Right Darren, stop rushing, what’s next… ah the wheels and wheel assemblies… cool, this is going well… and just like that, my first issue… damn, don’t jinx anything else pfftt… i just couldn’t get that nut in the hole. the build instructions did say it was a fiddly t*at, but it beat me… a pair of really small snips and problem solved… only a very minor adjustment required… this far into the build i’d call that a resounding success!
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and lastly, adding the wheel assemblies to the XZ panels… nice n easy… must be time to clean up ready for the wife to get home… ahh well more tinkering tomorrow! now where’s those instructions for me to read ahead of time…
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oh yea… when using ring spanners, make sure you can remove them pmsl… 
(if you can’t see it very well, the bottom of the limit switch is blocking me removing the spanner now i’ve tightened the bolt up, undo, remove spanner then use open end, easy peasy lol)
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Man, you have made me laugh catching up with your build!
and just like that… the controller arrived today (amazing service from @ryan & @v1engineering, thanks!)
I’ll upload more pics tonight or tomorrow from the microswitch wiring yesterday… can’t progress the build until my pipework turns up… some idiot (<<< me if you hadn’t guessed!!!) ordered the wrong size the first time… So tune in, same time same channel for more fun and games with the LR3 and a forum member who seemingly likes to do everything backwards, upside down and opposite to “easily!!” 
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Just a quick shout out to the rapid metals team in the UK. I ordered stainless steel tubing for the LR3 and put a note on the order to please ship only straight undamaged ones. 48hr turnaround and were spot on.
now if you’ve read the build above you’ll realise i ordered the wrong size!! so will use these in another build (3DP or something) but have a 2nd order in with them for the right size stuff…
If your in the UK and looking for a good supplier, can’t recommend them enough - https://www.rapidmetals.co.uk/
if links to vendors isn’t allowed, please do delete (and apologies)… I did check these aren’t available from V1 so hopefully it helps other UK customers looking to find the other parts needed…
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That’s a very quick and storytelling built…well done and enjoy !!!
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oooh nowhere near finished yet, lots more “fun” to come, glad you enjoyed it!
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Soo, the build er… continued, but… today… i hit a rather er… unusual hiccup…
The sun has seemingly gotten lost or forgotten that the UK is meant to be grey, dull and cloudy… I mean hey, i’m all for a bit of warm weather… means i get to jump in the hot tub with the dogs and play stupid buggers with them… but… even covered and sheltered from direct sunlight, some of the plastic parts for the LR3 have er, melted… 
The belts have dissapeared into the middle of the rear tension blocks… The 2x X axis poles no longer sit in their mounts if i want the the ZY plates to sit at 90deg from the bench… (i.e. upright as they are intended to be…) They now sit like a car with waaaay too much camber at around 30deg and my braces and temporary strut plates look like something from a Dr Suess book!!
So… the next 2 days are meant to be even hotter and that means it’s not worth doing anything now till next weekend… a whole week lost!
My 3d printer is unreliable, (damaged in storage, fixed, damaged again in storage, etc. etc.) so the original parts i ordered from @vicious1 directly, i feel quite gutted knowing how much it takes to print all these out just to have them warp before they get any use… Probably worth mentioning the service from Ryan & V1 was awesome and the parts arrived in perfect , flawless condition, it’s entirely the unreliable british summer and the sun getting lost thinking it’s in Dubai or something 
i’ve unmounted everything for now (which was easy because i used countersunk threaded inserts in the bench with m4 machine screws for everything, belt tensionrs, pole brackets, psu, etc. etc. So the wood isn’t damaged from removing / re-fitting etc.
I guess treat the workbench to some weatherproofing & continue with the electronics while i figure out what to do about the belts and plastic bits…
pfftt… back to “vroom vroom” noises…
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some pics from today,
pic 1 is the belt having dissapeared into the tensioner after the tensioner became soft in the heat…
pic 2 shows how the belt was looped prior, so all that is now stuck in the tensioner that’s now hardened again!
pic 3 is the bench on/off button mounted (thanks to @jeffeb3 and @azab2c for thier ideas / pointers!)
pic 4 is the same button open showing insides
pic 5 is the button and psu mounted under the bench on the front left hand side (position 0,0), i’ll add some sockets here and other stuff. the cables will travel under the bench to where i’ve mounted an EMC conduit connector, there’ll be wiring connectors there i think so when i take the overhead poles down, i can quickly release the cables. then the bench can be used for non CNC work. (the overhead poles will be to keep the hose & cables out of the path of the CNC.
