August 9, 2024
Description
An accurate and repeatable way to measure belt deflection and thus determine the tension in your printer belts.
This project grew out of a mistake I made purchasing a "belt tensioner" from AliExpress for $20, which turned out to be just a cheap digital tire tread depth gauge and some (very poorly) printed parts with a few hair elastics as the "spring"... Suffice it to say, it was hot garbage as sold, but I was intent on making it useful.
Fast forward 3 weeks of design, I reverse engineered the main clip on part for the foot of the gauge, the rear slide clip and added some features:
Hardware required is simple:
The trick is to find a spring that is just right; not too strong so as to damage the belts and still strong enough to return the slide reliably back to start consistently.
UPDATE: With the meter zeroed out at the min travel (spring pulled back all the way) on a Voron V0.1 using 6mm Gates 2GT belts, I get a displacement of 8.6 to 9.0mm consistently on my deflect-o-meter. The position of where you poke the belt greatly affects your readings on a 6mm wide belt, so try to hit the middle if you can.
This equates to roughly 14.5-15.5 N of tension as measured by a U-508 sonic tension meter, which is the suggested max tension for this width of belt.
BTW I printed my parts in ABS and the design accommodates for some material shrink, so if you are using PLA be advised. (I don't do PLA, ever!! )
Printer Brand:
Voron Design
Printer:
Voron 0
Rafts:
No
Supports:
No
Category: 3D Printer Accessories
License:
Creative Commons — Attribution — Noncommercial
7
Taffert Designs
