Ok, after sitting on the UPS dock for 5 1/2 days it's finally arrived at my house I only found minor scuffs on my boxes so I don't expect anything to be wrong on the inside. Now I have to get busy building it so I have something to take pictures of!

 

I am nearing completion on mine. Hooked up wiring tonight and ran the stepper motors for the first time. I am so tired and my back aches from all the standing I have been doing lately and of course lifting and squatting down to pick up things I drop but I am so happy to see this coming together.

Take your time, enjoy the build. Mark leaves little to the imagination. The build video is simply awesome! Pay attention to how the parts are oriented and you can't go wrong. It is a delight to build!
:mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

 

I'll get my pictures up tonight after work, I made it all the way through step 4, so my Y and Z carriages are done ! woo hoo!.

I do have a question, how hard should it be to turn the acme rod? I had no problems getting it through the bearings but it was difficult to turn by hand. Mark makes the on in the build video look realy easy to turn. Using the big pully to turn it, it is very smooth throughout it's travel, just seems like it takes too much effort. Could I have something wrong with the anti-backlash nut? I left the little dowl in it until the Acme rod pushed it out but I was not able to get the square nuts to completely not touch the spring, so could that be it? (I think I just thought of something to check!)

 

For lunch today I took the Acme rod and Backlash nut out of the assembly and they are difficult to turn by hand still. I pulled the spring clip all the way down to take its tension off of the nut and it didn't make a difference, it's just the nut itself. I can turn the rod with two fingers if I really try, but really I need my whole hand to get a grip on it enough for more than a turn or two. I looked at the threads in the nut as best I could and they seem fine. The rod smoothly goes through the nut except where the set screws galled the threads, but the first time I know it was smooth all the way. O well, back to work I go. I'll get some pictures up tonight.

 

Well, I must say how good a job Mark and Trish did with packing the hardware for my Phlatprinter3. For step seven I was missing 4 of the large square nuts, but that must be because they remembered that I had 4 'extra' large square nuts with the phlatformer they sent me many months ago. That's actually been the only issue so far, and like I said, they took care of it over 6 months ago ...
I've completed everything up to step 7 with no problems now. Since I'm using a Smoothstepper instead of the Planet-CNC board I'll have to put some more holes in it for the mounting studs, but thats an easy task at this point, I'll get a picture of what that looks like.

I am behind on the pictures some, but here are the first few of when I recieved it.



Attached files

 

These things go together so fast and easy that you forget to take pictures! Well, here are some completed step pictures at least.

Attached files

 

Well, I got the rest of my pictures up now (at least the ones that are decent, i'm not a photographer at all)
I can say that I DON"T like the square nuts for the springs, A suggestion would be for Flanged hex nuts instead. just my 2 cents. everywhere else they are great. Attached files

 

Wow, I must be really boring, 5 posts in a row without anyone else commenting

For your information, at the end of Step 8 they say get the part #C6. It's in the Step 9 bundle incase you can't find it.


I managed to break my first piece tonight, the parts #C9x2 have more of a gap between the tabs where the square nut goes than any of the other pieces. I had my drill on the lowest clutch setting which has been working great for every other screw, even the matching #C9 but on this one it snapped both little ears off.


Besides haveing a cluttered workdesk you can see that there are alot of screws holding this back panel on. I had one of them with a square nut that didn't want to thread, but I didn't want to remove all the ones I'd already done to replace it. Seems if you fight with it long enough they'll finialy thread. The few square nuts like that I've encountered so far seem to be missing the first thread on one side, so if you flip them over they start easy.

I got the drive rollers done, but apparently I lack some ability to follow directions. I was listening to Mark tell me how to unroll the griptape and use a tape measure to cut a 27" piece. I proceded to use a Yardstick I had handy and cut two 36" pieces before I realized what I was doing :roll: Luckly I'm not going to put grip tape on the pressure rollers and those pieces are already 27" long which would have been a better choice for me to measure with. You can also see the plane that mark and Trish cut out for me, thanks again!


Here is the picture of the installation of my Smoothstepper board to the Easy-CNC driver. I mounted it as low as I did because I didn't know where the port was in the back panel and it was easier to drill the holes there since I already had the I-beam and steppermotor installed.
Attached files

 

You want to be careful about drilling any holes to mount things that Mark has not included holes for until after you have completed the build. Speaking from experience....

There are things such as the top plate that have to go in unrestricted and any screws that might end up in its path will be a problem.

I did the same as you and had to recess some of my screws because I had mounted a relay board to the cabinet that interfered with the top plate. I narrowly missed having one screw hit a pivot arm!

 

@Flashsolutions, Hmm, I didn't consider the top plate haveing a problem, but I did make sure I didn't get in the way of the pivot arm, but I am right next to it. I'll find out if I have any problems soon, I'm at the point of mounting the drive rollers now.