Tubular Drive
Description
Tubular Drive Test Fixed Drive
youtube.com/watch?v=k0G8B77UOJs
Tubular Drive Test Fixed Conduit
youtube.com/watch?v=70dTRN7zSpU
Instructions
This uses standard 608 skateboard bearings for the wheels. Brush the sides of the wheels with acetone and sandwich the bearing between them. After the wheel has setup and is hard brush the surface of the wheel with acetone, this will help to bond the abs even more.
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This could be good printable alternative to linear bearings, even with traditional belt-driven movements. As far as driving is concerned, I suspect there wouldn't be enough friction to reliably position printing surface due to slipping. On the other hand, if you build reliable absolute positioning sensor with magnetic strip or just current sensor, if could be mitigated, but it would require firmware changes.
The friction is pretty high, more then I would have thought. The drive has bolts so you can increase the wheel pressure. As soon as my stepper motor arrives I will do some testing to determine accuracy. I also ordered a linear encoder, so I should be able to do some step corrections. I will have to look at what changes I will need to make to the drive code.
Did you do anything to the curved surface of the drive roller to smooth it down or make it more accurate? I tried something similer to this and could never get it to roll smooth enought on the shaft due to runout and imperfections in the printed surface.
nice. i could use this in an automated overhead gantry with a camera bolted onto it as a documentation aid. will have to think about it tho.
In the mean time, what are you using for a control unit?
I think it work well in a gantry type application. You can stiffen aluminum conduit by inserting oak dowels the inside diameter of the conduit to achieve long runs. I'm not using anything at the moment to control it. I was just powering it off of my bench power supply for the videos. My stepper motor version will use the Makerbot stepper driver connected to an Android ADK.
I an see some very interesting uses for this great device..
Thanks for sharing
8-) 8-) 8-)
License
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You might be able to increase the grip on the tubes by coating the surface of the rollers with rubber cement. An adjustable tension knob/bolt on one of the rollers would help as well.
The drive rollers have adjustment, the bolts on the top push down on the wheel bolt. I dont know if rubber cement would work well. I'm going to be looking a using plasticoat.