Liberty4Ever's Hadron Build

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Re: Liberty4Ever's Hadron Build

Postby Liberty4Ever » Tue Jun 26, 2012 6:37 pm

I've been putting off a post to this build log until I have a few more nagging little things done. I still need to make the Delrin nut plates for the Z axis before the mechanical assembly is truly finished. I did most of the assembly last Saturday. I've been spending a lot of time since then planning the electrical installation... where to mount the power supply, where to run the wires, nagging little details about the limit switches, etc.

I'm placing daily orders with McMaster-Carr. This is starting to get expensive! :roll:

I did buy some nice Igus cable track to tidy up the wiring to the three axes of motion. My goal is to avoid the springs used as flexible wiring conduit, and I'm definitely going to avoid that rat's nest of wires appearance that seems common in the RepRap world. One foot of the Igus track arrived today and the other three will arrive tomorrow. The one foot section is almost enough for one 8" axis of motion, but it was enough for me to see that it's going to make for a nice installation, other than the bend extending out past the outline of the Hadron when the Z and X axes are all the way up or all the way to the right. I'll park the Hadron with the build platform to the back, the extruder to the left and the gantry most of the way down when I want to take it someplace. I've already promised four different on-site 3D printing Show & Tell trips, including a company that a friend owns. He has a $30K Dimension 3D printer for engineering prototypes.

This will all be better with pictures, so I'll make a big picture laden post in a day or two, after the mechanical stuff is essentially finished, and before I do too much of the electrical wiring. I have a lot of tips and tricks to share, so if you haven't built yet, get ready to take notes. :)

The mechanical assembly had a lot of OOPS moments and a lot of rework and a fair amount of head scratching, but no major catastrophes. If the controls work goes as well as the mechanical assembly, I should be getting started with 3D printing soon! I expect a decent learning curve experimenting with various printing parameters, but much less than there would be if I wasn't standing on the shoulders of the 3D printer hackers who came before me.
Apparently, I didn't build that! :-)
Liberty4Ever
 
Posts: 274
Joined: Wed May 30, 2012 1:49 am
Location: Lexington KY

Re: Liberty4Ever's Hadron Build

Postby Liberty4Ever » Thu Jun 28, 2012 10:53 am

I've been wrapping up the last of the mechanical issues on my Hadron build. It's taking a little longer because I've been coloring outside the lines a bit. I designed the cable track routing yesterday and assembled the three Igus cable tracks, and I should be installing them today and running a lot of wires.

I'm making daily McMaster-Carr orders, trying to push this build to the finish line. That wouldn't be necessary if I had a good inventory of metric hardware. I have a Lowe's and a Home Depot a mile from my house, but I still prefer to place McMaster-Carr orders for most things. It seems to fit my work pattern - design a subsystem, order the parts that will arrive tomorrow, and then assemble the parts I designed yesterday that arrived in the brown truck today. Many days, to get a minimum order, I add metric hardware to help me finally build a metric fastener inventory. That's significantly increasing the cost.

After an initial flurry of activity and most of a Hadron emerging from a big box-o-parts, there hasn't been much apparent progress lately. I've spent a lot of time staring at the Hadron and scratching my head. I don't have fancy store bought 3D CAD software, so I do a lot of this the old fashioned way... in the real world. The parts don't turn red when there's an interference fit, but you can still tell. :)

Not only hasn't there been much visible progress, it actually looks like I'm going backwards. I have all of the major assemblies apart again to install the limit switches and a couple of other last minute additions like the Igus cable track. I knew the limit switches needed to be installed as I was doing the initial assembly, but I was impatient to see the big parts together and working, and didn't want all of those loose wires getting in the way. With more confidence in the eventual outcome and more experience, my next Hadron will go together a lot faster. I hope to make a series of videos to document the next build, after I know what I'm doing. A lot of people prefer to build from videos rather than reading a set of instructions.

I've taken several pictures of my first Hadron build to document it and illustrate some areas that I thought could use some additional explanation. I'll post those soon, with some comments that will hopefully help those building their first Hadron.

If you're building now and you're in a hurry for the big tip - install all limit switches as you go and wire them with long leads that you can route to the electronics later, and tie the wires into loops to manage the wiring mess as you're finishing the mechanical assembly. There's no point in putting it all together and then taking it back apart later to add limit switches when you know you're going to be needing them.
Apparently, I didn't build that! :-)
Liberty4Ever
 
Posts: 274
Joined: Wed May 30, 2012 1:49 am
Location: Lexington KY

Re: Liberty4Ever's Hadron Build

Postby Randolph » Mon Jul 16, 2012 8:30 pm

Liberty4Ever wrote:.
.
.
I FINALLY BUILT SOMETHING

The MakerGear Plastruder kit arrived this morning.



