2018-01-31, 04:50 AM
Gantry Sub-Assembly
With a little help from my friends.
As mentioned in a previous post, I had taken the OneUp to my EAA Chapter's Build Night, as my Build Night project. This is good, as I have a lot more experienced makers that can give me advice. It is also bad, as things went together so quickly that I did not have too much time to photograph/document what has happened.
Step one was to "fix" my SIDEBRACE pieces, which I did. Step two was to complete the Extruder Sub-Assembly, by adding the LM8LUU bearings, held in by the XBEARINGMOUNTs, which I also did.
By now, a few more guys show up for Build Night, including Rob. Now, Rob helped me inventory the kit, last year when I got it. He is really good with tools, and is a hands-on sort of guy. He is not a "computer guy," however, and he finds the whole idea of building a 3D printer from a kit to be totally fascinating. More than me, he is the one guy in the chapter who wants to see this thing running. When he saw I was building the kit, he jumped right in, and pretty much took over the assembly. Ken also joined us, a little later.
The main pieces of the gantry went together pretty quickly. There were three large screws, with one of them just a hair larger than the others. This was the 1-inch screw to be used on the Belt Tensioner Sub-Sub Assembly. Even with it being the longest of the screws, its threads could not reach the back piece of Melamine to "dig in" and hold. Rob, unflustered, walked over to one of our many screw-and-bolt cans, and found a 1.25-inch bolt within a minute or two. So, we used a hex head bolt as opposed to the screw (with the hex-shaped "slot" in the head) that came with the kit.
Soon, it came time to super glue the belt to the print head. On our first attempt, we stuffed wadded-up paper towels in the gap in the print head (where the belt travels) to create pressure on the belt to hold it in place while the Super Glue set. No dice. On our second attempt, Ken stuck his finger in there, and held the belt against the print head for the entire five minute set time. This meant pressing against the "teeth" in the belt, and Ken had deep "teeth marks" in his finger at the end of the ordeal. No broken skin or anything, but still sore enough to be annoying for a minute or two.
Speaking of super glue, I got the Krazy Glue™ brand, in the "pen" dispenser. I chose this because I liked the fine control I had over where I could put my drop of glue. We had one or two places where the screws went in to the melamine a little loose. One of the screws attaching the Derlin Acme Nut to the gantry was one such spot. In these instances, we touched up the back side of the hole with a drop of two of Super Glue to help reinforce the connection.
When we were done, we had a print head that slides nicely on its bearings, and we can feel the "steps" of the motor, as we slide the head, and it moves the belt which turns the motor.
With the Gantry out of the way, we tackled the Chassis.
With a little help from my friends.
As mentioned in a previous post, I had taken the OneUp to my EAA Chapter's Build Night, as my Build Night project. This is good, as I have a lot more experienced makers that can give me advice. It is also bad, as things went together so quickly that I did not have too much time to photograph/document what has happened.
Step one was to "fix" my SIDEBRACE pieces, which I did. Step two was to complete the Extruder Sub-Assembly, by adding the LM8LUU bearings, held in by the XBEARINGMOUNTs, which I also did.
By now, a few more guys show up for Build Night, including Rob. Now, Rob helped me inventory the kit, last year when I got it. He is really good with tools, and is a hands-on sort of guy. He is not a "computer guy," however, and he finds the whole idea of building a 3D printer from a kit to be totally fascinating. More than me, he is the one guy in the chapter who wants to see this thing running. When he saw I was building the kit, he jumped right in, and pretty much took over the assembly. Ken also joined us, a little later.
The main pieces of the gantry went together pretty quickly. There were three large screws, with one of them just a hair larger than the others. This was the 1-inch screw to be used on the Belt Tensioner Sub-Sub Assembly. Even with it being the longest of the screws, its threads could not reach the back piece of Melamine to "dig in" and hold. Rob, unflustered, walked over to one of our many screw-and-bolt cans, and found a 1.25-inch bolt within a minute or two. So, we used a hex head bolt as opposed to the screw (with the hex-shaped "slot" in the head) that came with the kit.
Soon, it came time to super glue the belt to the print head. On our first attempt, we stuffed wadded-up paper towels in the gap in the print head (where the belt travels) to create pressure on the belt to hold it in place while the Super Glue set. No dice. On our second attempt, Ken stuck his finger in there, and held the belt against the print head for the entire five minute set time. This meant pressing against the "teeth" in the belt, and Ken had deep "teeth marks" in his finger at the end of the ordeal. No broken skin or anything, but still sore enough to be annoying for a minute or two.
Speaking of super glue, I got the Krazy Glue™ brand, in the "pen" dispenser. I chose this because I liked the fine control I had over where I could put my drop of glue. We had one or two places where the screws went in to the melamine a little loose. One of the screws attaching the Derlin Acme Nut to the gantry was one such spot. In these instances, we touched up the back side of the hole with a drop of two of Super Glue to help reinforce the connection.
When we were done, we had a print head that slides nicely on its bearings, and we can feel the "steps" of the motor, as we slide the head, and it moves the belt which turns the motor.
With the Gantry out of the way, we tackled the Chassis.
![[Image: avatar_23.png?dateline=1515658171]](https://fabric8r.com/community/uploads/avatars/avatar_23.png?dateline=1515658171){kind=avatar}