X-Motor Mount One Piece Print Idea

[PyramidDave]

While looking at what other wooden parts on the printer I might be able to make in plastic, I started working on a plastic replacement for the X-Motor mount. I initially designed it just like the original in 2 parts, then started looking at making this into 1 part which would cut out 4 bolts & nuts. Since I would have to print this on its edge, I added some ears to the bottom to give it a larger footprint. Looks like I could also add some extra width to the front bottom of the part if it needs a bigger footprint for printing. There might be an overhang problem with the top circular cut above motor, but I could bring in those 2 horizontal openings a few millimeters. All the bolt holes would be horizontally printed, but I have had pretty good luck with horizontal holes lining up although they are usually not as round as vertical holes. Print estimate is about 4.5 hours at .2 infill, so it will probably take 5 to 6 hours to print. I would be interested in any thoughts on this before printing it. I cut the corners to 45 deg. chamfers & some extra holes to save a little plastic. Attached are three images of what it should look like. On the 2d image, the holes are Red, Outline in Green, Motor in both extended positions is in cyan & alum. is white.X-MotorMountOnePiece.JPGX-MotorMountOnePiece_Back.JPGX-MotorMountOnePiece2D.JPG

[AbuMaia]

Why does it need to be printed on edge? I would think it'd be stronger printed flat, with a few supports.

[PyramidDave]

I was initially looking at doing it that way, but did not like the idea of supports. I was going to use a grid of cones in each quadrant of the motor mount holes, starting with 2 to 3mm dia. at base & 1 to 2mm where it touches the top. Maybe I will try a test print of just a quadrant 1st to see how it looks. I got side tracked on another idea of placing my raspberry Pi with the LCD panel, so will get back to the X-Motor after I work on this. Thanks for the suggestion.

[AbuMaia]

Is the spacing on the holes the same, so that one can use the holes in the frame to access the screw heads?

[PyramidDave]

That is a very good point. I used my flatbed scanner to scan all my wood parts when I first bought this & was using that as the guide for the hole patterns & sizes. I just checked it & they match. I also used a dxf file of the i3v 12" scan file that beerdart uploaded to this thread to check to see if this is the same for the 12" & it seems to be. http://3dprintboard.com/showthread.p...ighlight=plate I knew scanning all those wood pieces in would come in handy one day. Thanks for the thought. I could very well have missed that problem before printing it. I am starting to lean towards printing this flat with support as AbuMaia suggested.

[printbus]

I would be interested in any thoughts on this before printing it.

Assuming printing on the flat side instead of vertically, and printing this as one piece rather than two, one suggestion would be to extend some reinforcement edges at the top and bottom to the right from the doubled-up part. A weak point in the wood design is at a vertical line between the doubled-up part and the horizontal v-rails. The large plate won't flex behind either the motor or the v-rails, but belt tension can cause the large plate to flex at that weak point line; your design carries forward that concern. Extending some reinforcement lips or ridges forward at the height of the doubled-up part might help reduce flex there. On the bad side, those reinforcements would have to work around the upper idler wheel bolt head and Z-nut bracket, and many of us have relocated the X-endstop to the bottom of the lower v-rail. Perhaps the reinforcements don't have to overlap the v-rails very far for them to be of benefit. Another thought is that the reinforcement might be achieved by adding it in the area between the two v-rails rather than at the top and bottom.

[PyramidDave]

That sounds like a good idea. I had not thought about the belt pulling on that part. It would be quite easy to add a ledge at the top, bottom & Left side of the plate, kind of like I did the ledge on my 2 part Y-Bed design. I used an eight sided polygon extruded along a path for that, centered on the top edge of the plate. I will take another look at this in a day or so.

[PyramidDave]

While the ideas were fresh in my mind, I took a look at this again tonight using printbus suggestions as I understood them. I used a thickness of 6mm for each of the plates. That seems to match the thickness of the wood pieces. Here is what I came up with so far. I attached an image & a stl file for you to take a look at. I think the hole patterns should be pretty close, but the square hole might be a little over size. I do not plan to use the square hole, but a part from thingiverse that I remixed.X-MotorMountOnePiece_rev9.JPGi3v_X-MotorMount_rev9_repaired.stl

[PyramidDave]

i3v_X-MotorMount_rev10_repaired.stlI found one small problem where the weld along the inside vertical was showing up underneath & I trimmed the arcs above & below the motor mount so they did not extend outside the cutout underneath. Here is the newer stl file & image to show what it looks like.X-MotorMountOnePiece_rev10.JPG

[PyramidDave]

i3v_X-MotorMount_rev12_repaired.stl Here is one last revision. I made the front plate a little smaller, added 2mm to the outside edge of it & added a larger weld to the inside vertical side of that.