07/03/2026 :: The Frame Pt. 1

After a brief hiatus due to catching some pesky cold going around, I'm back at it!

I haven't been posting my progress updates regarding the design for the printer itself, so I'll dump it all in the next blog post. 😅

Apart from finalising the design, I've just started work on the body of the printer! I've a decent bit from all sort of retailers, including mecha4makers - a great online store for anything 3D-printer related, some stepper connectors from bigface, and a bunch of screws, brackets, wood, etc. from Bunnings and Jaycar (plus a power supply from AliExpress).

I also got a friend to print out some parts that I designed on his own 3D printer!

I'm still waiting for some of the deliveries to arrive, but I have enough now to get started with the frame.

Today I spend the day cutting the framing timber I bought to the right size according to my design, in the process learning how to use a circular saw and a chop saw!

I bought some 45x90mm framing timber, which I needed to cut into two roughly 45x45 beams. So I sawed down the middle of the beam first.

Then I measured out 400mm for the first cross-cut, cut it, then measured the next one and so one.

Ultimately, I ended up with four beams of 45x45 400mm long, and two which were 360mm long. I also cut a 20x20mm beam into two 210mm long chunks and two 190mm long chunks. as well as one more 45x45 at 400mm, just from a more precision-cut piece of wood this time.

I'm quite happy with the result! All my cuts were accurate to within approx. +- 0.2mm I'd say, definetly less than 0.5mm for sure. That's what you get when you measure 10 times before you cut! (Although for the future, I'll need to speed up my marking process, I was way too meticulous with it).

That's all I managed to get done today, I'll be doing more work on the printer tomorrow as well. I'll try to get it as assembled as I can with the current stuff that I have.