MakerBot Pulley via Hardware Store Supplies

thingiverse

My kit was missing the pulley assemblies, so with a kick in the pants from Thingiverse user and DorkBotPDX awesomeness provider Andrew Parnell, I took to the task of rolling my own with hardware store parts. I've decided that they look so cool I'm going to keep them unless it's later proven that they somehow harm performance. EDIT! Zach points out that original designs running on this had problems with the belt rubbing the washers and ultimately fraying. Only use this method if you, like me, are up z-stage creek without a pulley assembly and need something that'll work for a little while. Andrew Parnell's awesome things are here:http://www.thingiverse.com/asp55 Instructions For each pulley, you'll need: 1 skate bearing (from your MakerBot kit) 1 8m x 35mm bolt 2 8m x 15mm nuts 2 8m inner diameter, 12mm outer diameter washers 2 8m inner diameter, 30mm outer diameter washers Assemble in the order shown on the diagram, pinching the MakerBot frame between the end of the bolt and the first nut. You might get nicer grip with an extra pair of washers on either side of the nut, but I haven't bothered here.