20mm Plastic T-Slot Extrusion (Out Dated)
by LukeChilson, published
Description
Aluminum T-slot extrusion is great, it is also expensive and your required project does not always call for the strength or weight of aluminum. This is a prerelease of a 20mm plastic T-slot profile we are in the process of having manufactured. It is designed for use with M3 nuts and bolts and the dimensions have been modified for printing. The small insert holds two captive nuts to aid in bolting down faceplates and accessories. Expect faceplates, brackets, hinges, handles and many other accessories to be uploaded in the coming days.
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Luke Please contact me regarding this plastic t slot extrusion [email protected]
As for the website, we'll be updating to the reprap wiki under 'plastic T-slot' and a home site as we are able to author the material. Also very soon, because who needs sleep.
The word good sir is that we have a new revision ready to be released. It prints much faster, prints stronger and will be more compatible with different bolt types. In the next few days I'm hoping to get write-ups and release the schematic for the profile, a modified profile that allows you to do some sneaky skeinforge business we've been utilizing to print them strong and fast (you can print enough beams for a Mendel Prusa in under a day, and we think we can half that shortly), two different approaches to completely printed hardware for assembling them, and a welding jig for creating long beams. We are also playing around with different material types as well, last night we printed some Polycarbonate and were rather pleased with the results.
We're talking to a lot of manufactures trying to find the best fit as we would like to emphasize dimensional stability as well as structural integrity. We had originally anticipated manufacturing by extrusion though now we are also exploring injection molding to get more precision.
When the new
beams are published we'll update these as legacy and redirect to the new ones.
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Instructions
For longer extrusions, you can create a very strong joint by putting a little pool of acetone on foil, dipping the ends of two bars and pressing them together.
The faceplates and brackets were designed with 8mm long bolts in mind. The profile can accept your leftover M3 makerbot bolts head first without an insert, use any length 8mm or longer and tighten a nut down using two pliers.
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What's the word on the manufacturing of this plastic t-slot? Any webpage I can visit for more info?
The word good sir is that we have a new revision ready to be released. It prints much faster, prints stronger and will be more compatible with different bolt types. In the next few days I'm hoping to get write-ups and release the schematic for the profile, a modified profile that allows you to do some sneaky skeinforge business we've been utilizing to print them strong and fast (you can print enough beams for a Mendel Prusa in under a day, and we think we can half that shortly), two different approaches to completely printed hardware for assembling them, and a welding jig for creating long beams. We are also playing around with different material types as well, last night we printed some Polycarbonate and were rather pleased with the results.
We're talking to a lot of manufactures trying to find the best fit as we would like to emphasize dimensional stability as well as structural integrity. We had originally anticipated manufacturing by extrusion though now we are also exploring injection molding to get more precision.
When the new
beams are published we'll update these as legacy and redirect to the new ones.
Nice work with these. Any way you could make a set for use with the extra M5 bolts as well?
Also, should "insert 20mm Tslot.stl" have 2 holes for nuts on it? Seems to be a solid piece right now.
You are correct, the insert is erroneous. A new version should be uploaded in the next few days that is substantially improved and has all the correct inserts. We haven't looked into M5 bolts with the 20mm as the wall thicknesses required were a little less than desirable. I can play around with some variants and see if somethings workable.
Nice print quality! What is your setup like? Printer, extruder, nozzle etc...
thanks, I'm running TOM, MK6, .4 nozzle, .3 layer height, scavanged aluminum platform. I've actually been battling a periodic wave in my prints I think I may have vanquished after these were taken, some gorilla glue to the Y linear bearings and my last beam came out much better.
Luke Please contact me regarding this plastic t slot extrusion [email protected]