Water Block to Die Sim Alignment project.

[bigben2k]

Originally posted by unregistered
if the vertical alignment is attainable,
why not the horizontal also ?

so why then the swivel(s) ?
way too complicated

This is the kind of comment (cryptic) that takes me a fews days to figure out.

Yes, if you align on an X axis, and align on a Y axis, you have a full alignment: no need for a swivel that covers all angles in between.

[RoboTech]

Good ideas...

Another option is to borrow design ideas from some of the commercial RCC devices (Remote Center of Compliance). They are used a lot in robotics (end of arm tooling). I thought I had one in my junk box to take a few pics but I can't find it. Here is a link that describes the working principle better than I can explain it anyway...

http://www.pfa-inc.com/rcc_hiw.htm

I have used several of these units in various designs - they are very expensive and have rather limited travel for use in waterblock mounting - but the basic idea seems applicable. They correct both angular and translational misalignment.

jayde116... you can build a poor-man's RCC out of two Aluminum plates and three springs. Co-bore holes in each plate to mount the springs in, evenly spaced around a mounting circle. Once assembled the two plates will be held apart (~1/4" depending on your design) by the springs. The two plates can move relative to each other with six degrees of freedom. The spring size, stiffness and mounting circle diameter control how stiff or "compliant" the device is.

I like murray13's approach of using a ball (or universal/CV joint) on top of a translational (X-Y) table...