SoliForum - 3D Printing Community — Solidoodle stock rods not useable with linear bearings

Re: Solidoodle stock rods not useable with linear bearings

2014-04-24T17:43:03Z

grob wrote:

My solution was to put the rod in the lathe (you could use a drill) and sand it down with some 320-grit (followed by 600 and 1200 to polish) wet-and-dry to take a fraction of a mm off the diameter, and that lets the bearings slide on and off firmly (measures to between 5.96 and 5.98mm now where I sanded it) - the clearance is necessary to do what we're doing here.

This is what I did, but neither my bearings nor my rod were precisely 6mm. Also, there's no need to polish to 600 and 1200 grit, since there is not anything sliding on the 6mm rod* exception here would be the ends if you use the default bronze sleeves (I unnecessarily upgraded to ball bearings.)

So my grits were more like 150-grit, 220grit, and 400 grit, approximately what I had on hand.

I actually found my stock 8mm solidoodle rods were fine to reuse, but I am debating whether or not I should cut down my other 8mm rods leftover from a different project, since they are much higher quality and seem to run smoother (but "seem" is a little silly since its hard to feel the friction levels we're talking about by hand.)

Re: Solidoodle stock rods not useable with linear bearings

2014-04-24T11:00:54Z

Thought I'd weigh in with a bit of mech eng on the solidoodle "crap stock" rods discussion:

Did a quiet measure with a micrometer, and the 6mm rod on my machine (SD3 jan 2014) is as close as I'll ever measure to 6.00mm diameter.
It should be reaaaallly difficult (and I tried, it was, and I gave up) to put 6.00mm diameter bearings onto a 6.00mm diameter rod, as the most minuscule misalignment or gouge in either part will clamp up. The rod isn't hardened (hence the problem with the set screw marks) but as far as diameter goes it's actually fine and so are eBay bearings, the problem is trying to fit exact OD's into exact ID's by hand.

My solution was to put the rod in the lathe (you could use a drill) and sand it down with some 320-grit (followed by 600 and 1200 to polish) wet-and-dry to take a fraction of a mm off the diameter, and that lets the bearings slide on and off firmly (measures to between 5.96 and 5.98mm now where I sanded it) - the clearance is necessary to do what we're doing here.

Re: Solidoodle stock rods not useable with linear bearings

2014-04-22T20:24:56Z

accusedmonk wrote:

RTRyder wrote:
I think this is the latest version, I've tweaked it couple times since V1...
I added the tension arm too although any of the existing ones will work, including the original clear one that comes with the SD
Awesome, I have them printed out now and I will hopefully soon be able to install the E3D. It fits together nicely! Thank you!

You're welcome!

One other thing you may want to do is download a beefier fan shroud for the E3D, I printed this one and found it to be a lot sturdier than what comes with the kit... http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:146012

I made the dimensions of the lower extruder fit the beefier shroud so you may find the stock one rattles around a bit as its not as tight a fit.

Re: Solidoodle stock rods not useable with linear bearings

2014-04-22T07:24:40Z

RTRyder wrote:

I think this is the latest version, I've tweaked it couple times since V1...
I added the tension arm too although any of the existing ones will work, including the original clear one that comes with the SD

Awesome, I have them printed out now and I will hopefully soon be able to install the E3D. It fits together nicely! Thank you!

Re: Solidoodle stock rods not useable with linear bearings

2014-04-21T15:03:51Z

accusedmonk wrote:

Would you mind posting your stl for the extruder? I'm not a fan of the loose locking arm and I really like your redesign for my E3D when I put it on.

I think this is the latest version, I've tweaked it couple times since V1...

I added the tension arm too although any of the existing ones will work, including the original clear one that comes with the SD

Re: Solidoodle stock rods not useable with linear bearings

2014-04-21T02:59:03Z

RTRyder wrote:

Also did a complete redraw of the extruder block to make it more E3D friendly

Would you mind posting your stl for the extruder? I'm not a fan of the loose locking arm and I really like your redesign for my E3D when I put it on.

Re: Solidoodle stock rods not useable with linear bearings

2014-02-08T15:06:09Z

RTRyder wrote:

I see you're in MA, if Mansfield is within reasonable driving distance you're welcome to stop by the club flying field some weekend to check out some of my aircraft as long as you promise not to get any drool on them

I may take you up on that, I'm up in Tyngsboro but not too far away from Mansfield at all... I promise not to drool too much on them.

Re: Solidoodle stock rods not useable with linear bearings

2014-02-08T14:27:59Z

neat i have 3 trex 450s one flybarless they are super fun! id like to add a camera to it with those cool video glasses.. i might build a quad just cause it will be a fun project with my printer

Re: Solidoodle stock rods not useable with linear bearings

2014-02-08T02:05:34Z

Not quite a tricopter, it's actually what's known as a Y6 hex. Tri's only have 3 motors and the rear most is on a servo controlled pivot that provides the yaw function. The Y6 like most normal quad or hex derives its yaw from changing motor speeds. In this case the top motors spin counterclockwise and the bottom all spin clockwise, by changing the speeds of the clockwise vs counterclockwise the torque reaction causes the frame to rotate around the center point. Two reasons most people use the Y setup vs. the more traditonal motors all in the same plane, one the widely spread arms in the front don't come into view if you're using the craft for aerial photography/video, and second because there are two motors on each arm it can usually survive the loss of a motor in flight without instantly crashing, a big consideration if you're carry a camera.

