Thursday, May 22, 2025
Flexure Coupling Tweaks
The previous Flexure Coupling was a bit too stiff, and also perched the connecting nut right on top of the coupling. This in theory allowed a bit of play for self-centring but but in practice this needed a lot of manual (and physical!) adjustment. As I noted when building a μRepRap for someone else with proper limit switches etc., it also tends to strip when you hit the limit, and have forgotten to connect the switch. Amazing how your attention focuses when you're actually going to hand something over to someone else. So, new version:
This one completely engulfs the nut in the tapered cavity, and has much thinner flexures. This gives more lateral play for removing wobble. Note that this flexure design doesn't tend to twist and introduce backlash. Quick test shows they centre pretty well, so I'll install a set on Maus #2 and see how they go.
The buttpain here is that the coupling now needs to be printed with a brim as it is too delicate to stay on the bed otherwise. So I have to redo all the build files in git, rebuild and upload the build plates, take new photos, and update the build and calibration documentation. Damn.
