Z-axis cart and adjustment assemblies

Drilling the holes for the adjustment screw

Drilling the holes for the adjustment screw


I cut out the parts for my Z-axis assembly using a jigsaw, and while butting the machine edges worked fine the other edges were a bit sloppy. I took advantage of an in-law’s shop to finish them up with a table saw and now the edges are much nicer. The base dimensions of my Z-axis are 11 inches by 10 and 1/2 inch, and the sides are 2 and 1/2 inches high. My 12 inch black pipes are mounted with their centers 7 and 1/2 inches apart using adjustment assemblies made out of an old plastic cutting board. My Z-axis cart is just slightly over 5 inches square.

The adjustment assemblies are 2 and 1/2 inch squares with four machine screws threaded through the edges to use to adjust the position of the pipes. I took advantage of the in-laws shop again to use a drill press to put all the holes in the pipe adjusters. Most of the holes could have been done with a hand drill, but the edge holes would have taken extra care.

Because I mounted the adjustment assemblies outside the Z-axis assembly I lost about an inch of my planned 5.5 inch travel and my current z-axis travel is only 4.5 inches.

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