A question but in the 3d printer world you never ever want to captivate both ends of the rod or you will get Z banding yet we are using those same rods and do it on our CNC routers and I wonder why? Btw, does your machine do Aluminum? Looks like it easily could to me.
Good question and I don't know. I've used much larger ball screw actuators (from Motion Systems Corporation) that were well over 1" in diameter and the company told me to design the fixture to only grip one end of the ball screw so that's what I did and they worked fine. This is a silly little design that I'm doing without using any large machine shop tools so compromises are being made like all my bearing holders, couplings and collars are 3D printed which has inspired me to double everything up. I'm sure with some creative toolpaths and minimal removal aluminum will be possible but I'm building this for to make wood and foam molds.
Well, the only reason a machine can't do aluminum is due to a lack of rigidity. If you look at most machines for the DIY they use unrestrained smooth rods which bend easily and by the time you get to a smooth rod that doesn't bed it will begin to sag and cost as much as rails and blocks would. A lot of machines have Y and especially X slop which makes doing aluminum near impossible.
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A question but in the 3d printer world you never ever want to captivate both ends of the rod or you will get Z banding yet we are using those same rods and do it on our CNC routers and I wonder why?
Btw, does your machine do Aluminum? Looks like it easily could to me.
Good question and I don't know. I've used much larger ball screw actuators (from Motion Systems Corporation) that were well over 1" in diameter and the company told me to design the fixture to only grip one end of the ball screw so that's what I did and they worked fine. This is a silly little design that I'm doing without using any large machine shop tools so compromises are being made like all my bearing holders, couplings and collars are 3D printed which has inspired me to double everything up.
I'm sure with some creative toolpaths and minimal removal aluminum will be possible but I'm building this for to make wood and foam molds.
Well, the only reason a machine can't do aluminum is due to a lack of rigidity. If you look at most machines for the DIY they use unrestrained smooth rods which bend easily and by the time you get to a smooth rod that doesn't bed it will begin to sag and cost as much as rails and blocks would. A lot of machines have Y and especially X slop which makes doing aluminum near impossible.