so far so good...
Posted: Thu Jul 16, 2015 1:36 am
My liteplacer arrived yesterday!
Stayed up until the wee hours of the morning and made it as far as step "X.17: Finished Frame" -- wow, it actually looks like a pick-and-place now!
The instructions are absolutely fantastic. I think any company considering manufacturing any sort of product that requires customer assembly ought to get Juha to give a lecture to their documentation-writers. The world would be a much happier place.
The only major obstacle so far is the laser-cut holes for the 608ZZ flanged bearing, in both the "Y-bearing plate" and "Y-pulley plate". They are too small! I filed and filed and filed them, and they're simply cut too small. In the end I had to hammer the bearing into the hole, which warped the plate! Juha, please consider throwing out your stock of these plates and having a new set cut with a larger hole. Some sort of rubber gasket to hold the bearing in the hole is better than relying on the laser-cutting tolerance to be just small enough to grip the bearing but just large enough to allow insertion -- I don't think the lasercutters are accurate enough for this. Also the holes for the M5-35s in the "Y-bearing plate" are also too small: the non-threaded part of the M5-35 is actually wider than the threaded part, and it does not fit into the hole. I had to re-drill the holes a tiny bit larger to get the screw to go all the way in.
Another minor comment: it would be helpful for those of us in the US if you could make sure to include at least one extra of every metric screw/nut/washer. Unfortunately the hardware stores here carry only a very very very limited supply of metric parts, so if I lose one of the screws I will have to order the replacement online -- at least a two-day delay and quite expensive unless I wait a week. So far I haven't lost any parts yet, thankfully!
Today I'll try to finish the remaining mechanical steps.
Stayed up until the wee hours of the morning and made it as far as step "X.17: Finished Frame" -- wow, it actually looks like a pick-and-place now!
The instructions are absolutely fantastic. I think any company considering manufacturing any sort of product that requires customer assembly ought to get Juha to give a lecture to their documentation-writers. The world would be a much happier place.
The only major obstacle so far is the laser-cut holes for the 608ZZ flanged bearing, in both the "Y-bearing plate" and "Y-pulley plate". They are too small! I filed and filed and filed them, and they're simply cut too small. In the end I had to hammer the bearing into the hole, which warped the plate! Juha, please consider throwing out your stock of these plates and having a new set cut with a larger hole. Some sort of rubber gasket to hold the bearing in the hole is better than relying on the laser-cutting tolerance to be just small enough to grip the bearing but just large enough to allow insertion -- I don't think the lasercutters are accurate enough for this. Also the holes for the M5-35s in the "Y-bearing plate" are also too small: the non-threaded part of the M5-35 is actually wider than the threaded part, and it does not fit into the hole. I had to re-drill the holes a tiny bit larger to get the screw to go all the way in.
Another minor comment: it would be helpful for those of us in the US if you could make sure to include at least one extra of every metric screw/nut/washer. Unfortunately the hardware stores here carry only a very very very limited supply of metric parts, so if I lose one of the screws I will have to order the replacement online -- at least a two-day delay and quite expensive unless I wait a week. So far I haven't lost any parts yet, thankfully!
Today I'll try to finish the remaining mechanical steps.