Just Following Instructions

Before I began assembling my ORD Bot's mechanical frame, I assumed that it would be a bit like putting together a particularly complicated piece of IKEA furniture.  I expected to have to do some research on the parts involved.  I expected the process to be unfamiliar and fiddly, and to make mistakes along the way.  But essentially I expected that I would be following a set of comprehensive instructions that would give me enough detail to slog through it on my own without too much help, despite being a total noob.

I started on Thursday using the ORD Bot Wiki as my guide.  Yes, I know what a wiki is, but I was wide-eyed and optimistic nonetheless.  Here are just some of the challenges I faced:

• The instructions assumed assembly from scratch, and my frame came partially assembled.  It took me some time to work out which instructions to follow and which weren't relevant.
• Where the instructions referred to a specific part, I often had no idea what it looked like.  For example, apparently this is an eccentric spacer:

The picture in my head was something more like this:

• The diagrams are all engineering drawings, which means they're very accurate and meticulously labelled.  Unfortunately I've never had to interpret engineering drawings before.
• The wiring instructions say you should do the wiring "very early in the build", but don't actually say where the wires have to end up and how they connect to their destination.
• There are two sets of assembly instructions for the main frame and z axis.  The first is more technical, but is complete.  The second is more noob-friendly but missing some vital steps.

I managed to fit most of the pieces together though, dismissing the wiring for the moment and concentrating on the frame itself.  And then my partner came home.  Having done a lot of work on our Makerbot, he found a couple of problems I didn't pick up on:

• The build platform was wobbly.  I figured I could fix it later, but he immediately realised that one of the eccentric spacers underneath was out of alignment.  Problem solved!
• The z axis motor shafts weren't aligned properly with the nut blocks (that's not innuendo, but it should be).  We had to unscrew the motor mounts and move them a couple of millimetres further out.  On one side this worked fine.  On the other side it had been screwed in too tightly (more wasted innuendo...) and couldn't be budged by hand.  Construction had to stop until we could get to the hackerspace and find a drill.

Fast forward to Saturday at the hackerspace, where my partner grabbed a Dremel and tore the offending screw a new one, converting it from a hex socket to a flat slot:

This provided enough leverage to take the screw out and move the motor mount.  Then I attached the couplers and leadscrews, and started manually turning them to move the gantry down.  Success!

Or so I thought, until a kind visitor to the hackerspace suggested that I test the various parts of the frame with a level, which showed that the different axes were out of alignment.  Luckily, he also knew how to remedy the situation.  So this is what my robot looks like now:

TLDR: When IKEA release their own 3D printer range (you know they will eventually, and it'll have a maddening faux-Scandinavian name with gratuitous diacritics, like Ekstrüüdå) I want to get my hands on their instruction booklet.

Now, on to the extruder and electronics *eye roll*