1 5/8” channel with 4” aluminum tube and some 5mill thick shims to make it snug. 1/16” shims could be used with a more standard 3.5” diameter router (porter cable, Milwaukee etc)
Here is my question what is best way to keep the router in place? I was originally going to cut a slit and use a t bolt hose clamp. But now I’m thinking a simple tapped hole with thumb set screw.
Original plan was to 3D print the router clamp but getting it made out of metal is only a few dollars more and makes more sense with a name like metal Maslow.
The R22002 has a set screw /alignment pin that protrudes from the body about 1/16
I filed mine off. But I might take a saws all and make a groove on the inside of the tube so you would not need to file it off. It would also act as anti rotation point
Would it be possible to share the build of material for the z-axis sled pictured above? Your idea here is fantastic and I think if you share the BOM with others, you might get a lot of help in figuring out an elegant solution.
200mm C beam from aliexpress $45
Piece of channel
Piece of tube
Are the main 3 pieces
You will also need some triangular or L brackets to support the backside and the 3-D printed motor mount from the community garden files
And yes if I slit the tube. The groove would be wide enough for the protrusion to slide in
3.17 is the ridged default. so the 2mm will be about 30% slower and the 8mm will be about 2.6x faster, assuming you are using the same slow original z axis motor. A lot of people are upgrading to a faster motor. orginal motor was slow with high torque, but if you are using a pro z axis, they glide very smooth so a high torque is not needed.
An 8mm pitch will move farther per unit revolution of the motor than the 2mm pitched screw. Does anyone know what the distance moved per smallest rotation of the sprocket?
What is the ID of that tube? I’m looking at buying some from OnlineMetals. Where did you source yours?
Have you finished your z-axis build? Would love to hear how it is working for you.
Thanks
We got the tube from a local aluminum supplier 24 feet minimum order. I forget the exact inner diameter but the router barely fits inside which means it is just over 3 5/8" inner diameter. Would probably be more practical for people to use the 3d printed clamp we posted in the community garden yesterday. actually I will have to make another one for the ridgid router since it is fatter than the 3.5" model in the community garden.
Which type of router are you referring to? The router shown above is the standard router around with the Maslow was originally designed, and is a Rigid fixed base router. It may look a little odd out of it’s base. Is that the issue?
look at the setting encoder steps per revolution for the Z axis, that will show
you how many steps the maslow can detect, figure that you want to allow for a
few steps in variation, so divide this value by 4 and you see how many steps you
have.
IIRC, it’s a couple thousand for the stock motor, so you can go with a very
course thread without a problem (you will actually have an advantage in that it
will move the Z axis faster)
the stock motor is very slow to be sure that it has enough force to move the
router in the stock setup
