I am ready to reveal the surprise: black hardcoat anodized MakerSlide (known as Type III in the US). The coating withstands contact with steel V-wheels.
Not only tough, but also gorgeous!
The 1 m pieces are in the store; I’m adding 375 mm, 500 mm and 750 mm pieces as we speak. One metre is the longest length available hard coated.
We also have a new MakerSlide carriage plate, with hole patterns that work with our chrome steel V-groove bearings.
Coming in September, a hardcoat-and-steel-wheels upgrade for the eShapeOko.
Will the anodiced ones be in the new batch of the eShapeOko or can they be added for extra costs or need to bought seperaly?
Thanks 🙂
No, the eShapeOko will use acetal (Delrin) wheels for now. I’ll add the hardcoat rail/steel wheel option in September.
That’s great news!
If I’d want to upgrade my complete ShapeOko (not eShapeOko) to steel wheels with anodized makerslide, do I need replace the motor mount plates? Do you sell those separately?
Yes, you need to replace the plates, or at least drill a few holes in them. I plan to sell the motor plates separately, in about two weeks.
On a side note, why are your steel wheels different in size from the delrin wheels?
If I’d buy the steel wheels form openbuild, they are a direct replacement?
I have a big order ready for you, so don’t worry, I’m just trying to figure out how I’d best upgrade to steel wheels.
It’s very expensive to make a new type of bearing. What I did was take an existing bearing (the industry-standard RM1 dual-row angular-contact V-groove bearing) and had the inside diameter customized (5mm, instead of the standard 3/16″, or about 4.76mm). That was much more affordable.
The single-piece wheel is more solid than one made of a sleeve and separate bearings, but has the disadvantage of being a different size.
The steel wheels from OpenBuilds are a direct replacement for the Delrin wheels — you can even use the same bearings.
Why is one meter longest length? we need at least 1,2 meter long coated makerslide for 1m X-axis travel.
Well, I had to stop somewhere. The longer they are, the more likely they are to be damaged in production or shipping to us. 1m seemed like a good size. We have only a small quantity, too — it’s more of a test run, to see how it goes. If it sells well, there will be another run, and I can add 1.2 m to the range. I definitely don’t want to have 2 m in hardcoat, because any damage means a fairly large loss.
Would you say that using steel wheels makes the double x rail obsolete?
I’m deciding between doing the double x axis with delrin wheel, just replacing the delrin wheels with steel ones (but keeping one x rail), or both…
I don’t honestly know. I’m sure the dual-X is more rigid, but I don’t know by how much. My guess is that it’s still worth going for the dual-X, even with steel wheels.
I plan to do an experiment comparing single hardcoated MakerSlide, dual hardcoated MakerSlide, and hardcoated OpenRail on HFS5-4040 profile. I’ll compare our standard V-wheels, the OpenBuilds steel dual-bearing wheels, and our single-piece industrial V-wheels. Unfortunately, I don’t think I’ll have time for that until September.
Personnaly, I think that the dual x rail will be more stable and rigid than any single rail setup. This is what I ordered.
And idea, I could make aluminium V-groove wheels for delrin replacement at my local hackerspace’s lathe. That would not wear the rails, but still be more robust that plastic, what do you think?
Sounds like a good idea to me. I’m not an engineer, but I think the warning of not using the same material in a system with friction (e.g. leadscrew and leadnut) doesn’t apply to V-wheels (not the same type of friction).