Shapeoko Belt Tensioner

It’s actually pretty quick and easy.

I left the sharpie marks on my extrusions and just stick two old blunt 1/4" cutter shanks under each belt in turn, listen to the twang and if they all sound about the same pitch, it’s fine, if one of them sounds off, then I need to get the app out and actually check things.

1 Like

Did you mill that whole thing out of billet or was it sheet that you bent in a press brake?

It was an extruded u-section. An odd alloy that proved difficult to cut - feeds down as low as 300 mm/min and 0.5mm cut depths. The lack of stiffness from the shape didn’t help, nor that my standard Z seems to have developed some movement - the HDZ is here and waiting it’s turn to be fitted

4 Likes

The HDZ is a joy to fit and use, or you can just display it somewhere in the house as a piece of engineering :wink:

3 Likes

I placed mine in a slightly different location.

11 Likes

Oh,

Please install the Angel in the spindle mount and make her go up and down with gcode…

2 Likes

The amount of effort for the return on that one might not be in my best interest. lol…

OK where’s my ladder…

Finished my pulley levers today, no need for any finish work, polished on the machine with my original 201 I have had forever… .025 edge fillets so no sharp edges… Tapped for 1/2-20 bolt threads.

2 Likes

You really have to pay attention to chip removal when you start going so deep, it is very easy to be running your own chips over and leaving melt on the end mill. I had to babysit the end of the carve and use a tiny wire brush and Dremel to remove the build up off the back of the 1.25" single flute a few times.

Had an interesting event happen. I replaced my router 2 weeks ago, and about 1 hour into this operation, I randomly go to check the machine and the router literally shuts off in the middle of carving right in front of me out of nowhere.
I was able to pause in time, and unfortunately had to remove the entire router and replace it with my backup and start over, luckily the carve was not affected, as I still had a nice .01 stock to leave on it. The line .15" below the top of the frame is the offset it incurred from stopping the operation, re-homing and installing the new router mid carve. Not too bad!
I installed new brushes and the faulty router started right back up.

Below a photo of the brush that died after about 30 hours of carving. Not sure what caused this but I don’t trust it!

1 Like

I have to say I’m one of those guys that is frustrated with the current method and long for something repeatable and defined.

How much tension to put first?
Barely able to fit a pencil, easily able to fit it but not more, what brand of pencil?

I’ll eagerly be a customer for you guys when you’ve nailed down the designs!

2 Likes

Check out this excellent thread from @LiamN:

I use the Gates smartphone app, insert two 1/4" endmills under the belt (the SHAFT part :slight_smile: …1/4" dowel pins would be safer) 280mm apart (for my small SO3), and pre-tighten the belts by feel, such that I still have a quarter turn or so left before the bolt is fully tight against the plate, then twang the belt a couple of times to get an average frequency readout, tighten/untighten the bolt as required until I get ~120Hz (on my SO3, larger machines require different values as Liam mentions).

image

5 Likes

I have - and talk about “Pimp my Ride”!

1 Like

Oh dang, now I want to see the Shapeoko with neon underlights and subwoofers in an enclosure upholstered in purple velour and leather :wink:

1 Like

image

8 Likes

:rofl:

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

Making progress… Snail-Cams made in HDPE, now just waiting for a vice-mounted punch/vee to arrive so I can fold the flat aluminium parts :-).

Really lovely tiger-claw clamps, makes setup easy and solid as a rock in use.

MrLongTongue lives!! (long story - read this thread for the background)

IMG_5134

5 Likes

Will you be making these to sell? I would definitely be interested.

@ToddG I have approached a laser-cut and fold shop here in the UK (Laser Master, in Cornwall) to get pricing on the ‘frame’ part, but as yet have not had a response. I will chase them up and see if pricing is anywhere near ‘reasonable’ for a few tens of units.

2 Likes

This topic was automatically closed 30 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.