Makerbot Replicator 5th Generation Problems....

[curious aardvark]

It's gone down to two levelling knobs ?

Bloody hell Its bad enough with just the three.
Give me a four corner levelling setup any day.

makerbot are weird. They start out with one of the best printer designs on the planet (rep dual and rep2x).
And then over the years gradually work backwards until they've got one of the worst.

It's not a business model I can see catching on :-)

[Mjolinor]

I could not cope with four at all, one of the first mods I did was to make it three.

[curious aardvark]

weird - one at each corner makes sense, works easily and is intuitive.

Having just one at the back makes adjusting corners pure guess work.

If I just had 2 I can imagine using a small hammer for fine adjustment on the corners :-)

[Mjolinor]

Three makes sense, any other number doesn't. That's why tripods have three legs.

[curious aardvark]

and tables have 4, and chairs and most of the mammals on the planet.
The only thing that makes more sense is 6, which evloution has deemed the best number of legs judging by the sheers number of hexapods on the planet.

Always makes me laugh (and cry) when sci fi films always have bipedal aliens.
It's a frigging 1 in a trillion billion zillion chance on THIS planet - the odds of it ever happening again are larger than the number of electron in the whole quantum-verse.

Seriously how on earth can you accurately adjust the back corners without seperate levelling for each one ?

I just run on trial and error on the knp.

[Mjolinor]

Think about it. 3 legs will have equal tension without any problem and the table can move any way you need it to. With 4 you cannot, you will always have one leg with less weight on it than the other three. Noting in the world that needs adjusting for level has anything but 3 legs / adjusters except 3d printers.

[curious aardvark]

Nope, does not compute.

With four I can accurately change any of the four sides of the plate. With three I can only change the two front corners and the back. How on earth am i supposed to level one side or the other equally ?

Fortunately the knp holds calibration almost indefinitely, so it's not been a problem.
But I just can't work out how I'm supposed to drop one side vertically without also effecting the horizontal tilt, and vice versa.
It's completely counter intuitive.

[Mjolinor]

You are not thinking about it.

If you adjust all three then the plate moves up and down
If you adjust front left then the table rocks about a line, back middle / front right
If you adjust front right then it rocks along the line front left and back middle
If you adjust back middle then it rocks about a line front left / front right

That is the only way to ensure that the table is flat and at the correct height. Four does not cut it at all.

If you have four screws then one of them is either doing nothing or it is bending your table.

[jfkansas]

That's why 4 legged tables always rock or will at some point. 3 leg tables never will.

Comparing to mammals isn't relevant, a mammal can balance on three legs, but they also need to propel themselves to hunt and sprint away from danger.

and tables have 4, and chairs and most of the mammals on the planet.
The only thing that makes more sense is 6, which evloution has deemed the best number of legs judging by the sheers number of hexapods on the planet.

Always makes me laugh (and cry) when sci fi films always have bipedal aliens.
It's a frigging 1 in a trillion billion zillion chance on THIS planet - the odds of it ever happening again are larger than the number of electron in the whole quantum-verse.

Seriously how on earth can you accurately adjust the back corners without seperate levelling for each one ?

I just run on trial and error on the knp.

[jfkansas]

The only thing 4 can do is offer better support and stability. That doesn't have anything to do with leveling though.

You are not thinking about it.

If you adjust all three then the plate moves up and down
If you adjust front left then the table rocks about a line, back middle / front right
If you adjust front right then it rocks along the line front left and back middle
If you adjust back middle then it rocks about a line front left / front right

That is the only way to ensure that the table is flat and at the correct height. Four does not cut it at all.

If you have four screws then one of them is either doing nothing or it is bending your table.