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pugzor
Was just wondering, do you guys think the aluminium tubing is strong enough? I noticed a few people are using carbon fibre rods... Would it be worth filling the aluminium tubing with resin or something just to give it some added rigidity, or is the system fairly sensitive to the weight of the rods? The rods I've got are fairly light duty so I'm a tiny bit worried I guess... Wall thickness is less than 0.4mm.
In race car suspensions, unsprung weight is usually bad. (Unsprung weight is the parts below the suspension springs, like the wheels, hubs/axles, control arms, etc.) Ditto for a Delta and everything from the carriage to the tip of the hotend. The more mass involved, the more momentum that must be overcome to change directions quickly...and therefore your maximum print speed.
I read an interesting thread in an engineering forum where they claimed that tubing was stronger than solid material in some aspects because the round interior wall somehow added strength. Most of the force into a Delta's rods is straight through the tubing, with minimal twisting or bending forces. Next time that you are poking a plastic sippy straw through a juice box, think about why the straw does not break even though you can pinch it closed or fold it in half with minimal effort.
My only fear with 0.4mm thick aluminum walls would be if there was enough "meat" there to tap for threads. If you are using glue to hold the ends on, I personally would not be afraid to try the aluminum rods out. I have been tempted to hit up McDonalds for drink straws to make up a set of rods just to see if they would work..... :)
