Mendelmax 2.0 Z-Axis

Bit of a review first on my thoughts of the kit so far. So far I would rate the kit quality as pretty darn good. Not 5 stars, but a good solid 4. A few of the parts have some minor scratches and on part the laser cutting quality is pretty bad but it seems to be 100% functional. I'm loving putting it together- its like playing with a real fancy erector set!

Instructions at this point leave a LOT to be desired- but again, that is why I'm doing this! It's pretty fun to be involved in the development of the directions- I make notes as I go of any errors or suggestions and then I get on Google Docs and make comments, along with several others who are going through the same process. By the end of it all, I believe the next set of kits sold will have an darn near perfect set of directions.

One other thing I want to mention- the times I'm listing include studying the directions, finding parts in the bags, taking pictures, and making notes. It also includes mistakes I make (which so far have been minimal), meaning I have to take something apart and switch it around.

 Assembly of the Z axis.

Parts.



Combine the first two assembly's by setting the x axis in the frame.



Start adding things!  First thing is the bushing rods.  They are supposed to be adjusted (by tweaking the bushing on the x-axis) so that they sit in the center of the hole on top.



Bushing rod clamp installed.  I later put zip ties around the printed part just to make sure the bushing rods don't pull out.



Z screws and accompanying derlinger (?) nuts.  Note which end is facing which direction... The other end of the screws has a longer skinnier piece that attaches to the stepper motors.



Attached to the x-axis frame.





Stepper motors with the couplers installed.  The couplers have different size holes- the small hole goes over the motor shaft and the large hole goes over the z-axis screw.



Stepper installed.  I had to loosen the motor plate from the frame and slide it around a little to get the motor to drop back into place.  Repeat for the other side.



Coupler attached to the screw.



At first I thought this was weird-  It looks like there should be something in the big hole to guide the screw, but nothing goes there.  The screws don't wobble at all.



Shot of the completed work so far...



I also installed the x-axis stepper motor.  This was supposed to be done during assembly of the x-axis, but I didn't have my stepper motors with me at the time. 



Completed assembly so far:



I did have some binding on the z-axis, but I wasn't worried about it at this point.  I had a lot of loose screws still and was planning on spending some time when it was more put together to align everything and get everything moving smoothley.

Time Spent on this step: 35 min
Total time so far: 4 hrs 50 min.

Mendelmax 2.0- X-axis assembly

Assembly of the X axis.  Directions here got a little confusing but thats part of the fun when you are helping test something out.  A lot of changes have been made to the directions already and have clarified a lot of the questions I had when assembling these parts.  Here we go!

Parts.



Bushings. This part was pretty confusing- Think I've gotten it figured out now thanks to their support group.  They need to be "broken in" because they are very stiff at first.  Kinda hard but not impossible.  Getting them installed into the bushing blocks was confusing because I didn't understand which direction they were supposed to go in, but that has also already been addressed.









Rails.  Pretty straight forward.  One thing I discovered later is that you don't need to tighten them now- leave them loose so later when the x plate is installed you can align the rails.  This needs to be done the carriage doesnt bind.

These blue things hold the rails together and also hold a special nylon nut that the z-axis screws thread into.





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Bushing plates prepped and ready to install on the rails.





X cars ready to install. These fit in the rails and act like a bearing as the x plate slides back and forth- keeping it aligned and theoretically, low on friction.





X plate installed on cars and rails.



Belt Tensioner. ***These pictures are wrong- there are supposed to be 5 washers under the bearings to spacer them out from the plate. I will update these pics when I have access to them (posting from an Ipad right now...)









Finished x-axis. The entire thing is put together loose- I was expecting to have to do a bunch of aligning and I was right. As you will find out, it takes some fiddling to get the axis to move freely without binding.




Time Spent on this step: 1 hr 5 min.
Total time so far: 4 hrs 15 min.

Mendelmax 2.0- Frame Assembly

Assembling the Frame. Lots of little bits and pieces- the most time consuming part here was finding them all and getting everything ready.  Once the parts had all of the nuts and bolts in them, sticking them together was pretty simple.  A lot like playing with a really expensive erector set, but MORE fun!  Overall the directions were pretty accurate for this part. I had a few questions and made a few notes and suggestions, but it mostly went together pretty quickly.

The help.  He lasted about 15 minutes.



Assembling the base.  Pretty straight forward- lay the parts out, install the screw and T-nuts, then slide the parts together, align with a square, and tighten.  As long as you follow the instructions and get the parts in the right orientation, it's a snap.







Putting the top to cross bars on was a little trickier- they have to be straight and level, and when you tighten the screws in the end the bars want to twist.  With a helper, its not hard at all to hold the square across the platform while tightening the screws.
 

Getting ready to assemble the uprights:



Assembling the uprights. Here are the T-nuts I was talking about earlier.  You have to leave them REALLY loose to get them to start in the channels on the extrusions.


 
Here are two plates ready for installation.






It can be a little tricky lining up the T-nuts with the slots...




 
First uprights installed. 






Top Brackets ready to go on.




Top Brackets installed.




Second set of uprights installed.  At this point, all of the screws up top are just loosely tightened- all of this will need to be adjusted and squared still, and then all the screws get tightened.




Z- axis guide plates installed.  The hole to the right is for the guide rod.  The bigger hole on the left is under the z-axis screw, but it doesn't attach there, not quite sure what the hole is for.




Top brackets ready to be installed.




Cross bar preperation.








Top cross bar and brackets installed.  With everything set in place, I took some time with the square and tightened all of the screws.  The bracket with the holes in this picture will most likely need to be loosened and repositioned later- the stepper motor goes in the big hole and the z-axis guide rod attaches to the small hole in the front- both of which will need some tweaking to get the z-axis to move freely.





Frame DONE! Sure looks pretty!



Time Spent on this step: 1 hr 10 min.
Total time so far: 3 hrs 10 min.

Just want to mention again, the times I'm posting include time taken for studying the directions as I build (not counting the time I spent reading over them before the build), taking pictures, making notes, and finding all of the hardware.  I feel it could be done a lot quicker if you were trying to get it done fast.