A3 Marchant Dice Kit

[neo]

Part2 The Krypton factor

Before the missing parts were sent, building the base was not without its challenges.

Remember there are no instructions which to be fair is not a major
problem, it really is fairly straight forward to construct, although a mechanical mind should help.
However, the trouble was the Y axis base didn't seem to fit together properly and I just couldnt work it out. The Z, X axis top section went together relatively easily, but I based the building of the base on what I'd learnt with the top part and this turned out to be where I was going wrong.
It became like an insolvable puzzle as I tried to put the side rail fixings into the same diagonal position as seen on the top part. in fact the more convinced I became thats how it should be attached, the more impossible it became to attach the cross member. It simply wouldn't fit and I couldn't see the wood for the trees.:confused:

After much cursing and wondering if I should have bought a crate of beer instead
I had a brainwave of looking on the internet at some pictures I'd seen on good old ebay when i was looking at buying the unit.
I recalled that the listing for the CNC in question had a link to some photos of one already built.
There was a series of photos in closeup of a tour around the machine. In one photo it clearly showed the base side rails fixed in the same diagonal postion as the upper part.
What I didn't realise was this was a photo sequence of an A4 machine, I'd bought the A3 machine and unbeknown to me it had subtle differences!!:heehee:

By trial and error I started to fit the rail fixings in the same slots as themselves and it was only then that I could succesfully fit the cross member to join the two parts together.
Unfortunately I wasn't convinced I was doing it right afterall the photo sequence shows them to be diagonal.
It was only by looking closely at a smaller photo of the A3 machine that I could see the rails were indeed fitted in the position which I was now using. I was right but boy did my head hurt trying to solve the krypton factor!

Once I realised I was on the right road I was happy to tighten the screws up and complete the base unit.
The photos also had another advantage in that one photo also showed the elusive missing specialised nuts.
I now knew what was missing all I had to do was wait for them to arrive

Neo

part3 to follow.....