Sunday, April 4, 2010

Parallel rod construction video!

Last time I talked about how to create exactly parallel rods for sliding machine axes.  To make it a bit more clear, Sean (another Media Labber), my Aussie friend Owen, and I created a quick video that shows the construction of a Mantis 9 Y axis.  Check it out...



As much as I'd like for it to, not everything goes to plan in these videos. Here's our first blooper.



More videos soon.

3 comments:

  1. Goodness, I wondered what you meant when I first read it. I thought you meant you drilled your holes through both pieces at the same time, and I guess you do that as well. But you do the same thing I did with my plastic slides, nylon 1/4 on 1/4 steel rod with some white lithium for lubrication. Nice video :)

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  2. isn't drilling both holes at the same time negated when the board is rotated to make the "s" shape?

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  3. I like the use of epoxy to ensure good alignment of the bushings. A few of my experiments had alignment and binding issues. Someone on hackaday.com commented that the epoxy could break. While I haven't built your machine myself, I'd be concerned about this too. One solution might be to put the bushings in a small block of wood. Then epoxy the block in place just like you do the raw bushings. Once that dries, you could use fasteners for additional strength. A few extra parts, but possibly more durable.

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I'm a graduate student in Information Ecology at the MIT Media Lab interested in the creation of low cost machines that enable personal digital fabrication.