Sheet Metal has Arrived

Here is a test fit of some of the final parts I've been waiting on.  The sheet metal enclosure was fabricated by a local machine shop in 18 gauge aluminum.  I chose to use sheet metal as it is very flexible from a design perspective but is still affordable.

The sheet metal components include integrated PEM nuts and are powder coated light grey.

I also printed some covers and other assorted pieces in yellow abs.  Plastic is only used for cosmetic purposes, the structural components of this printer are all metal.

You may have noticed that I've gone from nothing but a CAD model to something that looks suspiciously complete in only a handful of posts.  I'm sure this feels rushed, but I haven't actually done any of the heavy lifting myself:

• I sent the aluminum plates in my CAD model to a machine shop.
• I sent the sheet metal in my CAD model to a machine shop.
• I printed the plastic parts in my CAD model.

But don't be fooled, there is still a lot of work to do.

Fully assembling this printer is going to be a huge job, and frankly I've only started to realize the full scope of the project now that boxes of parts are sitting in front of me.  There are roughly 300 lines on the BOM and most of it needs to fit into very small spaces.

This should be fun.