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This is a concept to get around gluing the PLA bushings onto the y-bottom-plate.
During the assembly of the prusa they get fixed and if one changes anything on the y-axis they have to get removed and re-glued to fit accurate again.
We noticed that the fine tuning of the prusas bars needs some time.
Even after checking orthogonality of everything one has to change some screws later on.

Here the bushings get screwed onto the y-bottom-plate.
The holes are M4 holes, but the bushings get fixed with M3 screws to have a little space to adjust their position.

Simply tape the y-bottom-plate with a suitable tape.



Then find the correct position of the bushings on the plate.



After adjusting the position of the bushings one can mark the holes with a pen.



To be sure to find the correct position after drilling it is recommended to mark the upside of the y-bottom-plate.
The holes in the bushings are symmetric so you can switch them to the upside.



The holes get drilled with a M4 drill using a drill press.



Here you can see the mounted bushings:

The files are as always on thingiverse.

Have fun with these screwable y-axis bushings.

If you don't have a 3D printer yet buy them at: www.2printbeta.de

Kind regards

BonsaiBrain

An idea during a print - and another universe opens :-)

Sounds like something from the '70s but is from 2011.
This morning I printed another mendel spring. When removing it from the glass printbed it jumped on the x-axis belt.

In the dark corner, where my printer is placed, the soft PLA and the belt looked the same color - even if the one is more light grey and the other one more blue grey.

But this similarity encouraged myself to copy the shape of the belt with soft PLA. OpenSCAD again proofed to be very good for things like that. I made a singel pattern of one tooth and the following gap and copied it 20 times.
The print was amazing - it was strong, it was not springy as expected - it streched not even with force.
The comparison to the original showed the possibilities of soft PLA:



This was the proof of principle. Then I designed an endless belt with 76 teeth - 380 mm length. The best of all: This is not even a quarter of what is printable!
I tested the printed endless belt with a few mendel parts fixed to my desk. I tensioned it with force to test, to see if you can tense it like the belt on the reprap machine.
With this 380 mm belt the gears worked perfect. It was as intended, it was strong.



When testing the limits of the belt it broke with brute force - but it was hard to break it!

The belts in the reprap machines are with steel wire inside to prevent them from stretching. The soft PLA belt is not comparable to these belts. But I was deeply impressed by the stability of the printed belt.

The possibilities are nearly unlimited. I think about printing tires for RC cars or chains for a RC tanks, button covers for electronics, belts for transmissions, springs, etc.

After little initial problems with soft PLA I'm now convinced. Soft PLA brings a lot of fun!

The objects can be downloaded here as usual.

If anybody want's to try this soft PLA - here you can order: www.2printbeta.de

Greetings from the lake of constance

BonsaiBrain