had this as an idea in my head for a while to “lock” the rods in place without creating extra friction,
facebook.com/LA3DPrint/vide … 739169132/
and thats what they look like working, if theres much interest ill put the .STL files up on thingiverse in the next few days
Luke
Hello Luke,
the rods of my printer-kit have been to long. If i would mounted them like it is described in the manual, mounting the black tabs would pull apart the body housing more than 1 mm on each side.
So i grindet and polished the front surfaces of every rod until caps fit in place without tolerance and applied some grease.
meantime i printed a lot, printer runs every day. (by the way: i like the printer a lot and want to say that it is the best you can get for the buck in my opinion, and it is a very good made kit, means with all pros and cons and do not want to talk bad allways ;-))
So after time the plastic-hemispheres in the tabs became flat and i got tolerance, means the rod can move (not only rotate)
I solved this with “Kugel-Rasten” we called it in German, i do not found this word in english, direct translation is “ball-notch” (don’t know whether this word makes sense ;-))
It is a headless screw (available in M3,4,5,6 …) having installed a ball on one end and a spring inside. i used M4 x 15mm long
You drill a hole in the center of one tap, cut a M4 thread in there (or use a M4-screw to cut the thread in a 3.5 mm hole) and then screw the ball-notch in with some grease and a nut over the ball-notch.
Now you have an adjustable ball-bearing, running for next 20 years without any tolerance and friction.
On the other side of the rod, once the tap is flat inside, you can add a single ball in an abatement drilled in the tab, hold in place with grease till mounted, or you do same like above with another ball-notch.
Oh man “Kugel-Rasten” sounds awesome!
Hi “jeafke”
cause i live in foreign country i hear that quite often ;-))
What is the correct word in english ?
And your picture shows not exactly what i mean. This is not adjustable. Mine are looking like a headless screw, having a screw-thread over complete length
(only diameter d1, without d3 )
How do you got the picture in here, can not see anything like in other forums ?
Aha got it,
So the thing is called a “Ball plunger” in english apparently… I don’t know what it’s called in dutch (my native language)
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Kind Regards
JeAfKe
This spring plunger looks like a nice and rather simple solution. Drill a hole in the endcap, glue a nut in it and ready to go?
Oké, it’s much nicer to design a special part for it…
thank you JeAfKe, since i got my Vertex printer also my english becomes better !
to svdv: even if we can now print amazing high-tech products , don’t forget old simple technology ;-))
If you drill a hole in the center of the tap, cut a M4 thread in there (or use a slotted M4-screw to cut the thread in a 3.5 mm hole if one don’t have a screw-tap ) and put a nut over the ball-notch. Thats it.
Looking forward to try this out myself!
I ordered myself these 20 x M5 12mm Ball Plungers [ebay]
Kind Regards
JeAfKe
Digi-Bert! - you my friend are a legend been looking for something like this for a loooong time!
After posting this my printer decided to start rattling turn out the bearings can’t hack it and wore out just as fast as the tabs did
I shall order some now!
Thank you for laudatory response !
Is’nt it that why we are here : we ‘makers’ bring all our knowledge and experience together in a liberal and ‘very democratic’ way
and at the end we have excellent printers money can’t by. And also thanks to Velleman/Vertex for the great kit !
In addition i can tell, that it is important that the balls are as most in the rotating middle of the rod as possible (also with the unmodified original tabs).
Cause the tabs can move a lot before tightened, i draw with a felt pen a horizontal and vertical line through the center of the front surface of each rod and the body housing (with the tabs unmounted)
Now you have a guide to arrange the tabs. If you have drilled that hole in the tab you need only the cross on the rod, looking through the hole for centering the tab while tighten it. By now you screw in the ball plunger with nut (and some grease, specially made for plastic-gears is best)
Mailman was fast with these Kugel-Rasten
I think I’m gonna try and mount them this evening.
Kind regards
JeAfKe
Nice!
Do you feel it improved the Vertex?
In that case I’m going to add these as well 
Dylan
@jeAfke
Looks great and effective.
How did you fix the nut on the plastic part? Is there a nut on the inner-side too?
Looking good. But jeafke wont that over time get loose. Sins it isnt a nylon locking nut your using.
Well the plastic part is threaded and the nut is locked thighs against the plastic cap. So it’s pretty tight… The bolts that where in before where tightened the exact same way and worked pretty well. And if you don’t mind rods banging on every direction change this isn’t that big of an improvement. But I did mind as a matter of fact.
Kind regards
JeAfKe
hello!
Your idea is excellent, I have therefore made a first with my cnc, after having noted a marked improvement so I have printed a second and I’ll do the other seven. thank you for sharing this idea. good continuation .
jean-michel
I found this a few weeks earlier.
Was wondering why to use it, but now, my printer gets this noise as well.
So I have to thing about it.
Guess your idea is smart
“Ball plunger” or “spring plunger” is what gives me the right pictures in google image search 
Kind Regards
JeAfKe
Hey,
this is my ideia. Printing my 3rd try and i believe it’ll be final.
The idea is to have a locking m5 nut inside the end cap with a “Ball plunger”. Tomorrow i’ll get the “Ball plunger” and nuts to try it.
