048b :: X-axis completed (PCB MIll??)

X-axis done, it was faster than i expected.

 

As usual, most parts are wood, and there are a few ad-hoc insertions of unusual solutions.

 

 Again, i improvised the belt grip with some washers.

the belting is not as straight as i hope it would be.

overall, it seems quite ok.

 

Added heat sinks as these NEMA17s are quite a hot spot.

TBH i am not expecting any fantastic results, i was thinking if it does achieve some repeatability around 25microns, i would be surprised. But i guess i did something right, some steppings do suggest it does produce 6.7microns. However, these china bearings can be quite sticky coupled with some buffer in the belts, i think it will be easier to use 1/8 microstep and have 13.4 microns per step.

 *edit* after running the unit for sometime, it seems to take on 6.7 microns very well. except when the direction reverses, there is some amount of buffer in the belt which adds in about 20 microns of error. Well apart from the problem of the rails sticking and affecting individual step errors drastically, i think this is a very usable platform.

If there is such a thing as "sticking" error, i think this value will be about 10 microns.






overall, i am quite satisfied that a unit made from wood and with a ton of ikea improvisations done to achieve this :D ...