1 Topic by amaterov

  • amaterov
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Topic: DaVinci 1.0 warped Z-axis rod?

Hello everyone,

I have recently purchased davinci 1.0 on sale, although I am very pleased with my purchase there are a few concerns that I would like to address. The z-axis rod which moves the bed up and down is prone to minor bending causing the bed to wobble slightly. Not sure if this makes any significance in printing. Both the z-axis rails are supported top and bottom, however the rod it self is only secured by the motor and the the bed it self. The motor in my opinion is a weak support, its only designed to rotate the rod not support it. The bed is handled while cleaning, scrapping parts off, ect.  When the bed is all the way at the bottom, there is nothing that supports the rod at the top?? I wish engineers would move the z-axis motor back a few inches and place some sort of support at the top. Any thoughts?

My other concern is the heater wires, I was cleaning the extruder using the copper wire brush provided, well the copper wire must of made contact with the heater wire and caused a short. It did not seem to damage anything, just saw the light come off and a slight click but other than that everything seems to work ok. My prints are crappy since then, but I think that has something to do with a clog rather than the short caused by cleaning.

2 Reply by Geps

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  • Registered: 2014-11-30
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Re: DaVinci 1.0 warped Z-axis rod?

No movement on my z-axis rail.......only time it has is when the machine was poorly calibrated but now it's setup correctly again, I can't see any deflection...

3 Reply by amaterov

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Re: DaVinci 1.0 warped Z-axis rod?

Geps wrote:

No movement on my z-axis rail.......only time it has is when the machine was poorly calibrated but now it's setup correctly again, I can't see any deflection...

I apologize, I think I meant the Y-axis, what ever moves the bed up and down

4 Reply by boxcarmib

  • boxcarmib
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  • Registered: 2014-07-29
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Re: DaVinci 1.0 warped Z-axis rod?

No, I think you ARE right, you are talking about the Z axis (that's the one that controls vertical movement). I've noticed a bit of bend on my Z axis lead screw as well, but it also seems that it has straightened out over time. Personally I don't think it affects precision very much as the build plate and as you noted, while being moved up and down on the lead screw, it is kept in registration by the rails and bushings on either side of the lead screw. Some users (myself included) find that using a hot glue gun to secure the brass bushings to the black plastic carriage the bed sits on will remove any wobble of the build plate. I also noticed a bit of play in the glass bed as the screw and metal clamp arrangement was not holding it secure. To fix that I just used a toothpick and put a modest amount of UHU glue under each tab of the mounting.
I'm surprised to hear that you think you managed to short out the heater with the wire brush... both the heater and thermistor wires are insulated into the extruder head... so unless you've been a little over zealous in your brushing and have managed to remove the insulation, you shouldn't have cause sparks. If you did short out the extruder, you might want to remove it and give it a close visual inspection... perhaps you have some exposed wire... not enough to trigger a reset, but perhaps enough to have some transient voltage hanging around somewhere.

5 Reply by amaterov

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Re: DaVinci 1.0 warped Z-axis rod?

boxcarmib wrote:

No, I think you ARE right, you are talking about the Z axis (that's the one that controls vertical movement). I've noticed a bit of bend on my Z axis lead screw as well, but it also seems that it has straightened out over time. Personally I don't think it affects precision very much as the build plate and as you noted, while being moved up and down on the lead screw, it is kept in registration by the rails and bushings on either side of the lead screw. Some users (myself included) find that using a hot glue gun to secure the brass bushings to the black plastic carriage the bed sits on will remove any wobble of the build plate. I also noticed a bit of play in the glass bed as the screw and metal clamp arrangement was not holding it secure. To fix that I just used a toothpick and put a modest amount of UHU glue under each tab of the mounting.
I'm surprised to hear that you think you managed to short out the heater with the wire brush... both the heater and thermistor wires are insulated into the extruder head... so unless you've been a little over zealous in your brushing and have managed to remove the insulation, you shouldn't have cause sparks. If you did short out the extruder, you might want to remove it and give it a close visual inspection... perhaps you have some exposed wire... not enough to trigger a reset, but perhaps enough to have some transient voltage hanging around somewhere.

I'll definitely look into securing those with hot glue. The prints sometimes scare me how much they vibrate, I am afraid the thing is gonna fall apart on me lol. The wires on the hot-end are a bit exposed the insulation only goes right up to it, and there is about .5mm of wire that doesn't.

6 Reply by thecure

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Re: DaVinci 1.0 warped Z-axis rod?

I've just purchased a new 1.0 too and noticed the same thing with my lead screw - it's warped.
Where it may not cause any ill effects, it bothers me nonetheless.

7 Reply by MJL

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Re: DaVinci 1.0 warped Z-axis rod?

My Da Vinci  has the wobble in the z axis lead screw which appears to be worse when the table is at the bottom of its travel. Also notice the stepper motor mount actually flexes when the table moves down towards the stepper motor. I have removed the Lead screw which does not look that bad when I eye ball it. Will get one of the engineers at work to check how true it is.
My current feeling is the main part of this problem is related to the coupling and stepper motor mount. Will be interesting to see if I can fix this problem and how it will affect print quality.
My printer has been hacked with Repetier Host and I'm using Cura software with great result. This printer is great value for money.
I'll keep you posted on how this progresses.

8 Reply by coburn

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Re: DaVinci 1.0 warped Z-axis rod?

Based on watching a couple of forums over the past 4 months it seems z-wobble and a warped z axis screw rod thingy are pretty common with the Da Vinci printers. The most common recommendations I see are shimming the bearings so they don't wiggle, gluing the bearings and I've seen one person go as far as to straighten his screw rod thingy.

My personal plan will be to shim my bearings before starting to rip the printer apart.