This is my first 3d printer and I intend to fully own it, pursuant to Bart's motto "If you didn't build it, you will never own it."
The Hadron ORDbot was received on Monday, April 23, in excellent condition, well packed and nothing missing. The mechanical part was easy to build, but not without hiccups. Some things are obvious in the end, but a puzzle at start. Like drilling the holes on the extrusions.
I drilled the Y-axis hole at the wrong end (Bart, please add to the relevant drawing that the Y-axis hole is to be drilled near the extrusion end that's NOT tapped to take the foot screws
). Fortunately, the extra hole is at the bottom and might prove useful for some extra wiring in the future.
The machine is indeed very stiff and the design splendid. The lovely metal look only breaks by the long nylon stepper spacers of the x-axis. These spacers are also the only places where I see a little flex under heavy stress.
I like screws well tighten but I read a warning about the nylon spacers that kept me from doing so. However, since I happened to have some 10mm 1mm thick aluminum tubing laying around, I cut 4 pcs 38mm each, ground the ends flat and replaced the long nylon spacers of the X-axis stepper. I now have them as tight as I want.
Boy, is this rigid! the whole X-axis feels like cast iron!
- Replaced the nylon stepper spacers.
I'll leave it that way. I like the all metal look and feel.
Maybe this can be an option for the next batch of ORDbots. It shouldn't raise the cost by much.