I do a lot of what's called FPV or First Person View flight. The little camera on the front of the orange quad is connected to a low power transmitter that sends the video signal down to a receiver on the ground and from there to a set of video goggles that the pilot wears. Basically the view I get while flying is exactly what that little camera is seeing, just as though I'm sitting there on the frame!

The Y6 is entirely my own design, I did all the layout, CAD work, printing and building mainly as a prototype for a client that wanted to proof of concept an industrial design of their own. I liked the way it flew so much I decided to build one for myself

None of my craft use Heli style gyros, all of them have dedicated multirotor flight controller systems and just about all of them also have onboard GPS for holding position in the air as well as return to home function if it loses the radio signal. Anyone that thinks tweaking firmware on a 3D printer controller can be daunting probably shouldn't start playing around with opensource flight controllers...

Hard to say what the full flight time will eventually be on the Y6, I've only had it flying for a couple weeks and the batteries don't last nearly as long in the freezing cold as they do in warmer weather. I can squeak out 10 minutes as it sits, flying in 30 degree F ambient temps. Temps 40 to 50 degrees warmer should yeild an increase of 2 or 3 minutes, possibly more. Yes that is a DJI Naza on the Y6 and also on the little orange one, I have many, many more of all types/brands and capability though only maybe half of them currently mounted on a frame.

mloebl wrote:

Same here... I've been looking into getting into uavs/copters and your pics are making me drool a bit

You don't ever want to come to my house then, here in the man cave I have something like 15 or 16 multirotor aircraft of all sizes and shapes from little indoor fliers to rather large 6 motor carbon fiber framed craft that can carry a decent sized camera, used mostly for aerial video recording and occasionally still photography.

I see you're in MA, if Mansfield is within reasonable driving distance you're welcome to stop by the club flying field some weekend to check out some of my aircraft as long as you promise not to get any drool on them

Re: Solidoodle stock rods not useable with linear bearings

2014-02-08T00:45:37Z

Nice Y6 RTRyder

looks like you got a NAZA in there, what kind of flight times are you getting on the tri?

Re: Solidoodle stock rods not useable with linear bearings

2014-02-08T00:28:13Z

Same here... I've been looking into getting into uavs/copters and your pics are making me drool a bit

Re: Solidoodle stock rods not useable with linear bearings

2014-02-07T23:44:10Z

A tri-copter ?!? That's cool. Is this a kit you can buy, or did you design it yourself? Looks like you have blades on both sides, is that so you can flip it and fly it upside down ? very interesting....

What 3D gyro are you using for this? I have a Skookum 360 I need to put to god use. Maybe something like this ??

Damn... you never should have shown me this.

Re: Solidoodle stock rods not useable with linear bearings

2014-02-07T20:40:54Z

If I remember correctly I tried to keep the motor in pretty much the same place as the original replacements put it vertically, the main goal was mainly tighten up the bearing seats and make it as durable as possible, went through several iterations before I stopped at this one. Obviously based on Lawsy's original design which is very good, I just print way too much in a heated build chamber for them to stand up for an extended period to the abuse I put my SD3 through. Almost cut a set out of 6061 on the mill but decided to see if I could come up a set made of ABS that could handle the usage, so far the original set I printed of these two is still going strong after well over 100 hours of print time.

Making things like this is primarily what I use mine for...

Re: Solidoodle stock rods not useable with linear bearings

2014-02-07T20:14:19Z

Awesome I am hoping this will gain me back some X- movement and raise that motor up a little bit. I really like the robust design as I also seem to be printing something all the time. I will try to get this printed out this weekend and see how it meshes up with the bulldog XL mount.

Re: Solidoodle stock rods not useable with linear bearings

2014-02-07T19:55:49Z

Here are the left and right side carriage blocks I'm using. If you want to use the right side you'll need a 5mm shaft and bearings as it has been modified to use ball bearings and a steel shaft rather than the pulley spinning on a bolt. As I recall I used a cutdown mainshaft and bearings for an Align Trex 450 RC helicopter but any 5mm shaft and appropriate bearings will do. If you need the exact bearing dimensions I'll measure the spares I have or you can just measure the hole they go into after printing the block. All dimensions are metric, even though I live in the USA, I refuse to use the Imperial fractional inch measuring system unless absolutely necessary...

P.S. you might have to open the lower holes for the stepper with a 3mm drill after you print, I run everything through my copy of Netfabb to make sure slicer can parse it and for some reason the repair script keeps wanting to close those holes!