A trip into my sanity…or….3D printing a harmonic eq mount!

[Chaz2b]

Having read up about harmonic mounts, and their costs!!! I thought I’d test my sanity and print one. The stls are from Thingiverse. I’m using pla+ for the main parts and petg for the two cup gears, should be fun! Lol.

well here’s the start..

chaz

[markse68]

very cool 😎 They make plastic harmonic drives for things like seat belt retractors. Will watch with interest but i wonder what the PE will be like?

Mark

[Chaz2b]

Having now seen a few vids on these mounts,PE is still ever present but how much by, dunno, it’s still in its infancy. This mount is the KEEN-ONE, it’s also on Printables.  Now ordered the hard ware, the fun will be fitting the brass inserts, they are fitted with a soldering iron!

Good to know that’s it’s compatible with StellarMate, I have a raspberry pi 4 with StellarMate, so I hope they get to talk to each other soon.

chaz

[teoria_del_big_bang]

12 minutes ago, Chaz2b said:

Having now seen a few vids on these mounts,PE is still ever present but how much by, dunno, it’s still in its infancy. This mount is the KEEN-ONE, it’s also on Printables.  Now ordered the hard ware, the fun will be fitting the brass inserts, they are fitted with a soldering iron!

Good to know that’s it’s compatible with StellarMate, I have a raspberry pi 4 with StellarMate, so I hope they get to talk to each other soon.

chaz

The brass inserts are brilliant but can be tricky to insert and get them straight without just melting a bigger hole that makes the print useless.
I am no expert on using them and only dabbled with them so I would do a bit of searching on Google for advice.
I think you can also but propper tools to insert them rather than using the bare end of a soldering iron which if doing a few of them may be a good investment.

Following with interest 🙂 

Steve

[Chaz2b]

Yes I agree with you there, apparently you can get a special tip to insert them with, I’m considering fitting my iron onto my pillar mount to hold it square to the part the brass insert is going into.

chaz

[markse68]

my only tip with those inserts is to back off the heat once it starts moving- takes a little while to heat the brass up but if you go fast the plastic can bubble and burn so i try to keep it at a lower temperature by “pwm” (😂) contact with the iron

Mark

[teoria_del_big_bang]

Good tip from @markse68 
This may not be the best way but my attempts I found if you just used a pointed tip directly on the insert it tended to get stuck inside the insert when you went to take the tip away and everything just overheated and the hole became too big and the insert moved sideways, or the insert came back out with the soldering iron, or at best the insert stuck okay but was not straight.
So what I did (right or wrong) was when I printed the part I made most of the hole the reccomended diameter for the inserts used but the top 2 mm or so I made a bit wider so the insert actually was just a tight fit there and could be easily forced into the depression and stayed. I then had a screw inside the insert and applied the heat to the screw using a flat ended tip rather than a full pointed tip and then pushed it in that way and was able to get the inserts nice and straight and the screw helps to prevent the brass insert too hot. Seemed to work for me anyway.
But plenty of videos on youtube showing methods how to do it.

Steve

[vlaiv]

Following this ...

I also thought about something like this, but decided to go for other designs like cycloidal drive or split gear planetary for my prototype.

[Chaz2b]

The cycloidal is the next project, having too much fun with my printer, actually printing stuff that have real uses!

All the parts are now printed, just waiting on the nema stepper and nuts and bolts.

I have also printed a Solar finder like a Newtonian secondary mirror, i.e barrel with pinhole one end and a 45% flat at other end to project on.

Edited September 19, 2022 by Chaz2b

[Mike B]

Chaz, have you completed the harmonic drive mount?  If so how did it perform?

Mike