Carbon fiber VS Aluminum X beam 

Thanks for the info!

I got my cf-tube today is twisted out of the box, very disappointed

Is it ordered from mellow?

I thought the CF was cooler!

@@Dustmuffins Cool is in the eye of the beer holder. LOL No worries, it's good to have choices because we don't all like the same thing.

Let's make it a round CF tube x2 and use linear bearings for rods just like the bambulab x1c does. I think there is a lot of performance lost due to mass of the MGN rails+carriages.

@@Arek_R. I wouldn't use carbon as linear bearing material, it's not hard enough.

@@niekvangriethuysen5077 how come bambulab made it work?

I was just comparing bare tube with bare tube so its still accurate and apple to apple comparisson.

@@Vez3D Yes it will tell you which is better, but not by how much. The real deflections and the relative difference between the two will be less. Thanks anyway for your tests :)

@@derson754 A=2 B=4 R=4 B is 100% stiffer than A B+R (8) is only 33% stiffer than A+R (6)

@@derson754 because if they are basically the same in that regard one can focus on other differences

@derson754 I have about 6 different carbon beams here and they are all warped, twisted, bowed etc and cause issues. The bed meshes change each time.

@derson754 some arrived twisted some twisted under heat over time. As in Simon's case a lot of them show up twisted. I haven't tried straightening with heat as I've seen what fatigue heat can cause on carbon fibre in other situations outside of 3d printing so I'm not sure if it would work. Maybe if you could match the internal diameter with steel or alloy beams and heat them enough to conform you might be lucky but I wouldn't personally try it.

I have a granit counter top but its texturee 😂 so i used my glass cooking plate😊

I can't say anything about the weight difference, but cf rods would be way less stiff.

It is straightening it a bit

High temp would be more alu to be safe

I never had that issue. Our rail is mounted on top. Not sure where you rail is. I guess in the front?

yep, Voron 2.4 in the front. But i think in case the whole print head's CG is not just sit on the rail, all the movement on Y axis will twist the CF beam's wall, and the range of the twist will increase when the head becomes heavy.@@Vez3D

That would be a bad idea. Carbon tubes are often made around an aluminium mandrel, because when the temperature comes done after curing, the aluminium shrinks (while carbon doesn't) and the carbon releases. The CTE's are very far apart.

@@niekvangriethuysen5077 ah i didnt know that. But there are for sure ways to cobine those two materials so there would be some way to do it.

@@spinnoxx when combining the two in a laminate, you can add a layer of rubber film between the carbon and aluminum to compensate for the different contractions, or a semi rigid specialised adhesive can be used to bond the two together

im not sure anymore that I want to push on this. I get discouragement after reading some of the comments and some of the private messages I got. I dont want this channel to be seen like im trying to only sell stuff for money. Money is not my motivation. If it was, I would have stopped doing this for a long while ago. Do I make money of the VzBoT projects ? have to be honest, and yes I do. Is it enough to live on this? .. not at all. Is it enough to at least justify all the time and effort put behind the project ? not at all... I do this because im passionate and I like to push and I like to help people and help to improve the market and 3d printing in general. But I knew it would happen one day where people would think I am in this game only for money and all I do is trying to sell stuff. And that is hurting more than any other bad comments I have read on my socials since day 1. the small amount of money that gets here is shared with my team and is used to buy parts for printers, development etc.. and sometimes, yes a good rum bottle. More honestly, I must admit that a while ago I had hope that I could live from this passion and project, that I could make enough money to quit my day job and feed my familly with it.... well.. I quickly realized it was not possible UNLESS I turn this project into a busyness/corporate which I didn't like the idea. So I kept doing this because thats all I love doing, 3d printing, engineering developping, prototyping and mostly, love people and sharing with people and building a community where love is shared. It might be time for me to retire from this and start sleeping well again.

The goliath hotend will get you that flow. Or maybe the rapido. I would suggested you the vz150 but its 150x150.. so maybe a bit bigger like the vz235?

@@Vez3D Thanks mate

​@@bulvi84you could build your own vz180. Might take some cad work to figure out all the extrusion length and how you're going to mount the electronics.

Link in description:)

there are pictures of failed CF tube where the whole linear rail was ripped out together with the nuts and only hanging on the belts

My cf beam been running for 2 years at velocity and accel that we dont normally see 😂 and still like new

@@seljd there are videos where people turn aluminum beams into knot without applying any significant force, but it proves nothing.

@robinpeppel3519 not really. Im sorry. I have been busy on side stuff for the past month and focussed on a move to a different country. Once im settled at my new place, ill be back at it.. im very motivated :)

@@Vez3D thanks for your VERY fast reply. I wish you good luck with your move and that all goes smoothly ✌🏼

@robinpeppel3519 that's very kind of you my friend. It will go very good. This week Im going there to start setting up our new house and the official move should follow pretty soon in sept. Very exciting stuff happening in my life...but at the same time, very stressful.

Forged carbon fiber is for bling, not for strong parts.

Incorrect. You need to include long strand fibres and play whit play whit the distribution of fibres. but it is possible to make strong parts from forged carbon fibre. Recommend the following videos. First process of making, second testing. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-25PmqM24HEk.html ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-eewlYa6IQPg.html@@jussisalonen7738

Weight

Thats exactly what i want to accomplish.

I was thinking this too and think this would be the best. Only downside is it will be more expensive because the CF beam will also need to be thicker if your machining it flat and machining those gaps in it. But hey, this end of the glorified hotgluegun spectrum is not really about the price.

If you are willing to spend around $200 McMaster-Carr has ultra-flat CF tubes that can operate at 120c. We would just have to drill them with a printed jig

Why don't you guys try Magnesium alloy bean or tube, becauze it the lightest metal there is!!

You can't machine the carbon fiber like the aluminum. If you tried to put the same kind of truss shape into the cf, you would lose the majority of the stiffness. If you want weight reduction with carbon fiber tubes, you need to use thinner walls.

True..but still is valid test no? I wanted to compare bare to see

@@Vez3D if it's with the same rail i don't see why not, in the end,you use the beam with the rail,not by itself,so the beam together with the rail is the actual structure which carries the load

I personally dont sell anything. Mellow does. now you will probably want to know if I make money from them and if im being objective ? Same on both.. about a dollar and a half after taxes. Now you have the honest picture. 2-300 sales in months making me rich !!

Rail only is not stiff enough

for this beam.. its been machined out from 21mm flatten down to 20mm to have flatness. If a CNC can not get a flat job done, then we have an issue :P

@@Vez3Di'd say that manual mill with dovetail has bigger chances to get you extreme flatness than typical linear rail cnc machine, it would be better if you'd measure deviations from your table, even thou it's not flattest thing on earth we could definitely see some difference between beams, meanwhile i'd say that you gave flatness and temperature resistance to aluminum beam just to make it tie with CF tube :)

try it .. you will see how bad it will get :) ask me how I know ?

@@Vez3D Cheers for answering so quickly. I'll try both. Thanks!