Here we go, I’ll get as far as I can today, I expect to be missing something and I am unlikely to put everything together in the right order…
1st image: Everything laid out for mechanical assembly
2nd image: Left and right front (or rear) corners assembled to front (or rear) face. note that although the front and rear faces are identical, they each have a front and back side. The two holes in the center are on a slant, look closely at the mating parts for the center belt and make sure you have them correct. I didn’t notice until later, but only had to reverse one of them.
3rd image: Ditto for the rear (or front) face.
4th image: Now for the left (heck, or right, OK?) side. It doesn’t look like you can get the sides reversed…
5th image: Same old dame old, except the other side. You will notice I’ve been only peeling enough of the surface film off the routed pieces to uncover the needed holes, in an attempt to minimize fingerprints. In retrospect it would have been easier from the beginning to peel it all as I started on the new piece.
6th image: Z axis stepper mounts. Pretty simple and as long as you differentiate left from right you can’t get it wrong.
7th image: Y axis shafts, you really should only put the holders on one end to allow for assembly of the table sliders. I should have assembled the table sliders before placing them.
8th image: Install the LM8UU Linear Bearings in the table mounts then install on the Y axis shafts.
9th image: Teo steps in one picture! Assemble the Y axis rod holders and put the bearing in as the pulley for the front belt return. I have the return inverted to show the bearing.
10th image: First thing where I’ve said ‘this should be different’, the mounting nut for the upper mounting screw doesn’t have enough clearance on any side to allow a wrench to fit. I don’t think it was a structural decision, just not thinking forward to assembly. My little screwdriver jammed in place to hold just enough to tighten. I could have also have put the screw in from the other side, but that would mess with the esthetics.
11th image: Looks like I missed an image here, I should have shown the rear belt mount/stepper mount. I’m showing the belt mount for the table here, from the bottom so you can see it’s alignment. If you try to install it on the wrong side it will not be square to the table.
12th image: And here is the table right side up. No need to actually mount it. I expect we’ll deal with that at the same time as mounting the heat plate.
13th image: Install two of the LM8UU Linear Bearings on each of the outer two parts for the X axis and four bearings in the center slider for the X axis.
14th image: Right side of the X axis with the rods only partially through. This allows you to slide the center in before connecting to the left side.
15th image: Finished installing the X axis rods. Note I had to do some tapping on the end to get them through, not so much because it was misaligned as that it was nice and tight.
16th image: Another two step image. I installed the XZ frame with the four screws to the side stepper mounts, then installed the top mounts for the Z axis rods. It looks like I’m missing the two printed pieces that tie the XZ frame and the right and left sides! Dang, I thought I had it all. Luckily I should be able to continue on tomorrow with only a bit of structural integrity missing and put those two in later, there is enough flex in this acrylic to allow that.
Ryan, I’m not seeing all the images. Let me know if there’s something I can do at this end to fix that, and feel free to use any or all of them in your assembly instructions (or anywhere else, really).
You put that up right as I was trying to put the site in maintenance mode to transition to the new servers. The site was offline for 2 hours and 50 minutes trying to get back your pics and posts!
All good now thanks for all your efforts! Hope the new servers is much faster now.
17th image: Cleaned up slightly since yesterday and brought out more parts since there was table space again.
18th image: Set two Z axis steppers out and threaded their wires through that nifty slot just behind their mount.
19th image: Mounted the steppers and laid out the leadscrews and nuts. Note that the nuts on the leadscrews will mount from the bottom of that bracket.
20th image: OK, I cheated a little and will reorder a bit for the next one. I pulled the X axis assembly off in order to screw the nuts in place. It was just so much easier. I didn’t have the correct screws and used #4x3/4" sheet metal screws, #6s were too large to fit cleanly through the holes in the brass nuts. I’ll swap these for 1/2" at some point to keep them from sticking out at the top. I don’t see these screw in the BOM, was I supposed to use something different? Note that you are forced to move the coupler up a bit from the stepper in order to fit the alen wrench in. This is a ‘good thing’.
21st image: Here we’re mounting the X axis stepper, wires should point toward the side or possibly down.
22nd image: Mounting the toothed pulley on the stepper. I’ve threaded the belt through the other side to try an get alignment right. Note the the set screw side is away from the stepper, it won’t align right otherwise.
23rd image: A bit tougher to see… The belt is threaded through with one end in the toothed slot at center, then around the bearing, back across, around the stepper pulley and back to the center where it’s connected using two zip ties. One zip tie makes a loop to set tension, the other pins he belt into a loop. I haven’t yet trimmed the zip ties so you can see it better.
24th image: I had to pull the rear mount for the Y axis belt. With it mounted the nuts holding it in place were just too much in the way of putting in screws for the stepper. Next time that stepper will get mounted much earlier.
That it for now, I’m OOP this week so won’t be able to continue until next weekend.
Looking ahead a step it looks like the teeth that hold the end of the belt for the Y axis (Y_Block) are on the wrong side… Does anyone have a good image showing the belt connections under the bed? And where do the three springs go?
Nah, I’m OOP this week so won’t be able to get back to it until at least Friday evening. Which way does the belt wrap? Maybe I’m trying to thread it wrong.
And I figured out the belt, I had the ends toward the bottom in my mind. They should be toward the top instead. All good now. I’ll try to get the next batch up today.
Luckily I should be able to continue on tomorrow with only a bit of structural integrity missing and put those two in later, there is enough flex in this acrylic to allow that.