I got the same parts first. I am curious to know what kind of quality you found on the white, printed plastic parts? With the great reputation of MakerGear, I expected nice parts. While the metal parts looked great, the plastic parts sucked. There were small voids in the surface, a lot of stringing, and the holes were not all consistent; some being too tight for the screws to drop in. Also, the receptacles for the nuts for the spring adjuster bolts were over sized and one just lets the nut spin instead of holding it for adjustment of the spring tension.
I also had to trim the receptacle for the geared motor before it would fit flush.
I would not have posted this info here except that I emailed MakerGear the same info and haven't gotten an answer from them.
I would just like to know if this lack of printed plastic part quality is normal or if I got the "Monday morning hangover" parts.
Thanks.

Edited 7-16-12
To be totally fair to MakerGear, I HAVE to add this note since I did get a reply today from them. I was just being impatient and now I am embarrassed.
Here is Karen's reply to my inquiry:
Hi Randolph,

Thank you for your recent orders and I apologize for the delay in getting back to you.

I'm sorry to hear that you ran into issues with the printed parts in your Stepper Plastruder Kit.

Because you had to clean up the parts to get them to work for you, it's difficult for us to now determine exactly what went wrong. We'll get some replacement printed parts (that are representative of what we normally ship) out to you tomorrow.

Thank you,
Karen
Last edited by Randolph on Mon Jul 16, 2012 10:41 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Randolph
 
Posts: 22
Joined: Thu Jan 13, 2011 6:01 am

Re: Liberty4Ever's Hadron Build

Postby Liberty4Ever » Mon Jul 16, 2012 9:04 pm

The printed parts I received from MakerGear were about what I expected. They were typical printed part quality, which is to say that they were acceptable to sell to people who are building a 3D printer (a sympathetic market) but they aren't pretty enough to meet the expectations of the general buying public.

I had a slightly undersized hole or two, but not too bad. It wasn't enough to slow me down in the assembly process. I think most printed parts err on the small side on the holes, because they can always be reamed to fit. An oversized printed teardrop shaped hole (hard to print a circle in the vertical plane without support material so the tops are steeple shaped) are not functional, but a little undersized can be expanded a bit.

The nut pockets were slightly oversized on my printed parts, but not so large that the nuts would spin.

All of my MakerGear extruder went together well. I haven't printed anything with it yet.

That being said, I'm anxiously awaiting the arrival of the four QU-BD extruders that I ordered via KickStarter. They were much less expensive than the MakerGear extruder kit, and the QU-BD extruders that I bought will arrive completely assembled. The QU-BD extruders also use no 3D printed parts and no laser cut plywood as the MakerGear extruder kit does. But then again, I haven't printed anything with the QU-BD extruders yet, and I'm not entirely sure that anyone else has either. They do look nice, but the proof is in the pudding. We'll see, hopefully soon.

If the QU-BD extruders are good... want to buy an assembled MakerGear extruder? :D
Apparently, I didn't build that! :-)
Liberty4Ever
 
Posts: 274
Joined: Wed May 30, 2012 1:49 am
Location: Lexington KY

Re: Liberty4Ever's Hadron Build

Postby Randolph » Mon Jul 16, 2012 9:55 pm

Liberty4Ever wrote:The printed parts I received from MakerGear were about what I expected. They were typical printed part quality, which is to say that they were acceptable to sell to people who are building a 3D printer (a sympathetic market) but they aren't pretty enough to meet the expectations of the general buying public.

If the QU-BD extruders are good... want to buy an assembled MakerGear extruder? :D


LOL!
No thanks. I already have one of those.
I also have 2 QU-BD extruders on the way (eventually).
So. If my MakerGear Plastruder with less than perfect plastic parts works the way it is, I need to not complain. OK.
If I am able to print better parts, I can always replace them later.
Thanks for the answer.
Randolph
 
Posts: 22
Joined: Thu Jan 13, 2011 6:01 am

Re: Liberty4Ever's Hadron Build

Postby Randolph » Mon Jul 16, 2012 10:45 pm

I want to make sure everyone sees the note I added to my original question about MakerGear part quality. I am having crow for dinner tonight.
They did reply in a timely manner and graciously offered to send replacement parts.
Customer service does not get any better that that.
Thank you MakerGear.
Randolph
Randolph
 
Posts: 22
Joined: Thu Jan 13, 2011 6:01 am

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