Monday, February 06, 2006
Second z-y stage built
Making the second z-y stage only took about two hours. There was much less fumbling around this time. I'm tempted to make a third one and throw the first one away.
I may do that later on.
The y stage towers move easily with a touch of the finger. There was much less friction in the system than I had thought. Of course, the acid test will be when I load the x-axis onto those towers. I've calculated that loading to be no more than about 3 kg split two ways between the towers so it should not be terrible.
I did make one small mistake on the second one though. I took a centre measurement to be a top end measurement on the top bearing plate.
It will only take about 10 minutes to shift that upwards, but I'm not going to fix that tonight.![](http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/1787/1159/320/x-axis%20mocked%20up.jpg)
In the last pic I've mocked up the x-axis so that you can get a feel for the overall size of godzilla. It got considerably wider when I decided that it would be best to keep the x-axis threaded rod on the centre-line between the two towers. That meant that I had to handle the full 36" of the rod plus the connector plus the stepper. Oh well, I didn't really want to throw any dinner parties this year. :-)
I c-clamped the beams onto the towers and checked the resistance to movement. It's more substantial than before, but still no big strain from a purely qualitative standpoint.
![](http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/1787/1159/320/z-y%20pair%2001.jpg)
The y stage towers move easily with a touch of the finger. There was much less friction in the system than I had thought. Of course, the acid test will be when I load the x-axis onto those towers. I've calculated that loading to be no more than about 3 kg split two ways between the towers so it should not be terrible.
I did make one small mistake on the second one though. I took a centre measurement to be a top end measurement on the top bearing plate.
![](http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/1787/1159/320/z-y%20pair%2002.jpg)
![](http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/1787/1159/320/x-axis%20mocked%20up.jpg)
In the last pic I've mocked up the x-axis so that you can get a feel for the overall size of godzilla. It got considerably wider when I decided that it would be best to keep the x-axis threaded rod on the centre-line between the two towers. That meant that I had to handle the full 36" of the rod plus the connector plus the stepper. Oh well, I didn't really want to throw any dinner parties this year. :-)
I c-clamped the beams onto the towers and checked the resistance to movement. It's more substantial than before, but still no big strain from a purely qualitative standpoint.