Prusa Build II

The Makerfarm Prusa kit comes with pretty much everything you need to assemble a Reprap, save for motors and power supply.  It also has excellent instructions for every step of the build process, which make assembly a straightforward, if time-consuming, process.

My previous post has the unboxing.  Starting to assemble, I began as everyone does, by assembling the triangles.  This was followed by realizing that I had an excess of zeal and a deficit of care. Turns out I had used the short rods where I needed the long rods. Whoops!  So I disassembled the triangles, and reassembled them:

You can see the PDF build instructions on the computer screen, every step of the way is well described in text and supplemented with clear, helpful photos.  Also to the left are the Y axis mounts, shown assembled below:

These are quickly bolted to the triangles pictured above to form the frame:

Sticking out at the top are the Z-axis motor mounts, and the bits at the bottom are the Z-stabilizers.  At this point, the Y-axis can be installed.  This comes in pretty snazzy laser-cut acrylic:

In the photo above, the Y-axis is installed with motor.  It is incredibly annoying to tension the Y-axis belt and there is plenty of room for a custom part that would make this easy.  However, I digress.

The next step was assembling the X-axis. Here you see the X motor mount and X idler assembled. Apologies for the blurry photos, but you only build this once, and I am NOT taking it apart to get a sharp shot.

With the X-axis ready to go, the Z-axis motors and leadscrews have to be installed to support the X-axis:

This was also incredibly fiddly for no good reason. Why exactly do the upper bracket of the triangle and the Z-motor mount need to be distinct printed parts? Why not install the motors BEFORE assembling the frame, when it's easy, instead of when stuff is upside down, when it's not?  Why are the couplers so freaking fidgety, when they could be a simple C-clamp? It's not like they're actually balanced anyway? But I digress.

In a secret step that I did not even have to perform, the X-axis magically placed itself on the Z-axis leadscrews, leaving me with something that looked distinctly like a Reprap:

Here you can see the close-up view of the Z-axis idler, and shown below is the whole frame, with the additional heated-bed mounting plate installed.  Looks pretty sweet, if I do say so myself:

At this point I decided to call it a day.  A few missteps led to this taking nearly 9 full hours, alignment is finicky, nuts are dropped and a lack of absolute care leads to parts being installed flipped.  In the next post, installation of the extruder, heated bed and early prints!