LaserCutZAxis

Image of a Huxley Z Axis, assembled from a TechZoneCommunications Huxley Kit

General

This page and its peers should guide you through assembling a RepRap Lasercut Mendel from the TechZone kit, or from parts you have lasercut 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 (6 April 2011)

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

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

The Z Axis should be put in after the frame and Y axis have been squared, and trued. Information about how to do that can be found here. You should have tightened all nuts and used threadlock on them if you are going to (I recommend that you use threadlock). If you perform the following steps before squaring and trueing up the frame and Y axis, it will be in the way and will make that process more difficult.

Drive Rods

On the left is a picture of the parts used to assemble and prepare the drive rods for the Z axis. On the right is an assembled and prepared Z Drive rod

Install the X Axis onto the Z axis

Photo of an installed X Axis

You will need the Frame, the assembled X Axis, the two threaded drive rods from above, the drive cogs, and two smooth bars, along with the 3mm bolts, nuts and washers.

Start by placing the X Axis into the space where it will be, put the top of the X Axis towards the top of the Frame. You want to put the motor end on the correct side of the machine, or you will end up with your parts mirrored on the X axis. The motor side of the X axis goes on the same side as the Z combo unit. Once you have it sitting in place you can slide the smooth bars down through the clamps in the top unit then through the X axis and into the holes in the Z combo and Z driven unit for the smooth bars. You want these close to parallel (we will get it exact later) so that the X axis can move smoothly for the next steps.

Put the Drive Rods through the Z driven unit, and the Z Combo unit and thread them into the nuts in the Z Nut Retainers on the X Axis. Thread them in close to the same amount on each side to reduce how much adjusting you will have to do later.

Align the bearings into the spaces in the Z Combo unit and the Z driven unit. Then use 3 of the short 4mm bolts on each side with nuts and washers, go ahead and make these fairly snug.

Add the drive Cogs

Finally put the drive cogs onto the end of the rods. Add a drop of threadlock if you wish (I recommend it).

When you are done with this step, your machine should look something like the top right picture of this section.

Aligning the Z Axis

Aligning the Z Axis

Measuring the space between the smooth bars at the top

Aligning the Z axis can be a little tricky, because the assembly of the X axis is affected.

I start by measuring the distance between the Z smooth bars at the bottom. In my case they are 265mm apart (top left photo). I want to adjust the Z smooth bar clamps, until they too are 265 mm apart (Photo on the Right). While making this adjustment, I want the frame vertices to stay centered, so I adjust both ends, carefully to keep them equidistant from the vertices. To make it more complex, you may need to adjust the X Axis, to space it correctly for the Z Smooth bars.

Side shot of the Z360 end of the X Axis

The Z360 end of the X Axis doesn't really adjust much, since the smooth bar and the threaded rod are tied together, but they can still be moved toward or away from the center a little bit. On mine, I had to loosen the Motor end clamp and move it away from the center by 1.5mm, I then slid the Z Nut retainer away from the center by the same amount.

Photo the Z 180 (or Idler) End of the X axis

The Z180 end has more adjustment possibilities. I moved the Idler end away from the center on mine by about the same as I did the motor end (I tried to do them the same, so that the clamps had equal bite on the smooth bars). I also adjusted the Z Nut retainer from the Idler end until the Drive rod and the smooth rod looked parallel to each other. I could have measured it to make it exact, but the drive rods are left floating, to allow for some differenced in the bar spacing, as well as slight bows to the rod. Notice in the picture to the right, that there is now some space between the bar spacers and the Z Nut retainer on the Idler end of my X Axis.

When we assembled the X Axis, we did not tighten all the nuts and bolts on it as we built it. Now is a great time to tighten them. With everything in the correct place.

You may find that you need to adjust the tension of the bearings on the Z Axis. You can do this by tightening or loosening the straight bearing on the 360 end - in some cases you may need to install an additional 3mm X 30mm bolt to pull it tighter onto the smooth bar. When I get everything else adjusted just right, I have not had to do this on any of the machines I have built so far (only three of them).

The 180 side also has a pair of holes for an adjustment bolt if needed. So far, I have been able to get my tension about perfect, by tightening the middle vertical bolt on the idler end to cause it to pull the arms together a bit.