While I did my linear guide conversion I also added Astrosyn vibration dampers on all 4 steppers:
They really do make the printer noticeably quieter. I use them on all of my printers.
My rods came in yesterday and the linear bearings with ball bearings came in today, so it was time to dig in!
First up the Y axis. This was easy as the entire table lifts right off. Took about 15 minutes to do the changeover.
I came up with a really easy way to remove the old bushings. I clamped one side of the printed mount in my vice:
Then you can just gently bend back the other side and the old bearing pops out and the new pops right in:
The bearings are a perfect replacement for the plastic ones:
The entire job, including installing the Astrosyn dampers, took about 2 hours along with several phone calls, emails and a dozen forum posts.
Only took a few minutes to recalibrate after the linear guide upgrade. Thought I’d use version 2 of my dual extruder mount for the maiden print. This also shows my PEI surface pretty clearly so you can see how I install mine:
I was quite pleased with how much quieter and smoother running the printer is now. The part looks really good. Here is an overall shot of the printer:
The 4’ of snow in my yard has decreased to about 18" this week with the sun, warm temps and lots of rain today.
Didn’t you recently post that you could not source .003" PEI?
Here’s a possible source:
http://k-mac-plastics.net/ultem-sheets-rods.htm
Cheers,
Scott
No, .003" is too thin. We use primary .03" to .04". Amazon is currently out but McMaster Carr has the .04".
Thanks,
Michael
FWIW, there is another vendor on Amazon selling PEI sheets, but I would suggest staying away. They claim to have the PEI in stock, but it took a very long time for them to ship (I didn’t receive it until a week after placing the order). Actually once it arrived I saw that it was just a drop ship from Grainger. It isn’t quite as thick as the McMaster-Carr PEI even though they were both supposed to be 0.04", but unlike MC, it did ship flat. I’m torn on which one to actually install.
Are the Astrosyn ones much better than cork ones shown here?: http://www.amazon.com/justpla-Nema-17-Vibration-Dampers/dp/B00JCJMQU2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1426890899&sr=8-1&keywords=nema+17+vibration+damper
Astrosyn is out of stock and also require minimum of 10 per order. These cork ones are definitely less expensive…
You can get AstroSyn from UltiBots - that’s where I get mine.
I think the astrosyns are much quieter (I’ve used both) but some claim they introduce a little slop. Honestly, I have never observed it and I print high resolution parts for my printed fly reels.
Cool, always good to come across a new site! I have to stop myself from ordering too much
Where did you source your rods and bearings? And did you do both the X and Y?
Scott
Awesome modification and took a page from your book by replacing the X plastic liner bearing with liner ball bearings, VERY big difference in both speed and quality of prints. Curious if you have ever tried the self lubricating liner bearings RST manufactured by Pacific Bearing on any of your printers in the past? http://www.pbclinear.com/Pages/Linear-Components I was going to use those but didn’t have any in 10mm size (work in bearing house so many are available to me) so I opted for the liner ball and currently modifying my Y axis with them.
Also curious if your going to swap out the Z axis for ball bearing as well though I must admit I don’t see much of a reason to as the Z moves in such a small incremental state I thought it would be over kill though I’d love to hear your input as my experience with 3D printing is limited to spite me coming from a CNC machine (Milltronics, Okuma, Dosoon) background.
It does make a big difference! I have not tried the self lubricating bearings so can’t say much about them. I think actual ball bearings rolling are always going to provide less friction than surface-to-surface contact though.
I swapped all 3 axes at the same time, so yes, Z are ball bearings too “just because”. Although you are correct about minimal movement on Z, it is CRITICAL movement! If you use Z lift (which you probably are and should) then it is important to have quality motion control too. You could argue that you are always moving the nozzle down to the print plane and that is true, but slop is slop in my book!
saramos, I ordered from eBay from US vendors. Search and you will find them. I would have posted the URL but these vendors were out of stock on the rod. I used a separate vendor for the bearings.
Curious as to your thoughts on the dampeners then. They supposedly do add a bit of slop back into the system.
Do you think they introduce a negligible amount when combined with the upgraded bearings/rods?
I’m considering adding them to my machine, but I’m still on the fence.
I’ve been running the dampers on 5 printers and for over a year on my big Rostock Delta printer. I use this printer to produce fly reels I sell and the tolerances have to be spot on. I have not seen any issue with slop due to the dampers. Theoretically, yes there is the potential. In practice, none observed. To be safe you could squirt some silicone seal between the flanges of the dampers and that will lock them in place while still providing dampening. But honestly, I scrutinize my parts with a magnifier and my layer registration and dimensions are spot on.
The parts for this reel (9) were printed and snapped together with no trimming, or other work. There are a few spots of super glue to hold it all together. The handle rotates on a printed spindle and the white spool rotates on a spindle. There are only printed parts in this reel:
I am getting a bit jumbled on what you replaced as far as the guides and bearings. Here is my summary, but please check it: You went to hardened steel rods on X, Y, and Z, then switched to metal bearings also on X,Y, and Z. (at the same time you added those stepper dampers). So in matching this up with the BOM, I need 6 hardened 10mm x 500 mm steel smooth rods, and 11 steel 10mm linear IGUS bearings.
Does this sound correct? I am a little concerned about damaging my printed guides while removing the polymer bearings, so I am still weighing the risk vs reward.
That is correct and those Are the parts your you need. What printed parts are you worried about? The replacement was completely non destructive and reversible.
If by Igus bearings you actually meant ball bearing guides.the. Yes. I don’t think Igus makes ball bearing guides.
The parts that you put in a vice to stretch to get out the bearings.
They are difficult to break. The hearings are barely in there. Do the lower X first as it is easiest.
When I get all the parts in I will update here for how it went.