I’m finally getting a chance to assemble my router and WOW… My fingers, and my patience are not going to survive.
Assembling the arms is frustration personified, getting the stack up JUST right to get all the gears to mesh is insane, the bolts are literally a millimeter too short, once I finally swapped parts around to get ONE arm assembled, I’m convinced the whole thing is too tight, but I’ll find out, if I ever get the other the arms assembled. (btw, I cheated and pulled out a bag of m3x14 and they JUST GO TOGETHER! once I get the gears to mesh up and the bearings to line up and, and… and)
Then I tried, TRIED, to put a belt end on, I got it, finally, into one side. My fingers are numb, and I CAN NOT get the second side on. I’ve watched the video 15 times and now, it’s not going.
Btw, the 4.1 assembly guide doesn’t mention Locktite for the motor screws, and I’m NOT taking it back apart for that.
I’m reasonably mechanically inclined, I’ve built a Voron Trident… I’m building a Voron 2.4 now.. and this router build is making me want to throw it back in a box. (Edit for typos, I was on my phone)
I was the first person to upgrade from 4.0 to 4.1 (I’m in Australia) and after I destroyed one half arm and broke the head off another bolt trying to remove the motor screws I was not keen on putting lock tight on when I reassembled the arms. I was building mine before any instruction video. I didn’t know about the bolts with lock tight on them and I don’t intend to pull the machine apart again just to add it.
To get the bolts and nuts to seat properly pull them into place before assembly by putting a nut (for the bolts) on the bolt where 2 halves will later meet and screw nut really tight, then remove nut and go onto the next. For the corresponding arm half pull the nut in from the inside of the arm then remove screw and do the next.
For the Belt Ends, fold the belt in half and press into the belt end. Don’t worry about trying to leave to much of a circle. Put the other half on. Then I used a small screwdriver to force the belt out of the way in the screw hole, then pushed a bolt through and put a nut on the other side.
Hope this helps.
You know, it did… and I remember using them now that you mention it, I was exhausted and frustrated last night.
I used the “nut trick” and STILL couldn’t get half the bolts to thread on, I solved that by using m3x14 torx machine screws.
I DID finally get all the arms built, they all fit on the router, I hope they all work because I don’t want to take that thing apart again. (I’m probably cursing myself)
On the belt ends, I also got them, using my Knipex smooth jaw pliers to MASH the second piece on, some of them were VERY easy, there are serious tolerance stacking issues, I ended up swapped something around on EVERY arm to get them to go together… if a belt end was fighting me too hard, I would pick up another half until I found one that went on easier.
Now I’m at the point of putting the router on the sled and the linear rod supports are… gappy.
I was able to get screws in and cinch one of them down, I’d say there was ~1/16th inch gap on that one… the other side though, it’s a MASSIVE gap, I’m guessing close to an 1/8th inch, the rod is bottomed out in the sled, I feel like this is going to taco the sled if I can even get it tight.
Check the rod length is correct if correct or pretty close then do the following.
Take off the rod clamps then with a hammer, tap the rod down until fully seated. There is a hole on the underside of the sled, to aid in seeing if the rod is fully seated.
Even when fully seated, I had to shim up the underside with 2 layers of old credit card.
As mentioned, I checked the bottom of the rod and both sides are seated all the way down, the shim idea isn’t bad… I can give that a shot. I’m going to do that and then check with a straight edge to make sure I don’t need to shim the other side as well.
Might want to still measure the rod compared to what length it is supposed to be, @bar had issues with quality control for the length earlier but should be fixed now
Keep an eye on the rod support bracket on top, people have cracked this without shimming or grinding down the rod. They were cracking at the webbing on inside angle
I pulled the rod off and compared it to the other set I had, it was a TOUCH longer, I swapped in a shorter rod and it works now, though it’s STILL too long, I’ve shimmed it and I’ll keep an eye on it.
I had a similar issue, and unfortunately i cannot quote the mm lengths b/c i decided not to try to remove the steel rods. I hammered them in as far as i felt comfortable (seemed fully seated from view hole), then i lined up and measured against the arms. I estimate that they were about 210mm from the deck of the base, and the arms seem to want to accomdate at most 200mm from the deck, maybe even 196-198mm. Anyway, I marked em and got out the grinder and just worm them down in place, rounded em off ever so slightly and that seemed to do the trick.
I personally think that the kit should probably come with washers for arm flanges. one of mine slipped of the bench and i lost an edge tab. At that point, i washered all the nuts to give them more purchase/stability and stress the tabs less.
on to software.
