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Hello everyone,
While replacing the stock hotend with the E3D-v6, I noticed that the effector wobbles quite a bit before it actually starts moving the cheapskates.

The holes on the delta arms that snap into the white thingamijigs(not sure what they're called) are too loose. So when the delta arm moves, it first moves a bit until it catches the white thing and then it starts to move the effector.

Here's an image to give you a better idea of what I am talking about. The arm in the right fits perfectly in the hole and does not wobble at all, but the one of the left you can somewhat see what I mean. Here's the weird thing, my prints have been great quality, at least in my eyes. I may be getting bad quality but it just looks good to me.

Do you guys have any recommendations for ways I can remedy this? I am considering some type of adhesive to keep it from moving. Something that will stick well, can handle heat, but will also come off in case I want to change something later on.

Thanks

Its all of the components flexing and stackup of looseness. Most people replace the arms with tricklaser arms or other arms that have less play, even tricklaser arms have some play in them.

The u-joints definitely have some wiggle. Especially the molded plastic ones. I use the TL arms on my main machine and have a set of the original aluminum joints on another one. I have a set of the plastic joints, and like the weight saving idea, but haven't felt compelled to install them.

I think the reason that it works is that there theoretically aren't any forces on the effector while printing besides its own inertia. As long as you're not over-extruding and dragging the hot-end through the print, your hand wiggling the platform is more force than the effector ever experiences.

Hm, that's very interesting. I would have to agree with your theory on why it does not show up in my prints. This is especially true because there is very little inertia created by the lightweight effector/hotend, so it most likely does not cause a problem.

Since I am getting such great quality prints, I don't think I'm going to bother upgrading the arms. I have already spent quite a bit of money on upgrading the hotend, heated bed, and creating an enclosure. It may be a possibility in the future.

I am considering using either superglue or RTV silicone to solve the problem.
Any other ideas or pros/cons to one or the other?

addisonElliott wrote:I am considering using either superglue or RTV silicone to solve the problem.
Any other ideas or pros/cons to one or the other?

What do you want to glue? The u-joints have to rotate around both axes.

What about small rubber-bands or zip-ties to squeeze/pinch the connecting arms together?

Yeah, I completely neglected that the arms move on the u-joints.

The zip-tie/rubberband idea might work. I have some zip-ties and I'm going to try that and report back.

zip ties would not work, they need to stretch/move.
Rubber bands pulling the arm pairs together may help a some, but not much since the u-joints are not spherical.


The Trick Laser Carbon Fiber Arms have spherical rod ends, with the supplied rubber "zero-lash" straps installed there is absolutely NO play, it is rock solid.

I used light rubber bands on mine, top and bottom to take out some lash, it didn't take out 100% of it but helps quite a bit. You won't get 100% of it out.

bvandiepenbos wrote:zip ties would not work, they need to stretch/move.
Rubber bands pulling the arm pairs together may help a some, but not much since the u-joints are not spherical.


The Trick Laser Carbon Fiber Arms have spherical rod ends, with the supplied rubber "zero-lash" straps installed there is absolutely NO play, it is rock solid.

I don't think he's talking about pulling the parallel arms together like what the straps do. I think it's the forks at the end of each arm that attach to the u-joints are a tad loose.

If the arms were held together by straps or bands or springs, it would essentially do the same thing as the clips. As long as the axles didn't fall out, that is.

Zip ties absolutely do work. I have been running my setup this way for months. I also recently devised a new way to add tension between the arms with latex tubing.

You're using the zipties to hold together a distance that doesn't change... Got it. I, and probably the others, thought you meant that you were using zipties where you've got the silicone tubing... Read it wrong, sorry.

No worries. I hadn't ever posted in this thread, just wanted to illustrate what some people were talking about. As a note, I have since removed the latex tubing and will do some tests without it. I think it was a little too much tension.

Or you could print these rather than use zip ties.

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:810733