Your last Black Dominator Build video was informative. Even though it did not show you putting it together, you pointed out that the legs and machine bed should be finished and tightened up. You pointed out that the linear rails, ball screw, front and rear plates should all be loose fitted. You said we would see in a future video why.
I have my machine to this point, but you have not posted a new video of the next step, which I assume will be the X Gantry assembly.
The assembly manual states to leave these parts loose for both the Y and X axis’s. Yet It never says why and no mention is made to tighten anything after the Y is done. Not until the X gantry assembly is done does say to tighten any bolts that were left loose during earlier steps. Is this the correct time to do this? I ask because this seems to be a lot of weight suspended on loose fitting bolts.
Also. The manual does not identify which linear rails go to the Y and X. I assume the shorter pair in the blue plastic will be for the X because they are slightly smaller than the two in the green plastic. But that is just an assumption since the Y excursions are slightly longer that the X Gantry. By 1/8” or less. I hate to assume.
I know you have really been busy and I understand more now that you have released the Core version. But, it seems the Pro has been put on a back burner, and even though the manual is Ok, it is unfinished. I have never worked with 8020 before and I find myself spending a lot of time searching online for information to fill in the blanks. Fortunately, I bought extra M8 T-nuts because some have been missing from the 8020 packs. Plus the T-nuts in the extra package don’t fit in all the parts. They are either too big or get jammed.
If, you have the legs Kit, there is no mention to add T-nuts to the bed before securing it to the stand. Thus requiring going back and taking it apart. Example. The BK-12 Y-Bracket needs one. The Rolling T-Nuts I bought help, but they do not seem to be as beefy.
I don’t mind trying to figure things out, but if I guess wrong - well that is no fun if it cause a big problem.
I do agree. Unfortunately, I have been going back and forth with Daniel concerning issues with the 8020 delivery and parts etc for a while now. It has been a mess for me. I feel bad for Daniel because he is trying really hard to do so much for PwnCNC right now. He has been very responsive and since it was a Sunday I was hoping that someone else who has already received their CNC may have a quick answer. I did post to the email and he did get back with me this morning. Unfortunately for him I had found other issues. Especially with the hardware for the 8020. He is trying to get things straight.
every roll out has its complications. With another company, I received (2) Y1 axis and no X. I’m sure the staff at PwnCNC thank you for your patience and understanding.
Being an early order, the amount of other people who have a machine are pretty minimal and hopefully the kinks will be ironed out more sooner than later. I know there was a few problems with ATC as well (I remember weak valves specifically), but over time the mass production bugs were found, and fixes/checks were implemented. When I left the company late last year, the problems with ATC were basically training issues where it did what it was told, but what it was told wasn’t what was desired.
Ironing out our vendor relationship with 8020 has definitely been challenging. Trying to apply just the right amount of pressure to ensure we, a tiny company, get the attention our customers deserve without overwhelming them and us getting pushed to the side.
That has definitely been a learning curve but one that is getting better. Our 8020 sales rep lives in my neighborhood and our kids go to the same school, so it is very helpful with contacts. However he’s still got to move that giant 8020 machine to accomplish the right mission
Timing is getting much better and with a few glitches to early orders things are starting to go smoother which is allowing me to do more videos.
In fact, I’m working on a video today about moving the partially built black Dominator over to my home garage. My plan is to record a video every Saturday morning, edit, and release same day, then work on the machine the rest of the weekend outside of family time. This way i can make a lot of progress over the next several weekends and release a whole lot of useful information.
Weekdays will be for fulfilling orders and coordinating and weekends are video first thing, family time and playing with (err building) the machine.
This weekend’s video is about moving and i’ll do another level-set at the end to where I have mine built. Then in next weekend’s video i will be continuing the build.
I recommend holding off on tightening too many things until the electronics are in place as you want parts to be extremely well aligned. This is ideally done when the machine can jog. A planned video will go into great detail on this exact topic.
@Daniel. Thank you Daniel for your response. I look forward to your videos. As you know I am familiar with the hiccups with 8020. In fact I have overcome the last hiccup we discussed. I will update the support ticket with an explanation. It was a comment you had made concerning the issue that gave me motivation to see if it could be done. It can. As a matter of fact it was very easy. And as you pointed out I will leave things loose until the electronics stage.
