Here is a picture of the bed plates, as promised:
These are straight off the waterjet (raw finish) so will be some scuffs or scratches on the plate. They can definitely be polished, although I don’t know why you would do that considering this part isn’t really visible…
Anyway, I paid about $35 per plate with shipping, looking for $45 to pay for the time to ship them. PM me if interested!
Good luck with the TAZ build!
This is my BOM so far. I have $730 into it. It has part numbers and sources that should help a lot of people.
http://forums.reprap.org/file.php?1,file=16152,filename=TAZ-BOM.ods,download=1
I am using these:
http://store.makerstoolworks.com/motion/z-axis-lead-screws-and-nuts-set-of-2/
It would be nice to adapt the parts to accept this Delrin ACME nut.
Hey TAZzers,
I just read through rsilvers’ BOM and I lament my failure to post this earlier…
I just want to post a rave about http://www.boltdepot.com. I ordered (almost) all of my TAZ hardware from them as opposed to buying bags of 100 or whatever from McMaster; yes, they sell individual pieces at a very reasonable (sometimes better) price! Although there is nothing wrong with having leftover hardware…
The black oil finish they offer is much like black oxide, but with a more metallic, oily sheen to it. It has different mechanical properties, but the difference shouldn’t affect this build. It looks great, and I think I actually prefer it to black oxide.
I hope this potentially saves people some $$$!
Awesome! http://www.boltdepot.com/
You just saved me (and everyone who was buying from McMaster) $84.16!
Anything close to 100 - buy as 100 packs - cheaper than buying the 80 or 88.
Your Order
Product# Description Quantity Unit Price Subtotal
13633 Metric socket cap, Class 12.9 steel black oil finish, 3mm x 0.5mm x 5mm 30 pcs $0.10 $3.00
13637 Metric socket cap, Class 12.9 steel black oil finish, 3mm x 0.5mm x 12mm 100 pcs $5.56/100 $5.56
13640 Metric socket cap, Class 12.9 steel black oil finish, 3mm x 0.5mm x 25mm 4 pcs $0.13 $0.52
6510 Metric socket cap, Class 12.9 steel black oil finish, 4mm x 0.7mm x 20mm 4 pcs $0.13 $0.52
15435 Metric socket cap, Class 12.9 steel black oil finish, 4mm x 0.7mm x 60mm 3 pcs $0.21 $0.63
6519 Metric socket cap, Class 12.9 steel black oil finish, 5mm x 0.8mm x 10mm 100 pcs $5.63/100 $5.63
6521 Metric socket cap, Class 12.9 steel black oil finish, 5mm x 0.8mm x 14mm 8 pcs $0.10 $0.80
6564 Metric socket cap, Class 12.9 steel black oil finish, 8mm x 1.25mm x 35mm 2 pcs $0.27 $0.54
8827 Metric set screws, Allen, Cup point, Class 14.9 steel black oil finish, 3mm x 0.5mm x 5mm 12 pcs $0.09 $1.08
4806 Metric hex lock nuts nylon insert, Zinc plated class 8.8 steel, 8mm x 1.25mm 5 pcs $0.11 $0.55
4524 Metric flat washers, Zinc plated steel, 3mm 100 pcs $1.16/100 $1.16
4525 Metric flat washers, Zinc plated steel, 4mm 15 pcs $0.05 $0.75
4526 Metric flat washers, Zinc plated steel, 5mm 100 pcs $1.40/100 $1.40
4529 Metric flat washers, Zinc plated steel, 8mm 15 pcs $0.05 $0.75
4783 Metric hex nuts, Zinc plated class 8.8 steel, 3mm x 0.5mm 4 pcs $0.05 $0.20
4784 Metric hex nuts, Zinc plated class 8.8 steel, 4mm x 0.7mm 6 pcs $0.05 $0.30
4788 Metric hex nuts, Zinc plated class 8.8 steel, 8mm x 1.25mm 5 pcs $0.06 $0.30
6041 Metric tap bolts, Zinc plated class 8.8 steel, 4mm x 0.7mm x 20mm 6 pcs $0.12 $0.72
13339 Metric socket button head, Class 12.9 steel black oil finish, 4mm x 0.7mm x 8mm 6 pcs $0.09 $0.54
6896 Metric wing nuts, Stainless steel 18-8, 4mm x 0.7mm 6 pcs $0.39 $2.34
6899 Metric wing nuts, Stainless steel 18-8, 8mm x 1.25mm 1 piece $0.67 $0.67
Summary
Subtotal: $27.96
Tax: $1.75
Shipping: $6.83
Total: $36.54
Is 2 meters of total belt enough? Or do I really need 1.164M per belt?
