Helpful tip for those not familar with putting together a 3D printer part1
Vickie Sa
So I think I kinda sorta think am done. I'm an artist, not an engineer, so this was a bit of a stretch for me. There are other people that have posted pictures and tutorials, but I thought I'd give some tips as they are fresh in my mind for others that are newbies in putting something like this together. Just ignore this if you are a tech wiz.
The thing I found super helpful is getting organized. There is a big bag of screw, nuts bolts, vinyl spacers that are big mess. Separate them out so they are easy to see an access. I had some plastic organizer boxes handy and that helped me. Have a mm ruler handy. The manual describes putting hardware in terms of descriptors like "M3 x20". M3 are the smaller thinner hex bolts. It probably means the thickness is 3mm. The 20 would mean that it's 20mm in length.
I'll just mention some tips. If anyone has an interest in a more of a blow by blow let me know and I'll get into more details.
After you put in the guiderails you have to put a bolt in at the end so the slider doesn't fall off. They tell you to take off the red buttons. The bolt is terrible because it easily falls off. When that happens the slider falls off and the teeny tiny ball bearing fall out. I have ball bearing replacements on order. Amazon loves me right now. So just leave the red buttons on for now. They act to keep the sliders on.
Next you are going to put on the top and bottom rails. Thicker one at the top (where the limit switch is) and thinner one on the bottom. Before you attach the next 60 degree rail don't forget to put in the 2 screws attached to the smaller rectangular flat nut. These will be used to attach the floor and top plates.
When it comes to attaching the floor and top plates most likely they will not fit all the screws. They didn't cut them out as precisely as they should have. I used a Dremel with a diamond bit to make the opening a little wider. Do it more towards the outside of the slot. After I wrote this post Cerambot came out with a video showing a different way of installing that didn't require a mod. It was different from what was explained in the manual.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_x0IhclkHo
When you get to the part about mounting the PCB board on top. Stop. You need to switch over to the wiring manual because you will be putting together a motherboard. This involves opening up those plastic packages with circuit boards and connecting the to each other and to wires and tiny components. Break out the magnifying glasses. Skip step on about the limit switch wiring. They have things in the wrong order.
Don’t follow the step that shows switching around some wires to the stepper motors as described in the manual. Apparently if you do it will not work. Just found that out and now need to do some rewiring again.
Back to the regular manual. You've connected your fisheye bearings to the black straw-like piece with the headless screws and the 2 part epoxy. Now you need to attach it to the belt connector. You need to drop in the small nut into the slot and run the bolt through the fisheye through the cone appendage and secure to the nut. However the nut does not line up with the hole. My hack was to hold the nut with pliers, heat it up with fire from my stove, quickly drop it in the slot and push down until it lined up with the hole. I tried Dremeling it, I tried filing down the nut....this worked for me.
When you set up the extrusions nozzles tighten the bottom tension adjuster in the coupling, then attach the acrylic fixation, silicone and big screw and then push down. Then tighten the upper 2 tension adjuster screws to lock in the big screw.
Now you are at the Extrusion Pusher Installation. You need to put on the white plastic shaft sleeve so that the 57 stepper motor will fit into the worm gear reducer. This piece doesn't fit well. It will be super tight. I would suggest lubing it up and even with that not sure how well it will fit. I put it into work gear reducer (female part) first and had to tap it in with a hammer. That cracked it. I then fit in the stepper motor. It seems to work even though it's cracked. Hopefully it will hold up. You can look on the FB board for that discussion.
The manual tells you to install the PVC pipe fixing flange and then the anti rotation flange and then Big screw. Don't do that. The Anti Rotation flange (ARF) will stop you from getting the screw all the way through. Just do the PVC. Lube up the big screw. Screw in the from the Anti Rot'n Flange end and then when you get through (you only need to go down a little way), then put on the ARF making sure the indentation on the screw lines up with the bump out on the ARF.
