Look what I got in today!
This tube has a wall thickness of 1/16" and when I weighed it compared to the pvc one it came out pratically the same.
A friend of mine thought he had some of this size in his shop but he didn't so I bought some from here:
http://www.velocityair.cc/35alutubing.htm

Hopefully soon I will make some end caps for it and put it on the pp. Attached files

 

Sweet Shaun! that will make a nice drive! The price is right as well. Nice find.
Do you have an idea for making the end caps yet?
Mark

 

I have a few ideas on the end caps, but I'm leaning more on Randy's way when he did his for his pvc tube. I just don't know if I'm gonna make them out of wood or something better.

 

Now with the aluminium tube and how precise it will be it would be a shame not to make a couple aluminum end-caps on a lathe to keep that precision. If you have access to one One of these days I am going to get a nice little lathe to do things just like this. Its really hard to justify getting on as you rarely need one in everyday use, but its one of those tools when you need it you need it and nothing else will do.
Mark

 

I have a 7x12 mini lathe, I just didn't want to buy a big hunk of solid aluminum to do the end caps. I looked at some machinable plastics too but I don't feel like spending too much money on the end caps lol. I'm funny like that.

 

Here is a pic of my mini lathe. It's a little dirty right now because I was turning some bushings for the 5/8 rod I plan to put in.
Randy asked me the swing over bed and I should correct myself it's only 7" swing over bed.

Any way trying to turn a big 3.5" diameter piece of stock in this lathe would be more on the difficult side.

I am thinking of maybe using a cutting board for the end caps now.
The cutting board is more in my price range. Attached files

 

Cool looking machine Shaun! i have to get one of these bad boys.
What about attaching a flat 1/4" plate that you could turn a disk from? then you could groove in a small lip for ID? So you would have a thin end cap but I think it would work. I am not really familiar with the ability's clamping wise for a lathe so I am not sure if you could put a flat plate on the chuck or not? But maybe tack weld a shaft you could grind off later to hold from on the back if it works like a drill chuck?
Just some thoughts
Mark

 

nice looking Shaun!!! with such a nice roller, pleaseeee dont use wood. find access to a lathe, and machine some aluminum, or delrin caps, with bearing pockets. that will be the best printer mod ever done!! randy.

 

opps, i scrolled down to see your lathe, lols...

 

tiger, when i built my roller it seemed good until i went to install my end caps. at that time i noticed the plastic tubing was oblong, or not round. even thou this was a minimal condition, i knew it was not true. the aluminum tube will be round and more concentric, and more truer. some might this is really no big deal, but building machines, or rc planes for that matter, the truer the build the better the performance...its like when i calibrate my printer, i do so with live cuts to allow for the cutting pressure, and cut depron at the same feeds as the calibration. and yes, my parts get bigger if i increase the cut feeds...my parts fit so closely, i hardly need glue, lols. the closer things are built, the better the results. please excuse the long answer, but i tried to keep short, randy.

 

Exactly like Randy said.
It's more concentric. When I look at my pvc roller when its spinning so can see it move up and down.

No worries Randy I wont use wood.

 

Shaun,
Hows it going with this mod?
Mark

 

It's been really windy here, so I've been taking advantage of it and playing in the wind. :mrgreen:
I have a piece of cutting board that I started cutting the end caps out of. I am gonna chuck them up in the lathe to get them right. The wind has finally calmed down enough that I should be able to get to them soon.
I'll post some pics when I get the end caps done.

 

Sounds great Shaun Its been crazy windy here to lately. I think its the remnants of that hurricane they had down south.
I am just curious on how well this works
Thanks
Mark

 

Well I finally got around to making both end caps for the tube. I cut the end caps out of some LDPE cutting board (I had it laying around) and turned the them down on my lathe. Man that stuff is nasty to machine...very stringy. I wish the board would have been HDPE, but it works fine for this application.
Now I just need to secure them to the ends, rob a pulley from my pvc tube on the pp and put some grip on it.

Here are some pics.


Attached files

 

SWEET! That looks like a work of art! Nice job Shaun
Mark

 

shaun, lookin nice man... i love to see this kind of mod......randy.

 

I finally managed to get my new x axis tube done.
I decided to try a different material for the grip. It's the rubberized drawer liner material. I wasn't sure how I was gonna like it and thought maybe I should experiment on a pvc roller first but I figured why not, I could always remove it if I didn't like it. I glued the material to the tube with 3M77 spray adhesive. I sprayed the tube and the material then carefully mated them together. I didn't get a chance to cut anything with it yet, but by jogging foam and wood around on it all I can say is wow! It works really well. I stuck a big piece of 1/4" mdf on there to see if it griped well and it did (no tape or foam carrier needed). I can see I need to redo the top rollers now for even better grip. Please note for the 1/4" mdf to hold properly I had to put my heavy springs in my spring mod. I'm thinking now about making my springs with adjustable tensioners so I dont have to take them out if I want to put thicker material in there. Also for the fanfold I needed the extra pressure (my lighter springs were fine for this) on the top roller for it to grip right.
After I get a chance to cut some stuff out with it I will update with my results.



Attached files

 

shaun, that thing came out very nice.....hope that drawer liner works out well. randy.

 

I did some more modding for the top rollers.
I went ahead and changed the grip to the drawer liner, added bearings, and made my spring tension adjustable.
I don't think the drawer liner material would be a good idea if you don't have the spring mod done. I have found that it needs a good amount of pressure for the best grip.
So far I'm very happy with the results. Everything runs very smooth. Now when I stick a piece of wood in there it grips it without anything added.
Here are some more pics of the mods.



Attached files

 

Shaun, the bearing and pressure mods look great....i have not cut much wood yet, but for me the key is to keep cuts shallow, using bears mangle program. i am looking forward how the new grip material works for you. randy.