#2014F - the Birth, life and fall of a machine...

[Gadgetman!]

Maybe, if you can bear to wait a week or two -- I am still swamped and haven't had a chance to do a proper inventory.

I think I can find something to do while I wait...

[Gadgetman!]

Jumped onto the Smoothieboard kickstater as it may be a nice upgrade...
(Went 'whole hog' and sprang for the 5X.)

Done just about everything I can do to the mechanics now, so getting a bit bored...

Looking at 'outside' belt mounting.
This seems doable with 20mm spacers for the motors and moving the idlers to the other side of the plates.
but...

I really would like the idlers to be further down so that the belt wraps around more of the pulley. I'm thinking of drilling holes slightly below the NEM23 holes and moving the idlers there. (Somewhat close to how the eShapeOko is pictured. )

I also need to figure out the exact mounting point of the dual X-rail so that I can drill those holes at the same time.

Since I was ordering a couple of 5 to 8 mm flexible couplings for another project, I added a longer belt and some 1/4" aluminium spacers to the same order.

[jasonharper]

The easiest way to get more belt wrap around the pulley is to run the belt in a Z-shaped path around one idler and the pulley - the other idler can be removed as it's no longer really doing anything (I used it on the other side when I did the Y drive shaft mod). The belt ends up being mounted high at one end, as in the original machine, and just above the rail at the other end. You need a bit longer belt than you would otherwise, but no holes need to be drilled.

[Gadgetman!]

I already have the extra idlers(came with the Dual Y-motor kit), and I really want to have the belt lowered, but yeah, I see how the Z-shaped path could work nicely. Lots of contact between belt and sprocket.

[Gadgetman!]

Got a set of printed black ABS motor mounts as mentioned in this thread:
http://www.shapeoko.com/forum/viewtopic ... =20#p16042
(came on saturday. I just haven't had the time to do much with them yet)

They'll need a bit of work, drilling out the holes and such, but I'm having high hopes for them.
Just hope I have long enough M5 screws for them.

And today I got a package from England, with a longer timing belt, a bunch of 1/4" aluminium spacers and two 5mm-to-M8 flexible couplers. The couplers are for my Prusa Mendel 3D printer which is languishing in a corner...
The rest is 'eventual upgrades' for my ShapeOko.
(I'm trying to keep each order below £20 to avoid having to pay VAT and T(r)OLL )

[Gadgetman!]

Tomorrow morning I'm stopping by the grocery store and picking up a package containing 4 x 1000mm Makerslides.
(No local post office here, only 'post in store' service)

Two slides will end up as the Y-axis directly.
Later, the other two in the package will end up as the X-axis.
(Need to get hold of other endplates, too, before doing that. Also need a larger plate for platform/spoilboard)

More XML belts are on order from MakerslideEurope, and hopefully get her soon, too.

[Gadgetman!]

Found a nice bracket at a Hardware store(Biltema) on my way home from work...

87-632_m.jpg (40.24 KiB) Viewed 1716 times

Measurements are 80 x 50 x 30mm, and when standing upright, it reach just over the top of the Makerslides.

[Gadgetman!]

So...

I had tapped one end of the first Makerslide... And was almost finished with the first hole at the other end...

Yeah, the tap broke!
And yeah, part of it is still in the hole...

AAAARGH!

Things to do tomorrow: buy a bunch of taps...

[Halfdead]

So...

I had tapped one end of the first Makerslide... And was almost finished with the first hole at the other end...

Yeah, the tap broke!
And yeah, part of it is still in the hole...

AAAARGH!

Things to do tomorrow: buy a bunch of taps...

Yikes, were you using a cutting fluid?

[WillAdams]

I had tapped one end of the first Makerslide... And was almost finished with the first hole at the other end...

Yeah, the tap broke!
And yeah, part of it is still in the hole...

Ouch. We've information for dealing w/ that in the wiki --- please report back how it goes.

Things to do tomorrow: buy a bunch of taps...

I'd only buy one, maybe two if it's a store which isn't convenient to get to. Just take it easy, use some sort of cutting fluid, back out more often than you feel you need to, be careful to maintain alignment --- I've added some more to that on the wiki and tried to make the cautions more prominent.

William