The other day I pointed out the crazy build quality achieved on a RepMan. This is all good and well for RepMan owners – but can your MakerBot get this kind of resolution and build quality?
In a word, YES.1 A MakerBot is capable of moving the Z axis in increments as small as 0.003125 millimeters. Obviously, the downside is that going from a resolution of 0.6mm thick layers to 0.2mm means your MakerBot will take three times as long to complete the print task.
But, you didn’t buy a MakerBot because you wanted to make things fast, did you? You wanted a MakerBot because it was the only way to make the crazy things you’ve been dreaming about.
Then again, there’s no reason you couldn’t devise several different levels of Skeinforge settings – for varying levels of print resolution, speed, and durability. With that in mind, you could rip out a quick low resolution draft of a part with a low resolution, check to make sure it is suitable for your purposes, and then take your good sweet time in printing a super high quality version.
Easy for me to say, eh? I’m still dialing in my Skeinforge settings for maximum resolution – so having several different resolutions in my back pocket is a pipe dream yet.
What I’d like to do is print off and install a set of the Z-Wobble reducers created by MakiYoshida. The only question I have about this (truly fantastic) part is whether you lose a little bit of Z resolution – or cause one or more of the Z axes to slowly misalign. If the part holding the nut captive isn’t attached to the Z stage in some way (in the case of this Wobble reducer, via a plastic peg sitting inside the slot in the Z axis) you could end up with one or more Z stage axes slowly becoming misaligned throughout the build.
But, this is all belly button gazing (hence, the lint reference above). I should print a “before” part, crank out four of these Z Wobblers, slap them in, and see how it compares! If I can reduce Z wobble without going through the hassle, delay, and expense of getting perfectly straight Z axis threaded rods by simply printing off a few plastic bits… I’m ALL over that.
I remember reading about the Gingery Lathe a long time ago. Not knowing much about metalworking or lathes, I was impressed with the description as well as the claim that as you built a lathe from scrap and following Gingery’s directions, you could use the portions of the lathe already built to help finish it.
This got me thinking… Wouldn’t it be pretty cool to have a MakerBot kit that came with all the parts to get it printing low quality/resolution parts – and then slowly print up all the bits you need to create a higher resolution, more reliable machine? Then I began to wonder… what if this is what I had already? I’ve got the MakerBot – add in the X/Y tensioners, Z axis cranks, Z axis wobble arresters, replace clunky lasercut layered parts with single assembly printed plastic parts.
We’ve seen a MakerBot replicate, but how far can you push the machine with just printed upgrades?
- Well, in theory, right? [↩]
I printed up 4 of Yoshida-san’s wobble reducers a couple weeks ago but took them off pretty quickly. Not that they’re not great for what they are but they’re not the whole story – unless you’re just using 2 of them you really, REALLY also need the precision Z rods setup to go along with them. That setup can be found at http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2151.
The problem with using more than a couple Z wobble reducers without the precision rods is that anything that bumps your print head (aka: blobs) is going to push the Z stage around. Once you get the precision rods on, they provide the nice & smooth alignment and the threaded rods just provide up & down movement and can wobble side-to-side all they want as long as they still move up and down at the same rate.
Also, 3 times the resolution doesn’t mean 3 times the time!!! To print finer, you must move faster…
Hmm… You have an excellent point about the precision Z rods. While I would really like to have less Z axis wobble, I figure my choices are (a) replace any warped threaded rod with straighter ones (b) install Z axis wobble reducers plus precision rods or (c) install just Z axis wobble reducers. I’m most inclined to do (c) then (a). Why would you go through the trouble to install a whole secondary set of rods when you could just install new threaded rods? (Assuming you had access to both, obv).
Of the four threaded rods in my ‘bot, one has a prominent warp and two others have a very slight warp. I suspect that if I were to install a single Z axis wobble reducer the vast majority of my Z wobble would disappear.
What you mean is that 3x the resolution doesn’t necessarily mean 3x the print time. You don’t necessarily have to move the print head faster to print finer – although that’s a good idea for a well tuned MakerBot. All other things being equal, if you are laying down three layers for every one layer in a prior build, you are covering the same XY areas three times more. Unless you crank up the XY speed three times (unrealistic), you’re in the range of three times the build time.
I think threaded rods are notoriously wobbly. Yes, you could try replacing one (or 2 or 3 or 4) of them with new ones but then you either risk getting a stockpike of slightly-bent threaded rods or you spend time digging through a pile to pick the best of the litter. Not a huge deal but if you go the precision rod route, you’re pretty close to known-good right out of the gate. For about $15-20 (US sourced & shipped, etc), it’s not a bad investment.
If you’ve got just one threaded rod that’s acting up, one of Yoshida-san’s Things is definitely a even better investment. It’s quick to print and easy to install. Doing more than 2 is definitely out though, unless you have some other way to keep Z on track. I tried all 4 (sans precision rods) and the print quality was *horrible* and the Z platform was getting stuck on the mobo bolt heads on the right side of the bot. Four was all kinds of bad but one or two might be pretty good…
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