I’m guessing the Delrin nut would need to be fastened to a modified Z_Nut_Spring?
http://downloads.lulzbot.com/lulzbot/TAZ/hardware/printed_parts/z_nut_spring_m6/
Going with ACME screws and nuts on the Z-axis is WAY overkill. ACME is great if you have tons of weight to move, that is the reason it was designed (superior thread strength, and easier to rotate under large loads). If you have a hundred pound spindle to move, yes ACME is the way to go. But for a 10 to 20 pound X axis carriage on a 3D printer it is not worth the extra cost and complexity. I am sticking with the standard M8 all-thread and nuts.
Backlash in the screw is not as big of a deal either because you have very little Z-force trying to push the carriage up when you are extruding from a tiny nozzle. not like on a milling machine where there is a lot of force pushing back up like when you are drilling metal.
The weight of the X carriage assembly on a 3D printer will always be many more times that of the force from the pressure created from extruding the plastic, so simply relying on the weight to remove the backlash is perfectly fine.
…no need to over-complicate things IMO
The higher efficiency of ACME is probably not needed since there is no heavy weight to add lots of resistance. But standard threaded rod is not designed to have minimum wobble or be straight - it is designed to be cheap, as it is usually used for hanging air-conditioner ducts, and price matters way more than precision - so they thread-roll them.
The ACME I ordered, while I am not sure that it is ground, was at least selected for linear-motion applications, and is more likely straight and concentric. Also the ends are reduced for coupling and so you don’t need to grab on the pointy-threads - which are not necessarily concentric with the thread-pitch diameter. And finally it has a nice large base to the nut which is going to be more perpendicular to the threads once installed.
The cost is only $19 more, assuming you had to buy a whole bag of brass nuts as I would have.
Glass with masking tape works well with PLA.
Glass with Kapton does not work well with PLA.
Some say heated bare glass works well with PLA.
Glass with ABS juice works well with ABS.
Glass with fabric glued to it does well for everything.
This would indicate that I need 2-3 sheets of glass. I will probably use window glass rather than pop $35 three times.
In my experience, Garolite LE works well with Nylon and PLA. I have not tried it with ABS yet - at least not at the proper temp.
McMaster Garolite LE:
12" × 12"
Thick. Tolerance Part Each
1/4" ±0.012" 8474K141 29.11
5/16" ±0.015" 8474K151 36.17
3/8" ±0.017" 8474K161 43.37
Garolite XX is cheaper. Not machinable, but that does not matter as they sell 12x12 sheets. Not sure how the plastic sticks to it compared to the LE:
Thick. Thick.
Tolerance Each
Opaque Tan to Brown
1/4" ±0.012" 8525K114 $12.86
3/8" ±0.017" 8525K116 18.82
1/2" ±0.021" 8525K118 24.61
I am also going to try gluing a 1/32 sheet to glass.
Glues:
I already tried spray-glue and it worked until I got a heated bed. It did not hold once I heated it.
Now I will try RTV Silicone and Pliobond-25.
rsilvers: great, thanks for all the info. 
We haven’t gotten much from Bolt Depot, but I have been to their site and considered them. For our next batch, we got a lot of the vitamins from Timberline instead of McMaster. Timberline is local to us in Colorado, and was less expensive overall. That said, McMcaster is an excellent vendor and very very reliable and fast.
Both my current and former employers (small manufacturers) order from McMaster. It is an incredibly efficient company offering thousands of products. Their product catalog has more than 2 thousand pages.
The advantage of McMaster is it’s a one-stop shopping place. For shops and manufacturers it can be interesting because they have everything, no need to open multiple accounts at multiple places. But it’s true they don’t have the best prices.
I love McMaster. I always get things the next day from them.
Here is my BOM with my costs to far. I will update it as I go along:
https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0Bwj1_IrMej1zZHhkYlZSbUV1YWs&usp=sharing
I started printing the parts yesterday.
If you are printing a new set of parts, you may want to explore some of the updates that are in here:
Sorry there isn’t a clear changelog of all the changes readily available.
no step files! 
Is that different than:
FreeCAD is free to install and open source. It can export to STEP. 
I noticed a problem with the jonaskuehling_gregs-wade-ao-v3.7.11.fcstd file. (you guys decided to model it in FreeCAD, cool! 
) I intended to send an email to Seth about it but I have to go now, I’ll probably do tomorrow.
Oh, and a couple of files can’t be accessed. For example jonaskuehling_gregs-wade-ao-v3.1.3-idler.fcstd downloads an invalid file with a right-click, and when I left-click on it, I get a 403 forbidden page.
Yes, devel is the development server. Once the work there is considered complete I’m sure those files will be transfered to download.lulzbot and supercede the current files.
Thanks.