Replacement Carriages

[Kethku]

I recently upgraded my 2 year old Rostock Max v2 with a shiny new Duet Wifi and am loving the quieter steppers and ghostless flat surfaces on my prints. However, this has gotten me wanting to push closer toward perfection. I am noticing some slight residual ghosting on my prints which I think might either be due to the astrosyn dampers I have installed (I'd like to keep them if I can because they do reduce noise a bit) or to some slop in the injection molded cheap skates I got from the original kit.

I've seen a number of posts on this forum suggesting Trick Trucks because they are lighter, more tune-able, and have 3 wheels instead of 4. Unfortunately it looks like http://www.tricklaser.com/ does not sell the trick trucks anymore

This got me looking for alternatives. One option would be to print some sort of replacement. Another possibility is that my cheap skates are miss configured. I have tightened hand tight, however they can still rock when pushed, and appear to have some slop in them. I'm curious if anyone else has encountered issues with the injection molded cheap skates, or if I'm alone.

[geneb]

The dampers are going to be moving just a little bit and that's what is causing the ghosting. If you've got a DuetWifi, you don't need them as the Trinamic stepper drivers on the DuetWifi are incredibly quiet. They even quieted down my v1 and the case on that thing is damn near a bongo drum.

g.

[Kethku]

Thing is I can see visible rocking on the carriages which I suspect is due to insufficiently tight tolerances in the injection molded parts. This is made worse as well by the fact that I have also switched to fsr based auto bed leveling which is enabled by the duet electronics. When the nozzle taps the bed, the skate rocks back on the rails and I'm concerned this is effecting the accuracy of my bed leveling. I'm definitely in the market for replacing the cheap skates if I can. Maybe with newer replacement cheap skates (maybe mine are just old and have worn out?) or ideally with something I could print!

Has anyone experimented with some printed or third party skates for their linear rails other than the trick trucks? I have noticed that the new Artemis 3d printer which appears to use the same rails has some kind of metal skates which I would love to upgrade my rostock with. However they don't appear to be available in the SeeMeCNC store

Any help?

Keith

[geneb]

If the carriage is rocking, it's not due to any tolerance issue - you might have a broken carriage. That's the only way they're going to move in a way they shouldn't. The screw bosses can break over time if the carriage was slightly misaligned when it was screwed together - that's happened on two of my printers. I didn't notice until I bumped a carriage one day and it caused me to check all my machines.

g.

[MrScott]

In the injection molded carriages, the wheel bearings are held in place by two press-fit pieces. When you bump the nozzle on something (e.g. the print plate), the two pieces can get pushed apart, allowing the wheels to wobble.

[geneb]

MrScott, Are you referring to the delrin bearing covers?

g.