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pic 1 is the temporary strut closes to the 0,0 position warped from the heat atm in the UK… (it was all covered and sheltered from sunlight! pffttt… bloody weather!! you can see it’s not just the temporary strut, but the x Bracket too, where the top & bottom poles sit, they’ve warped so the poles cannot sit square to the ZY plates… doh!
pic 2 is a close up of the threaded inserts for the Y rail when it’s removed.
pic 3 is the (unsanded) epoxied EMT conduit connector i’ve sunken into the bench. i can thread a length of conduit with either a 90deg bend in it, or a U shape with it resting / mounted in the opposite side of the table, run the vac hose and wires (to the Makita & SKR) up it and let them dangle down to the gantry, keeping them out of the way of belts and CNC travel paths. But is removable when i want to use the bench for other things. i could make a 3d printed plug for it when not in use…
pic 4 - more warping, this time the X bracket on the opposite side (x_max) as you can see, the only way to get the ZY plates at 90 deg to the bench / Y rail is to have them popped out, if i refit them, the plates sit at <>30deg angles.
last pic is another image of the warped temporary strut on the X_Max side…
and more! first pic shows the Y rail block and x bracket (bottom pole mount) having warped in the heat the UK are having atm…
pic 2 is the hole for the on/off button
pic 3 is the threaded inserts for the y rail
pic 4 is another angle of the warping, you can see the temporary strut looks like something from a Dr Suess film / book!
pic 5 is me sorting cable lengths, cable access and cable protection before terminating the ends with JST-XH 2.54mm connectors (that match the SKR and other most other boards i’ve come across)
(upload://5tuctoQXup6YZl1GcTZJFdG7KX7.jpeg)
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and more, here you can see how i’ve mounted the different CNC parts to the bench. i’ve used threaded inserts countersunk so the bench surface is still smooth, but easily removed and useable for other tasks. and removing / re-installing doesn’t constantly damage the wood!
@vicious1 - just a thought, it would be handy to have RF/RR/FR/FL imprinted on the tensioners (or some other mechanism of identification) if you ever find yourself doing tweaks / upgrades etc. to them
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pic 1 - tensioner 3 removed with threaded inserts showing
pic 2 tensioner 4 position
pic 3 tensioner 4 removed with inserts showing
pic 4 close up of heat warped X bracket
pic 5 another view of the X bracket after the british summer messed with it! pfftt
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and finally for today, some positivity!
Pic 1 - the furthest motor & microswitch cables are all soldered to the extension cable (pin header connectors removed), heat shrink applied per wire, labelled at the join (in-case i ever need to check them) then covered in cable braiding and run through the cable hold on the hose mount. for the eagle eyed amongst you, in the distance you’ll see the SKR Pro wiring being prepared… (cut to length so no excess cable to worry about (or noise pickup hopefully) with JST-XH 2.54mm connectors soldered on). Once finished it’ll look very tidy!
pic 2 - close up of the Y rail side wiring
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Some images i hadn’t had chance to upload previously…
Pic 1 - testing the SKR Pro, steppers, endstops and screen before properly installing and dealing with cable routing, tidying, protection etc.
pic 2 - close up of how the wires for the motor enter the cable braiding from the endstop, note they seem a little close to that machine screw… i doubt they’ll ever rub, but… I’ll put a bit of heatshrink over the screw so any rubbing is braid to heatshrink. (the exposed motor wires were put in heatshrink too, i’ll upload a photo of that another day…
pic 3 - the soldered endstop iwth it’s heatshrink on each connected leg all snug in it’s housing ready to be installed. (note - bending these to fit & trigger properly took a bit of trial and error (i have metal plates)
pic 4 another pic of the cable protection on the motors and endstops. first i tried using automotive wiring loom tape with the cable braid but it looked sh*t so i replaced it with heatshrink. i’ll add those pics another day. (when i’ve found them!)
pic 5 - “helping hands” come in useful sometimes for not burning your fingers while trying to solder stuff!
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The slot side goes on X-right, aka X-max, and the hole side goes to X-left, aka X-min. The X-belt tensioner gets attached by a screw through that hole.
Thanks Doug, out of sheer luck i had them the right way around
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Was that thing in a greenhouse? I’ve only ever seen one other machine warp like that and that’s where they had it stored.
No mate. On the workbench in the garden with a canopy covering it… the weather was 38-40degC
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