DIY kit assembly

[thinkJason]

I noticed plenty of build progress threads, but nothing specifically instructional for the latest DIY kit save the incomplete wiki page. As a new member of the community, I feel like there's going to be many more members like myself who are looking for a manual of sorts when assembling their own kits in the future. Given as such, I'll be tracking my own progress here.

I saw that rob had a Makers meeting Buyers thread in Agora, so I sought him out to mill and ship me parts for the DIY kit. He was a pleasure to work with, and I'm incredibly pleased with the quick turnaround. I received a surprisingly large package in the mail today:



Like a kid in a candy store, I couldn't wait to open it. Rob packaged the materials extremely well:



I laid out the parts to make sure everything was there:



Looks good from here. I do have some parts already: a 8MP Canon A640 powershot, a 10MP Nikon coolpix s570, and two 5.5" 75w fixtures with lighting. Next step: take my shopping list to home depot. I need to grab some paint, a bunch of fasteners, and some coffee.

[daniel_reetz]

Wow, Rob's parts look truly perfect.

Assembly instructions would be a HUGE contribution.

Also, we should go over that shopping list with mellow-yellow - some of it is incorrect. PM me and him and we can talk about/correct it.

[thinkJason]

Wow, Rob's parts look truly perfect.

Assembly instructions would be a HUGE contribution.

Also, we should go over that shopping list with mellow-yellow - some of it is incorrect. PM me and him and we can talk about/correct it.

Rob's parts are amazing! Great wood, excellent cutting. There's a tiny amount of splintering on a few parts, which a little bit of sandpaper will fix up nicely. I went to Home Depot today, list in hand, and picked up everything except the pulley (they didn't have an appropriate one), the CNC bit (don't need it, obviously) and the bike parts. I'll be tracking what I use and what I don't through this build--I recognize that the list is a work in progress.

All told, the hardware came in at $53 (not counting lights and shrouds, ~$24)


Here's all the parts from today's trip:


The next step will be painting the wood and drilling all the holes. I left Home Depot just as a blizzard began, so I may not get to painting until next week; my small apartment and hardwood floors will thank me for painting outside.

[bea]

Thanks for keeping a log of your progress. Best of luck!!

[thinkJason]

So I noticed that there's a few sizes being thrown around for the glass, and I had a feeling I might have to do some cutting. I threw the platen together for a test fit, and found my first issue:

The depth of cut for the glass groove on one side of the frame is deeper than the other:





Leading to the following issue with 11x14" glass panes:



Measured from inside one groove to inside the other:



This leads me to believe that if the depth was as deep on the shallow side as the deep side, these readily available $4 panes of glass would fit perfectly.

[rob]

This is true -- this could be why the glass is specified in the parts list as 13 3/4"! I'll definitely modify the other face to have a deeper groove, but in the meantime, you can pick up a glass cutting tool from the same place at the Despot that you found the glass. Then use it to both trim off 1/4" from the glass and gain mad skillz in cutting glass

Or, you can tap on the face to push it out by 1/4" to get the glass to fit. Not ideal, but it works, and the top box will still sit securely on the supports.

The next version that we're busily working on won't have grooves, because they're proving to be a bit problematic. The glass will be clamped flush to the wood.

[thinkJason]

This is true -- this could be why the glass is specified in the parts list as 13 3/4"! I'll definitely modify the other face to have a deeper groove, but in the meantime, you can pick up a glass cutting tool from the same place at the Despot that you found the glass. Then use it to both trim off 1/4" from the glass and gain mad skillz in cutting glass

Or, you can tap on the face to push it out by 1/4" to get the glass to fit. Not ideal, but it works, and the top box will still sit securely on the supports.

The next version that we're busily working on won't have grooves, because they're proving to be a bit problematic. The glass will be clamped flush to the wood.

I looked up a wikihow on glass cutting; it does appear to be painfully simple. There's also a framing shop a block or two down the road from me, so I'll see if they'd do the cuts for less than the cost of buying a cutter and oil. I figure, for a 30-second job, I could probably buy the employee a coffee and call it good. A clamp support for the glass would be a huge leap forward--the groove is a great starting point, but securing the glass will require a lot of cobbled-together ingenuity, and I wonder about that sliver of wood's fragility.

[rob]

Wow, Rob's parts look truly perfect.

That's just the way Jason arranged them to look nice

[rob]

I think this picture will be useful in helping to put the parts together in the right positions.

[daniel_reetz]

I think it's worth having a glass shop do the work; I've tried to remove thin sections from the edge of glass and didn't fare well.