Hannibal's thread into DIY motion platform

3/8 rod is perfect , and 18 plates 5 x5 and 6 others 3 x 4 1/2 , that I did !( or near of that depend what you have at home in your home scrap parts )
Very important : the precision of alls holes is very important and more the center one if you don't want everything move like earthquake!!
If you don't have again your ballscrew , put a extra 100$ each because the chiness one are very cheap( poor quality ) . I have 3 very good one with hight quality et 3 others ( chiness) and I can see the diference … lower sound when this travel, like -30% sound , long term quality , chiness have some defect too . For the bearing sleeve you have two choice : like my mine or the one like Pierre and silentchill … if the money is not a problem buy the one like them .

thank you again @Flymen


so now i am researching shaft couplers..

I see, sixdegreesofflight went with D40 L45 size couples with a rated torque of 10N.m with a max of 20N.m
because @Pierre Lalancette has ampflow motors with 12.7mm shaft.. he went with rater torque of 7.5N.m

I also went with ampflow motors with 12.7mm shaft... have my eye on D45 L66 size couplers with a rated torque of 30N.m (max 60N.m)

is this excessive??

now i see a D40 L55 with my desired size of 10mm x 12.7mm with 15N.m rating... this is good i think?

My opinion info ! @Pierre Lalancette ,@SilentChill ,@pmvcda

im trying to find a balance for cost..
i totally understand, you get what you pay for...

ughh! so there is stainless steel ball screws and carbon steel ball screws?

don't put a carbon steel ball screw !!

ok, it just that carbon ones are more money.. the stainless are cheaper... i thought u were saying to spend more on the ball screw!

Do you guys remove the spacer from main bearing block in order to get a longer shaft below the block in order to connect the coupler?

I was talking about the structure in general when I compared steel, aluminium and carbon.

If it screw, it's for it holding it in place. If not, it's probably just so the holding screw presses only on the rotary part of the bearing.

when i received the parts, on the bearing block, there are 2 spacers, and 2 bearings that are on.
if i put the ball screw on with all the items that it came with, i have less thread to put the nut that you are talking about. @Pierre Lalancette

but if i remove one of the spacers, then i have more thread to screw on the nut...ill try to take a photo

One photo is with the space, another without.. im just wondering if you guys use the space to have more shaft length to screw the nut and coupler

Ok, the spacer is on the other side. It looks like a ring to take all the weight on the moving part of the bearing. But I don't know. I don't remember such a thing on mine.

after looking at photos of your build, you have the 2 spaces and bearings on your block. but i cant tell how much of the coupler fastened to the ball screw shaft... where you able to seat the coupler to the middle of the coupler? i found the photo of yours.. seems like the same!! i wish the length of the ball screw and size of the actually allowed the fully exposed shaft end up to the screw threads.

***update***
found mounting procedure
https://cnc4you.co.uk/resources/Mounting Procedures.pdf

after getting extra 7mm length 12mm ID 16mm OD spacers and removed the 9mm length spacers, i was able to achieve about 14mm from the shaft to mount the coupler..

ran into proper way to epoxy..
also, i heard about using sand, but the proper thing to use is "bond beads"

i have to say, building 6dof with DIY linear actuators is a money pit!

jeez, its either i am buying the wrong parts, or spending money on tools and stuff.

ended up wasting 100$ worth of heim joints and threaded adapters today..

i should have went tie rod ends, regular heim joints have limited traverse angle, i see why silent chill had to shave off the lug nuts in order to get more of a traverse angle!

I assure you, this is only the tip of the iceberg. You'll get time when you won't care anymore about the cost and you will only want to see the end of it.

And I'm not yet talking about what you will destroy. Yesterday, I destroy a perfectly working monitor. Put it to close to the rig. Found it on the floor, destroy.

Welcome to the Never never ever spending enough projects.

im next to obsessed lololol yes i definitely want to see the end result. im trying to find balance of keeping sanity between my other hobbies like dance and piano, which i am neglecting..

Looking like something..

@hannibal What made you change your mind and decide to do linear actuators? I am still researching all my options.

let me say something.. DIY linear actuators is not for the faint of heart. if i didnt have experience building controllers from scratch.. it would be a huge learning curve. i have yet looked in to welding, but i will learn when time is appropriate.

i went linear actuators because some many of the top DIY'ers started from 2dof motors to 4dof motors to 6dof motors to linear actuators..
i went straight to top because i feel that i might have followed the same path, and i really dont want to build like crazy.. though you do have to enjoy the journey of the build..