Good News from Amazon

Amazon came through with some good news that will complete my hardware.

Hello,

We have good news!  We're able to get this part of your order to you faster than we originally promised:
  "Starrett Tool Steel 01 Drill Rod, Precision Ground and Polished Finish, Annealed Temper, ASTM A681, Metric, 8 mm OD, 36" Length"
   Previous estimated arrival date: May 25, 2012 - June 01, 2012
   New estimated arrival date: May 02, 2012

The bearings arrived Friday.

Assembly in Progress

All the parts that's fit to print.

Parts are here, my desk is clean, ish, it's time to get started building! I will be posting all my build pictures on picasaweb if you want to see more.

My post from yesterday has links to all the hardware I got from Amazon, everything arrived today, save the smooth rods and bearings. This gives me enough parts to start building, and just putting a few pieces together gives that nice feeling of accomplishment.

I ended up taking a drill to these parts in order to get better access for the driver. If you're using hex key screws, this wouldn't be an issue.

With the wider pan head on the fillips screws, it helps to be able to apply direct axial pressure on them. The hole is a tight fit, and some persuasion is necessary to get the screw seated down in there.

After a some discussion in the #MendelMax channel on Freenode, it seems I should have gone with McMaster for my hardware, they have the selection of hex key head screws that Amazon is lacking, and generally better prices for fasteners.

This is as far as I'm going to take it tonight. Was good to get started, but it's getting late, and work is a cruel mistress if you stay up all night playing with new toys. Hopefully tomorrow evening I can get the whole frame assembled.

MendelMax

I've started down the road to building a RepRap MendelMax. I ordered the printed parts and frame members from LulzBot last week, they arrived on Thursday. Monday I ordered a (x3) mess of hardware from (x2) Amazon because the local hardware store only (x2) sells metric one piece at a time. The majority of it will arrive tomorrow, but the bearings and smooth rod will be a bit longer.

That should give me enough parts to start building tomorrow, assuming I can clean off a space on my desk.