Re: Grounded Experimental Delta Printer

@terribleperson: I hope that we can adapt this to do milling operations. Annirak is correct that there would be many design consideration that have to be addressed.

I think if I was asked to make this a milling machine I would use a worm gear drive on the elbow. As a quick idea for backlash reduction, I would use two steppers with worm gears for each driven gear. This will allow for the backlash to be adjusted out of the system or minimized from time to time. (I am not saying this is the best solution but it was the first thing that popped out when I started thinking about it.)

The second thing that really concerns me is resonant vibrations. The Simpson is very light and wispy by design. Generating the forces needed is not a problem but the machine would vibrate itself to death if asked to machine metal. I think after you go through the bulk up process to mitigate these issues that you will end up with a small envelope compared to standard metal mills of the same size and weight. I really hope I am wrong and will work hard to prove myself wrong in the future. The cost saving potential is great.