Kitchissippi Delta

Easily Sourced Linear Guides

The primary uniqueness of the Kitchissippi-Delta lies in it’s linear guide mechanism. Early delta designs such as the Rostock used hardened steel rods as both the frame and linear guides. The disadvantage to this becomes clear when scaling the design to make a larger printer – these rods are expensive and need to made increasingly thicker the longer they become in order to avoid flexing and ultimately the frame typically needs additional supports added.
Newer delta designs replace these rods with extruded aluminum t-slot (or v-slot) and specialized bearings which can be quite difficult to source and rather expensive in some locations.

During earlier experiments in linear motion I came up with a design that uses a set of eight low-cost 608zz skate bearings constrained around a common square steel tube at a 45 degree angle. This provides smooth linear motion on a scalable level which uses components that are easily sourced for low cost.

This linear guide design has gone through several refinements but has proven itself to be up to the task of providing both the frame uprights as well as the linear guide quite effectively. The latest revision has adjustable tension courtesy of rubber spacer washers which provides smooth linear motion and stable guiding of the delta mechanism throughout it’s range of motion.

You can read more about the evolution of the linear carriage design on this blog post.