at using these alternative A16s and 17s (http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1428191). It should be easier to use them as you can get the base piece in place, then lay in the rod and them get the top piece in place.

Just some comments. I'm not stuck yet, though if anyone has any folklore about this step, please post it.

[animoose]

Lots of fiddling and adjusting and the X slider fits a lot better now. I still had to use a couple of M3x18s instead of M3x16s.

The guide for the X slider step talks about a bit of resistance in the movement. Mine has this at one end but less at the other, and it also has some slight resistance at one end of the Y range. I have some videos of me moving both by hand. I expect it's impossible to really tell from this, but if anyone is able to look at this and go either "probably OK" or "no, gotta fix that", I'd appreciate it. See goo.gl/photos/3n1mWnoTAaYfBcKQ7. I'm not applying much force to the X slider, just pushing it slowly.

[rock75]

Apr 8, 2016 2:08:32 GMT animoose said:

Lots of fiddling and adjusting and the X slider fits a lot better now. I still had to use a couple of M3x18s instead of M3x16s.

The guide for the X slider step talks about a bit of resistance in the movement. Mine has this at one end but less at the other, and it also has some slight resistance at one end of the Y range. I have some videos of me moving both by hand. I expect it's impossible to really tell from this, but if anyone is able to look at this and go either "probably OK" or "no, gotta fix that", I'd appreciate it. See goo.gl/photos/3n1mWnoTAaYfBcKQ7. I'm not applying much force to the X slider, just pushing it slowly.

Hey there animoose- I'm no expert by any means so I'll let 3dprinted life be the ultimate word on this. But with my build I actually had to add a bit more tension on that than what it looks like you have. From your video your motion looks very smooth. I found that with close to zero tension like that I had quite a bit of vibration when the motors kick into high gear. 3Dprinted life talked about this in the instructables and the sollolution was to actually increase the friction just a bit by applying some outward pressure on the ends of the rods before tightening down the bolts.

Rock

[Rick]

Animoose,

I think that you are fine. Once you start printing the bearings will wear a bit and the printer will get smoother over time. On mine when I first started I could not get the Y-axis to be completely smooth. it turned out that my Y-axis rods were not parallel. They were too close in the front by almost 1 mm. I modified Andrews design of the front blocks to allow me to adjust and that helped quite a bit. Rock75 is correct there should be a slight drag on the A1 carriage. If you can 'rock' the A1 carriage back and forth and there is slop you are too loose, spread the rods out ever so slightly. It should be even drag across the length of travel. This is a quite fiddly adjustment as some times just tightening the screws changes the adjustment and you have to start over.

[animoose]

Thanks for the replies - good to know before I go on to the next stage. It sounds like I am OK, though maybe I'll try to adjust it a bit, as the drag is a lot more on the left than the right, and at the far end of the Y than the near one.