Getting Ready & Organized
Making assembly smooth and logical is important to us. The information here will both help you understand the rest of the guide and offer a few tips, as well.
1. Frame Pieces
Pieces of frame of the same length have part numbers, but individual pieces also have an ID. These help locate where on the frame a piece goes and when inserting roll-in tee nuts.
It's important to label each piece so that once we start inserting tee nuts, we don't get the pieces confused. To preserve our own sanity during development, we started labeling frame pieces in the same place, using the FTL rule:
- Front
- Top
- Left
Every frame piece is labeled with its ID in the front, top left corner of where it belongs on the printer. If the front is a cut face on the extrusion, we put a label on the top, in the front left corner instead. This is a consistent strategy we use throughout this assembly guide.
Here's an example of a labeled part and how the FTL scheme works in practice. This picture is of frame piece A1, which is stickered in the upper left. With this as a reference, we can show each face of the extrusion and where the tee nuts belong.
We will label each piece before we get started assembling the frame. For the moment, keep them organized by length/part number.
2. Printed Part Numbers
Most printed parts have their part number embossed somewhere. Once installed the number won't be visible--they are solely there to help you find the part you are looking for. Anything without a part number is labeled in the notes column of the Bill of Materials. We recommend putting these unnumbered parts in bags and labeling them.
Note
Parts are also labeled with an 'L' or 'R' if there are two parts that are mirrors.
3. The Later Area
There are some things you won't need until near the very end of assembly. We can set these parts in "Later Area" to keep what you don't need immediately stored. Here's the list:
| ID | Description |
|---|---|
| PN9XX | The entire Electrical section of the BOM. |
| PN8XX | The entire Misc. section of the BOM. |
| PN797 | Foam Weatherstripping |
| PN4XX | The entire Toolhead section of the BOM. |
| MN001 | Activated Carbon |
| MN2XX | All electrical connectors |
Once we have the frame and some other bits together, we'll gather more parts.
4. Extra Tips
There are quite a few parts we'll only need one of, or will only need at certain times. On the other hand, we need screws for pretty much everything.
- Organizing your parts by category and purpose will quickly locate parts.
- Placing small parts in bags with their part number also helps.
- Keep a small box close with just the brackets, screws, and other fasteners.
- Leave electronics in their packaging until needed. They tend to go straight from box to some form of mount.