HuxleyFrame

General

This page and its peers should guide you through assembling a RepRap Huxley from the TechZone kit, or from parts you have printed which are the same as the TechZone parts. It is a work in progress, and needs some help, feel free to edit this document to add comments of you your own, or contact us [here] and send us messages asking us for better clarification or details.

I am starting by posting the pictures I have, and over the next few days, I will fill in the instructions and detials (24 Dec 2010)

Thanks,
Lambert (TechZone R&D/Support/Documenter)

You can access this page and it's peers (for the other parts of the Huxley assembly from the Main Huxley page or from the TechZone Huxley Page

NOTE: Before starting the Frame assembly, I (Luis Freeman) recommend you review this video [1] and pre-assemble the Y idle belt bearings and others not listed below.

We Assemble the Frame as Units, the Top Unit, the Front Unit and the Back Unit, then we put them together. To begin with, we assemble parts just finger tight, and into aproximate areas. When it is all together, we will fix things by measurements, and tighten them up.

The instructions below differ slightly from the Mendel build instructions, but you can use those as a rough guide for building Huxley as well. Distances will be shorter on Huxley, but techniques and notes will translate over very well. On Huxley, the Mini-Mendel page says that distance J1 is 200mm and J2 is 140mm, but these values are small for the TechZone huxley kit, and are likely small for most Huxleys.

Top Unit

On the left is a picture of the parts used to make the top unit:

• • (2) of the longest - aprx 295mm (11-5/8") threaded bars from your bar kit
  • (8) 6mm nuts
  • (8) 6mm washers
  • (2) Top Vertices - from the printed parts set

Simply thread the inside nuts onto the bars, then washers, followed by the top vertice pieces, more washers and the outside nuts.

Make the parts just finger tight for now, we will get the exact placement and tighten it up a little more at a later time.

It should look something like the photo on the right when you are done assembling this.

Front Unit

The parts Used to make the Front unit are pictured on the Left, and an assembled front unit is shown on the right. The parts used are:

• • (2) Leg Vertices - printed parts
  • (1) Y Idler - printed part
  • (2) Y Smooth Bar Clamps - printed parts
  • (2) threaded rods, two of the four shortest pieces, aprx 210mm (8-1/2") in length
  • (16) 6mm Nuts
  • (16) 6mm washers

Note: Before starting the front assembly, I (Luis Freeman) recommend to install the "Y" axis belt idler bearings. Two of them are required on the Y idler. To build one belt idler bearing take a 3mm x 30mm cap bolt and insert the following in the order listed: 3mm washer, 6mm washer, 2x 3mm washer, 623 bearing, 2x 3mm washer, 6mm washer, Y idler, 3mm washer, 3mm nyloc. Check to make sure your belt fits. If it doesn't, add extra washers next to the bearing.

I have found it easiest to start by puting the Y Idler onto both bars first, position it somewhere near the middle, we will move it to an exact position later.

Then take the bar which has been put through the small end of the Idler triangle, and call it the "top" bar, add the smooth bar clamps to this bar, as shown on the right.

Then add the legs, the inward bend of the legs points the same way as the obtuse angle of the idler triangle, the feet go down, (hopefully they are somewhat obvious).

Back Unit

On the left is a picture of the parts used to put together the back frame unit, as shown on the Right. The parts are:

• • (2) Leg vertices - printed parts
  • (1) Y Motor Mount - printed part
  • (2) Y Smooth Bar Clamps - printed parts
  • (2) 6mm threaded rod, aprx 210mm (8-1/2") in length
  • (16) 6mm Nuts
  • (16) 6mm washers

Note: Before starting the back assembly, I (Luis Freeman) recommend to install the "Y" motor mount belt idler bearings. Two of them are required. To build one belt idler bearing take a 3mm x 30mm cap bolt and insert the following in the order listed: 3mm washer, 6mm washer, 2x 3mm washer, 623 bearing, 2x 3mm washer, 6mm washer, Y idler, 3mm washer, 3mm nyloc. Check to make sure your belt fits. If it doesn't, add extra washers next to the bearing.

This Unit goes together just like the front unit, except that we put in the motor mount instead of the Idler. I don't know how to describe which part of the motor mount is the top, so look closely at the picture.

Once you identify what is the top, you can install the Y Smooth Bar Clamps (shown on the right), followed by the Leg Vertices (shown above on the right).

Put them together

The parts shown on the left are used to put the frame the rest of the way together, most of them you are familiar with by now (having assembled them in the above steps) An assembled frame is shown on the right.

The parts Are:

• • Top Unit
  • Front Unit
  • Back Unit
  • (1) Z Axis Combo part
  • (1) Z Axis Driven unit
  • (6) 6mm Threaded rod to connect the vertices, aprx 245mm (9-1/2")
  • (1) 6mm Threaded rod for the Z unit, aprx 295mm (11-5/8")
  • (32) 6mm nuts
  • (32) 6mm washers

Putting together all the pieces of the frame this way is easiest if you leave some space for all the printed parts to move a little. This way, if they aren't perfectly straight, they can be easily shifted into alignment. Leave them loose until the frame is fully assembled, then start tightening it down. Leave it finger-tight for now, as you'll still need to follow the procedure for squaring the frame. You should be able to follow the instructions on the Mendel squaring axes page with only slight changes to accommodate the size of Huxley.

Start by putting the Z unit together as shown.

Then put two of the vertice bars through the Z unit and add the Back unit and the front Unit, to make the Base, you will probably have to adjust several of the nuts as you assemble this, to get things to go together.

Last, use the four remaining vertice bars to install the top unit to the Base. You should end up with a frame that looks like the picture at the top of this page!