Interesting symptom of an over-tightened carriage

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mechg
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Interesting symptom of an over-tightened carriage

Post by mechg »

I thought people might find this interesting.

My Orion has the old-style wood cheapskate carriages. I recently adjusted the wheel cams, and noticed a faint parabolic pattern artifact on cylindrical objects. It was only noticeable when using an overhead light source.

The parabola seemed to either peak or bottom out just opposite the Z tower, so I checked it, and apparently the wheels were a bit too tight.

I loosened them a bit and the pattern went away. The best setting seems to be where it only requires moderate finger pressure to make the wheels slip against the tower.

I can only imagine that over-tightening caused some kind of deformation of the wheels. Kind of like when you get a grocery cart with a bad wheel. Fortunately, it does not appear to have caused permanent damage to the wheels.
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Jimustanguitar
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Re: Interesting symptom of an over-tightened carriage

Post by Jimustanguitar »

Was there a flat spot on one of the wheels? I wonder if you'd feel a "tick" if you ran the carriage up and down by hand, or if the line in your print would have happened again higher up on the print? (one wheel circumference higher)
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Re: Interesting symptom of an over-tightened carriage

Post by geneb »

FYI, upgrading to the injection molded carriages and ball-cup arms are probably one of the best upgrades you can do to an older Orion (short of a Duet). :)

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mechg
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Re: Interesting symptom of an over-tightened carriage

Post by mechg »

Jimustanguitar wrote:Was there a flat spot on one of the wheels? I wonder if you'd feel a "tick" if you ran the carriage up and down by hand, or if the line in your print would have happened again higher up on the print? (one wheel circumference higher)
I don't know about "then" but I can't detect any flat spot now.
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