TAZ stiffened x carriage mount pieces

just uploaded. and attached here

I noticed these parts flex quite a lot in the stock TAZ, so I stiffened them up some.
They do still clear the Z threaded rods…in the 3D file. I have not yet installed the parts I printed in the real printer.


UPDATED files 6-23-2013. noticed the z-nut mount holes were off in y by 0.75mm

UPDATED files 6-24-2013. incorporated enhancements Lulzbot made to the latest TAZ files.
X rod mounts strengthened STLs.zip (151 KB)
X rod mounts strengthened STPs.zip (579 KB)


Awesome. I think we’ve made some mods to these parts as well (in devel/TAZ, I believe). We’ll check this out to see if we should incorporate it. Thanks!

i just took a look at those, and have incorporated some of your fixes too. I will update the files soon.

Just updated the files

Hi,

I have tried printing those extra pieces, but the *.stl files will not load correctly on printrun, nor repetier. The parts do not display: all I get is a very small circle.

However, the parts do correctly display when loaded with Blender, but once exported, the pieces are very small in size and are not useable.

What am I doing wrong?

possibly a scaling issue. metric versus inch? but you should still see the files.

I printed an early version, but have not printed this latest one. I will try it in slic3r thru repetier host tomorrow.

mar,

i noticed the issues you had too. I will try to re-convert and re-post the STL files this weekend.
If you have freecad, or some other cad program, you can import the STP file and convert it yourself too.

1013,

I’m new to the scene, so I’m still learning 3d programs like blender.

I’ll download freecad this weekend and try to convert the files myself.

Thank you. I’m looking forward to your improvements.

1013,

Have you designed your parts in inches? When exporting to STL or STEP from Solid Edge (which I assume you’re using, from the look of your screen grabs) you have an option to set units to millimeters.

At work we have no choice but to work in inches, but at home I have switched to metric. In any case that’s the only units FreeCAD can use ATM.

we are a full metric shop when it comes to design, so it should have exported correctly. but i will recheck the options.
yes, that is solid edge.

free cad is easy enough to use if you just want to do some file conversions. I have not really tried anything else on it yet.

just updated the thingiverse files. the stls should be metric and come in fine now.

Thank you for these awesome modifications. I’ve just built my TAZ and I printed and used these parts, but I did have trouble with the 10mm holes on these parts - they were almost 9mm and I had to drill them out after printing before the 10mm rods would fit - the original x-carriage mount pieces fit the rods without and problems, but I like you design much better. Was this also something you recently fixed in the model?

3D printers do not seem to print things the same. The part has a 10mm hole, but hobby style 3D printers seem to consistently print holes smaller.

I have printed the same parts on a professional level Dimension machine and the holes are only slightly under-size. But this is a diameter you want tight, so Reaming it up to size will make for a nice fit (reaming would be better than drilling, if you can). I might upload a version with larger holes, but since each printer may print it differently, I am not sure if that will work. I will probably just put up a note about the hole size.

I am still trying to figure out why the hobby machines consistently produce tighter holes, and how to fix that. Some claim it is an STL faceting error, but that is not the case in this instance.

Nophead has a nice article about hole sizes:

http://hydraraptor.blogspot.com/2011/02/polyholes.html

I know that nophead’s polyholes are considered in the RepRap community the best way to alleviate the shrinking holes effect, but as an experienced CAD operator I find this method barbarous. In a CAD system holes are cylindrical, not polygonal. Making polyholes requires a little more work (can’t use the CAD system’s bore feature anymore), and it will cause other problems such as the parts will be a hassle to add to a virtual assembly because you won’t be able to use those holes to align parts between each other. A polyhole does not have an axial property…

Obviously what would be nice would be to have some kind of intelligent STL export that converts the holes into polyholes with the number of sides calculated from nophead’s script. That way the CAD model itself would not be degraded.

In the meantime I either make the holes bigger, or I drill them to the intended size.

That is all about faceting error…but this is not faceting, since VERY high res STL’s still have the problem…shoot. even internal hex shapes are undersized, and those do not have any facets.

and the fact that the same STL printed on one printer differs so much from the other. I suspect it is a path offset issue, but I have not investigated it much.

this might be the issue, or part of it.

http://reprap.org/wiki/Print_Troubleshooting_Pictorial_Guide#Excessive

The link to Nophead’s blog “Spot on flow rate” is interesting.

metric versus inch? but you should still see the files.