Mendel Mini-Carriage.
by sliptonic, published
Description
In my config, I've got the dump zone on the far left and the OpenX won't let my extruder reach it. I started playing with this idea for a very lightweight carriage that would only have what I needed. Since I use mechanical endstops, it has no holes for mounting flags and is optimized for a horizontally mounted Wade's extruder.
This design is narrow, light, and uses only 8 bearings. (It might be possible to fully constrain it with just 6 bearings by eliminating one on the bottom of each rail.)
Since this is just an experiment, I'm marking it as a work-in-progress and I welcome comments.
So far, I've only printed a couple small parts with it but it seems very light and tight.
carriage3.stl is a revised version to deal with a couple problems:
The belt is uncomfortably close to the screw heads on the unclamped rail. In my setup, it barely touches, but any rubbing is probably too much. This version recesses 4mm nuts in the carriage and expects a 4mm bolt instead of socket head cap screw. The direction of the bolts is reversed.
The posts for mounting the extruder have been widened and are a little taller to give some additional clearance for the big Wade's gear.
I added a gusseted side on each end to stiffen the carriage.
I'm still planning to redesign the clamping rail to add a tensioning screw for the belt.
Recent Comments
view allHi,
when i try to print this in ReplicatorG i only can pick build from SD card, is this normal?
The reason why i write this is because for the moment my SD cardreader isn't working on the motherboard from my ToM. So unable to try this nice feature out :(
I design in heekscad and haven't played with the .step export before. If those don't work for you, post back and I'll try exporting as .igs.
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Instructions
pinch the belt between the flat part of the clamp rail and the little clamp plate with 4 M3 screws and nuts.
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Any chance of getting the original files? igs, stp, or par would be awesome!
I design in heekscad and haven't played with the .step export before. If those don't work for you, post back and I'll try exporting as .igs.
I'm designing yet another printer. could you tell me the distance between the holes on a wade extruder, and the distance between the mendel X rods?
Now if you use your carriage and Greg Frost's belt tensioner and make it work for the Prusa Mendel I will buy one from you.
You said there's no place for an opto-flag, but actually you could quite easily put some thin sheet next to (or maybe in place of) one of the M4 washers, bend it round and use that for an opto-endstop. :)

Hi,
when i try to print this in ReplicatorG i only can pick build from SD card, is this normal?
The reason why i write this is because for the moment my SD cardreader isn't working on the motherboard from my ToM. So unable to try this nice feature out :(