Rostock Max V1 Binding in U-joint arm. Repair or upgrade path

[OiD]

Hello everyone,

I've been fighting with this printer for over 5 weeks. I upgraded to the latest FW and tweaked settings, re-squared the towers and their distances, re-measured all the off-sets and dimensions, followed multiple calibration guides but I just can not get a good first layer. Today I set out to check all the delta arm joints and lo and behold... a bind of the tightest kind!

The actuall axle in one tower was rotating in the injection molded part! Once removed the carriage moves so much better, I'm amazed! It affected all carriages...

Anyway. I'm not sure if to upgrade the carriages to the injection molded ones (SKU: 70849) and the new ball cup arms (SKU: 70861) or if I should go with something else like TrickLasers carbon fiber rods? What else would I need if I went with carbon fiber rods? I have a V1 Rostock Max.

I cannot separete the U-joint from the axle so I have no other options I think. BTW, if I can get parts from Europe that would be a nice alternative as I live over here

Stuck U-joint on axle

Thanks!

[geneb]

I'd go with the injection molded carriages & ball-cup arms. I've got them on both my V1s. Works great.

g.

[OiD]

Hi Geneb,

Thansk for the input, after looking at the shipping cost I'm really wondering if there are any oveseas sellers or alternative kits.

For now I've sanded the plastic part that holds the axle in place with the 4 screws and loosend them a tiny bit. Now I can rotate it with just one finger instead of needing pliers, what a difference! So much better when doing the first layer. I need to redo all the calibrations (again, arg....) and I'll see how far I can get it for a good first layer.

Returning to the seemecnc parts, any idea how fast they ship them and how long it would take to get here? I'll have to add tax as well, I normally buy from asia and europe and items nearly never get stop for import fees, but when stuff comes from america... it's often the other way around!

The carriage and ball-cup arms sound like a good upgrade but compared to the price I paid for the printer it's a large percentage

I mean I'd love to upgrade to a 32bit controller (got a DUE laying around here) and 0.9º steppers as well but fist come the mechanics (and structural suport)!

Between today and tomorrow I'd like to make up my mind, I don't think the carbon fiber rods are for me. I undestand that they are lighter and sturdier so i'ts really important if you want to print faster I guess.

Ah, decisions decisions... It's either DIY or Buy the kit, let's see if I can make up my mind today... The only reason I'm looking at the carriages is for the new arms. At least the prnter is moving forward

[geneb]

I would contact SeeMeCNC directly (they don't lurk here much), and find out what the total cost would be to sell/ship to you.

g.

[Xenocrates]

SeemeCNC has a European reseller, Futur3D, but they don't seem to carry parts, just the V3. You may be able to contact them and have them order arms from SeemeCNC in their next shipment.

[OiD]

Hi all,

In the end I just went and bought it from the shop. Seems to be stuck somewhere (hopefully on a plane ). I dismantled the whole end effector and arms and found quite a few rough spots. Polished the rods, cleaned the U joints, sanded the end effector, losened some screws and I can now print in a much bigger area at the cost of platform stability.

Well, for now I'll continue troubleshooting other ishues and try to upgrade to one of the E3D I have laying around, I'm definatly not going for a dual setup until I can get one nozzle working properly hahahaha.

I really hope the new arms help with getting the bed level, I mean I'm aiming for the full build platform as some things that I have planned are quite big (at least in one direction, not all three).

I'm still probaly looking at some tower rotation (+-0.5º) even with the new arms. Z leveling really screws things up so that's disabled along with bed leveling.
The nozzle is still raising at 145mm opposite from the towers with the new measured values (stock arms are 270mm instead of 269mm, all 6). I'm also waiting for some 32bit, 1/32step goodness to arrive as well, the 0.9º stepper were out of the budget for now. I really wanted to go for a RADDS or Panucatt Azteeg's controllers but settled for a ramps-fd (yes, pure crap, but my field is electronics and I'd rather spend an hour fixing the errors of the FD than droping another 100€ )

Thanks for the input! In the end I just went for it