1 Topic by Claghorn

  • Claghorn
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  • From: Delray Beach, FL
  • Registered: 2012-10-22
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Topic: Extruder assembly rocking?

The X carriage is on two shafts. The shaft in the front appears to go through a bearing or bushing. The shaft in the back appears to simply be captured in a square hole with a block of plastic bolted to the bottom.

If I grab the assembly, I can rock it around the front shaft, so the hole the back shaft goes through has some play in it.

Finally time for my question: Is that play normal? Should I try to adjust the position of that plastic block so it doesn't rock so much?

I noticed the rocking when I was trying to level the bed with a dial indicator and saw that the readings were inconsistent when I moved the carriage in Y, but were rock solid moving in X.

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2 Reply by mr_tim34

  • mr_tim34
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  • Registered: 2013-02-17
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Re: Extruder assembly rocking?

I had the same issue. I loosened the bolt on the block, pinched it down and tightened it down. It's mounted with a slot so it can be adjusted. Just make sure you don't get it tight enough so that it starts binding.

TiM

3 Reply by ronsii

  • ronsii
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  • Registered: 2012-10-28
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Re: Extruder assembly rocking?

The rocking is normal if you want you could tighten up the block a bit but you really should leave a small amount of play if you have it too tight it could leave you with other problems like skipping steps and binding.

4 Reply by Claghorn

  • Claghorn
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Re: Extruder assembly rocking?

If it is normal, I probably won't fool with it unless I can trace an actual problem to the rocking :-).

I was just wondering if it was normal, and I seem to have that answer - Thanks.

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5 Reply by ronsii

  • ronsii
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Re: Extruder assembly rocking?

It leaves the head able to bump over things in the print like blobs and curlup's without knocking the print loose or losing steps, kinda the same theory as the springs in the bed but in the inverse. The main reason people usually use this design is it only constrains things in one axis and is easier to make without precision hardware that costs more.