Earlier I made a post about my “case” for my 3d printer (https://plus.google.com/118136210022944153802/posts/DDwCiJCjm4N). I just got back from my university lectures today and started testing it. I noticed that my Y axis has some slack after running for about an hour. I think this might be due to thermal expansion of the material, also my fan holder (made from pla) got loose and nearly fell off during the print.
I have attached a video where you can see the Y axis in motion. The air inside the box has a temperature of about 35-38 °C the belt itself has a temperature of 37°C. In the end the print failed because the Y axis skipped about 2cm.
I also noticed some play on the Z axis during the print which caused some squishing in the upper layers.
Has anyone got ideas about or previous experience with expanding belt?
I’ll let the printer cool off now and see if the Y axis gets better again.
@John_Ridley I have no idea what the belt is made of.
The printer has cooled down now and the belt is still loose. I’ll have to retighten it by disassembling the Y-Bed. I fixed the Z axis by manually rotating one motor half a turn.
@Mano_Biletsky_Open_M it is not a case of too hot electronics, the belt is skipping steps without the box and at room temperature as well. It is because of the belt.
Are any of the relevant structural components in your printer PLA? Because at those temperatures they’ll start to soften, and force will make them deform. That would probably explain why the belt it still loose even after cooling down.
I’d say replace your PLA parts with ABS ones and that will go a long way toward improving reliability.
@Stephen_Baird everything apart from the fan holder that nearly fell off and some vibration dampeners which are PLA, everything on my printer is ABS.
The belt clamps themselves are pretty close to the heated bed. I haven’t measured the temperature down there but it’ll be pretty high I guess. I might cover them with some aluminum foil to reflect the heat.
Previously my y axis belt was attached to some stand offs on the plastic print bed. They become deformed after awhile, so I detached it from both standoffs, used a metal strap between the ends of the belt with the appropriate tension, then attached that metal strap to one of the bed standoffs, haven’t had a problem since then. Don’t use the bed structure to tension your belts if possible, unless you’ve got a bed that is relatively immune to deformation and temperature swings.
Looks like a rrp mendel to me. I had the Same Problems with that printer because the belt clamps got soft. Reprinting them in Abs and ensuring belt tension solved this
