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Bed leveling ideas

Discussion in 'Mods and Upgrades' started by Seshan, Jul 1, 2013.

  1. Mike Kelly

    Mike Kelly Volunteer

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    I think a lot of us bought this simply because it was open source and moddable.
     
  2. tesseract

    tesseract Moderator
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    OK I think i have the solution for bed leveling with no loss in bed height
    It is very simple and actually developed through reading here and discussions as well

    2013-07-29 12.41.35.jpg

    It is very simple yet very effective it is simply two hollowed out shafts that slide inside each other that the screw can pas through each shaft has a 2mm base or cap for support the key thing here is that there is an internal spring that pushes the two shafts apart.
    as can barely be seen in this pic
    2013-07-29 12.31.29.jpg
    The problem before with just springs is that they generally have no horizontal support and could allow the bed to shift as the bolt tips the intermingled shafts help prevent this.

    This was actaully but together with aspring from a pen but was designed for use with a spring from MCMaster-Carr but could be used with similar springs else where.
    The important specs:
    Item: Metric Compression Spring
    Material: Music Wire,
    Length uncompressed: 19mm Overall,
    Diameter: 9mm OD,
    wire width: 1.00mm Wire-WOW nice and thick should make it stable horizontally
    compressed height: 7.5mm
    so fully compressed the height will be 11mm current height is 12mm it expands about 8-9mm but you should not need nearly this amount.
    The McMaster Carr product number is: 94125K633
    and the link is: www.mcmaster.com/#compression-springs/=nu4ee2
    the cost for the springs is just over $10 for a 5 pack but should be extremely stable in the horizontal plane
    The .stl file is attached as well
    The current shaft will have to be removed in order to implement this mod as the new shafts take its place.
    Thanks to everyone I talked with or posted info about the use of springs.
    Have fun.
     

    Attached Files:

    5 people like this.
  3. tesseract

    tesseract Moderator
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    I had posted another mod about this using a threaded shaft but it turned out at this time getting the threading to print accurately was beyond my skills so had to come up with this one.
     
  4. Harry

    Harry Team ROBO 3D
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    Sick mod jeff!
     
  5. Seshan

    Seshan Active Member

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    Have you tried it out yet?
     
  6. tesseract

    tesseract Moderator
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    I don't have the correct spring yet but it does work with the small pen spring I just happened to dig up so it is very weak and currently with it in place it could compress not from printing but just by pressing down sufficiently with the stronger spring I mentioned that would be much more difficult it would retain its position. Here are some images

    Dont have the exact settings of bed height but I just showed gross examples in these images. You can see the difference in teh amount of teh upper shaft that is visible or by the threads showing
    2013-07-30 15.03.08.jpg 2013-07-30 15.03.16.jpg 2013-07-30 15.03.48.jpg 2013-07-30 15.04.45.jpg 2013-07-30 15.06.59.jpg 2013-07-30 15.08.37.jpg
     
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  7. JDM_

    JDM_ New Member

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    What size wrench do I need for the factory bed mounts? I don't have one small enough and need to buy one.
     
  8. tesseract

    tesseract Moderator
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    They are not actually that tight I simply used a needle nose pliers to hold the nut and then unscrewed with a screwdriver from under neath. The bed slides out so access to the screw is easy get the screw out is a pain if you want to do that but it is not required for this.
     
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  9. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    well, I bit the bullet and installed these today. Works good, I had to move the Z home switch up a bit (but ended up with more adjustment in the zero screw which is fine). Still tweaking the bed level, but at least it is easy to do now.
     
  10. tesseract

    tesseract Moderator
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    cool that is what I thought may happen
    with the adjustment screw

    but you could always just lower the four corners of the bed LOL
     
  11. cosber

    cosber Active Member

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    Tesseract and anyone who used these,
    Were your screws long enough? I went to install but the screws are too short. Had to squeeze it completely shut to get the screw to come through the bed, leaving no room for adjustment.
     
  12. Seshan

    Seshan Active Member

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    I picked up some longer ones, 35mm i believe.
     
  13. tesseract

    tesseract Moderator
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    I don't remember getting longer ones but how but I originally had to go through the wood also so they may have changed the size of the screw when they started using the thinner layouts
     
  14. scotta

    scotta Active Member

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    Cosber - I fitted two of the levers to one one of the plate. I have the full glass version (i.e. no wood). They barely fit for me. Not enough to bite fully into the Nylocks.
     
  15. Seshan

    Seshan Active Member

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    Lowes' at least in Canada sells m4*35mm bolts.

    Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk
     
  16. 2knuckels

    2knuckels New Member

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    Cheap solution for leveling.
    Just put O-rings between the spacer and the glass plate, on all four fixing points. (use e.g. o-ring di=3 h=1)
    It is easy to level the bed with these applied. you can even use the original screws.
    Maybe the Robo team should add these to every robo (costs 5 cents).
     
  17. tesseract

    tesseract Moderator
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    the only issue I see is that the thickness of the "O"ring may or may not be enough but it can not hurt to try them
     
  18. Printed Solid

    Printed Solid Volunteer Admin
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    I don't know... that's an awfully big investment you're talking about there money bags. :D
     
  19. 2knuckels

    2knuckels New Member

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    It worked for me.
    Maybe I was lucky that my bed did not Need so much leveling.

    -> It was not the costs, but try to buy 4 orings. Normally it is easier to by 1000 as a package.
     
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