z-liftbed for k40 arrived loose screw and frame bent upwards

[ivantandy]

I have had my order of the z-lift in my hands for a couple of weeks. The frame was out of square upon arrival since a screw was not connected floating loose in the packaging.
my concern is that the bed is not horizontal on the threaded rods and the bottom frame seems warped. With all the bubble pack involved I am truly surprised at its condition.
Anyone else have any probs? Even if I level the bed I am concerned it will never work right since it appears to be very much a precision device.

My shipment was to CANADA and maybe customs got in there. or not.

[ivantandy]

Not at all happy with this Z-bed situation since discovering one long side of the top frame was installed with the radius corners inside. As well, a the second screw to properly hold the stepper motor was entirely missing. There also seems to be a difference in the placement of toothed belt gears on their corresponding threaded rods this results in vertical slop that i cannot correct even when I level the bed against the top frame with the lock nuts.

Am I able to reposition the gears evenly on the threaded the rod (and maybe flush?) against the lower frame of the z-bed?? Or is my frame bent by the loose screw of the top frame getting jammed between top frame plates at some point betwen assembly and receipt / also resulted in one of the uprights being loose.

For the price in US dollars plus shipping and !Customs tax! not a very wholesome effort on the part of assembler or shipper.

A shameful and disappointing result for a handsome and useful product.

[Tech_Marco]

Sorry for the trouble. The Z bed was supposed to be shipped as a kit (not assembled). Because of miss-communication, my tech there in China assembled all Z bed when shipped. You may want to disassemble it and do it again.

By the way, we're not responsible for the duty tax.For the price we sold, I just want to let you know we didn't make a lot of profit by selling the unit. However, the complexity and difficulty to make it available on market is far more than anyone could imagine. Please understand that it is just a fancy 'toy' for folks who own a K40 and I decided to created one per request. I spent whole month in China to monitor the design(from scratch) to the finished product. It is not comparable to a Pro product with high precision axis which cost over $1000 for 600x400 XY stage. FYI, the parts on this mini Z bed are 100% customized. Even those 4 threaded rods are custom made and not available in the market.

I'm sorry if you're not happy with it. Please send it back for refund.

Regards,
Marco

[ivantandy]

Marco- I suspected as such when it arrived assembled.

As I said above I find this to be an elegant product worthy of its design. I recommend this product as well designed using good gears and bearings and quality frame material with an impressive finish.

I am hoping to get some precision with it with the understanding that I own a k40 so I'm really only at the hobby or single odd job level. I considered the cost of parts and realize profit is not your motive here. Whenever I order into Canada I realize the risk is that it is not as easy to absorb an exchange because of taxes, customs exchange rates etc... in fact had it shipped direct from china I would have paid no customs excise at all. It just bugs me that afta NAFTA we in Canada get ripped off by our government.

Bottom line, its a good challenge for me to rebuild it and I consider part of the hobby and learning fun of laser world with which LO has been very instructive and innovative.

Thanks

[Tech_Marco]

I found that the most difficult to deal with folks in China is "communication". No matter how hard I tried, things always got mixed up or worst, or they screwed things up. My original intention was to make this min "Z" bed as a Kit and let you guys to build it and enjoy the process of DIY. Unfortunately, things didn't go as expected. I got 9~10 units crunched due to the roughness handling by DHL. If they sent as in kit form, it won't cause any damage so I wouldn't lost that 10 set. It really brought up the cost after the lost of ten. Though that I could make a some profit to keep my DIY project going, but it ended up that there was tiny profit. So, after sold out of this patch, I may not continue to make it no more.

I have spare parts now (salvage from those 10 units) so feel free to disassemble yours and re-built it. There is nothing to lose and nothing to be panic. Worst to worst, broke the parts or bend the things. But I got the parts, so what need to worry?
The tough part of this DIY is the alignment of the bed. You may need some patience by level it up before put the belt on. I have included the belt tension on my design. I need to give myself a thumb up for including it. It could be a better design but again, due to the "communication" issue, they didn't do a prefect job!

Tax to Canada and other countries like Brazil, Span, UK, Turkey are so high and it really hurt the business. Next time when you order something, let me know in advance and I'll find a way to help to cut down the tax.

Have fun!

Marco

[polarstones]

For what it's worth, I'm pretty happy with the Z-axis kit I received. I was starting to look at DIY'ing it, but for the price, there's no way I could have done it with the same results. I actually just started trying to get mine running today (after too long of a delay). My table was also not level, but it was a simple matter of taking the tension off at the idler, and spinning each corner individually to the top. I checked the spacing with calipers, got it all set right, and then reapplied tension to the belt. Once it's running, it should be set great.

However, if there's any thoughts out there, I'm running into a bit of an issue. I have everything wired up using this motor driver
http://www.lightobject.com/Mini-2-Phase ... -P650.aspx

and a 100 pulse per revolution encoder. I carefully wired everything up, and when I run it, I measure voltage going to the phases of the stepper motor, and the voltage oscillates +/- with the pulses, as I would expect it to...but the motor hasn't actually moved. I checked resistance across each of the phases, and positive to negative, there is high resistance (~MOhm), and there are dead shorts across both the two positive leads, as well as the two negative leads. This is admittedly my first time working with a stepper motor, so I would believe that the high resistance across each individual phase is OK, but I'm uncertain about the +/+ and -/- being shorted.

Any support anyone can provide would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Stephen

[Tech_Marco]

If you're using 2M415, set it to 1/8 or 1/16. If you're driving by DSP, you need to calculate the "um" or it won't be able to drive it. But if you're the motor controller board to drive it, then you can adjust it by turning the 'VR' on the board.

If the motor is running properly without the belt on. The cause could be the bolt. If the four bolts that used to hold on threaded rods was set too tight, it will be locked up due to the in-balance of force by the table bed. You need to lose the 4 bolts and let it move freely. Give it a try and let me know

Marco

[jimsbox]

My Z axis also came in with the lower bracket That the motor bracket mounts to bent up and slightly twisted. Also, some of the screws that hold the standoffs are not fully countersunk so I will have to redo the counter sinks on a few as well as straightening the bent piece. All in all I am pleased with the quality of materials and design, well done Marco. I would not hesitate to order again should the need ever arise. I will disassemble, fix and align this weekend and let you know how it goes. I am thinking of installing a lower position limit switch using a model airplane bell crank if anyone is interested I will take some pictures if I get it done and working ok.

[ivantandy]

jimsbox, I'd be interested to see the limit switch mod. I have yet to install my z-bed tho I have the holes drilled to secure the base to the chassis. I still have to wire the stepper motor. In reality, I have yet to really use my laser itself so just got the honeycomb in and working out how to focus.