Group buy of stainless round rod for mendel?

[pelrun]

I just received my clonedel parts from the nice fellows at the seattle
hackerspace (http://metrixcreatespace.com/) for the low, low price of
AU$70 (incl shipping) - sure beats spending days printing the parts,
as long as you have the drill press to put the holes in! There are a
few pictures of the parts on my blog (http://projects.pelrun.net/)

I've been cannibalising the old Rapman Darwin for most of the vitamin
parts - it was far too difficult to keep running in it's old state,
with the constantly rusting smooth rod and the acrylic parts that were
always breaking and the nuts that could not be kept tight and the
impossibility of keeping the frame squared. But the threaded rod,
nuts, washers and electronics were still good and are now rapidly
forming the base of the new mendel. The mendel can't use the NEMA23
size motors from the Darwin, but HSBNE's stepper drawer has plenty of
spare NEMA17's from the printers we periodically eviscerate :)

I've spent the afternoon running around trying to find a reasonable
supplier of stainless round rod (no way am I using the constantly-
rusting mild-steel rod from the darwin) and found http://allthingsstainless.com.au/
which has a very good price on M8 round rod of $6.55/metre. The
clonedel, like the prusa mendel it's based on, only needs 3m of smooth
rod, which is $20.

Unfortunately shipping is also $20, whether I get 3m of rod or 12 (or
more!) So is anyone interested in a group order of round rod for their
(future) mendel builds to split the cost?

- James

[CunningFellow]

On Thursday, 7 April 2011 16:43:50 UTC+10, pelrun wrote:

I've spent the afternoon running around trying to find a reasonable
supplier of stainless round rod (no way am I using the constantly-
rusting mild-steel rod from the darwin) and found http://allthingsstainless.com.au/
which has a very good price on M8 round rod of $6.55/metre. The
clonedel, like the prusa mendel it's based on, only needs 3m of smooth
rod, which is $20.

- James

There are three places down at Yatala that have stainless.

Of the three Midway are the only ones that are a pain to deal with.

 

I normally get my stainless at tubesales  (a different hobby)

My big question though - is that rod good enough?  It is only mill finish, not

ground/polished.  Are you sliding bearings up and down it. or just plastic

bushings.

[Triffid Hunter]

On Sat, Jul 28, 2012 at 5:43 AM, CunningFellow <and...@thehacktory.com> wrote:
> There are three places down at Yatala that have stainless.
>
> Of the three Midway are the only ones that are a pain to deal with.
>
> I normally get my stainless at tubesales (a different hobby)
>
>
> My big question though - is that rod good enough? It is only mill finish,
> not
> ground/polished. Are you sliding bearings up and down it. or just plastic
> bushings.

fwiw I've been printing with smooth rod from all things stainless for
almost a year now, working great so far.

Only recently installed linear bearings on it though, I've been told
to expect grooves at some point since it's the wrong material for
running bearings on.

[andrewm]

Yeah - that is what I thought (grooves) if not using hardened/ground rod.

I guess these printers have light loading though.

I notice your name is associated with create3d that I was looking at
getting some things off. Also I see you are a member of the BNE
Hackerspace. Do you ever come up to it from the Tweed?

I am probably going along to see what it is like on Teu night.

[Triffid Hunter]

On Sun, Jul 29, 2012 at 3:52 PM, andrewm <and...@thehacktory.com> wrote:
> I notice your name is associated with create3d that I was looking at
> getting some things off.

yep that's my shop, although these days I have a supply chain manager
(delusr) in tweed heads as well so it's no longer all me :)

> Also I see you are a member of the BNE
> Hackerspace. Do you ever come up to it from the Tweed?

I intend to at some point, for a while there hsbne was the closest
hackerspace to me!

It is a bit far for me to organise visiting easily, some day I shall
make it up :)

I'm even further south now, currently living in the hills behind
mullumbimby so brisbane is a good few hours drive