Assembling my Makibox

I received my Makibox HT and am trying to assemble it as per the
assembly instructions.

General improvements

• Label the bags!
• Numerate and label the parts! 
• Slot and tap contructions are always tedious. Especially in soft materials. It would have helped to tapper the taps (or the short side of the slots) of the slots to make insertion easier without affecting final stiffness. I get the impression that nobody ever thought about tollerances and how the parts have to move during assembly. A 5mm peg does NOT fit a 5mm hole. You make a 4.99mm peg and a 5.01mm hole!
• Other kits often include 1 extra back with 1 instance of each bolt type used. So you have 1 spare in case one gets lots and don't get confused with having bolts left. (because they come in an extra bag)
• The direct drive extruder is extremely prone to  get stuck and grind into the filament. It cannot transfer enough force, so a leadscrew or at least 2 driven gears on either side would have been a better idea.

Step 1

• There is a vertical feature on one of the 170mm parts that is missing in the drawing. Thus being confusing.
• Makible should label the parts by having a number be part of the mold. So you can refer to them.
• Step C looks like there are 2 of the parts used in step B. Image isn't clear enough.
• Use larger allowances for shrinkage in their taps

Step 2a+b

• My kit was missing the M4 washers. 
• The only M4x8 bolts in the kit have a different head (round) then in the image (flat).
• ...and need a different size of hex key then in the video.
• You need a broad screwdriver to hold the part for step B because you can't hold these with your fingers. (Too tight thread). In the video this is done by hand using the larger hex key...impossible in my kit because the bolts needs the smaller hex key and the part is made out of a denser material. One way is to clamp the screwdriver between your legs, hold the plate with one hand and very carefully turn the hex key with the other hand.

• The round parts have no thread to hold the M4x8 bolts but these types of bolts are not ment to cut their own thread (That's why you need pliers. To force them).

Step 2c

• A limit switch on the Y plate collides with a motor mount of the X plate. They don't fit. It looks like the limit switch on the X+Z plate is 4mm too long for it's position.
• The M4x8 bolt thus can't reach the box on the other side that it is supposed to cut into. :/

• Solution: That small, rectangular tab at the base of the cylindrical motor mount should not be there.
  If blocks the end stop and thus prevents the plates from matching up.
• Problem: That M4x8 bolt is way too short! If you can, get a longer bolt to replace it!

Step 3

• If you have magnetic (metric) hex keys, that could help in the fiddling with these tiny M3 bolts.
• As always with steppers, check the orientation of the cable in the drawing to sew how to insert the stepper.
• The image is not showing where one of the end-stop cables has to go when attaching the Z stage. 
• The z axis in step C has no bolts securing it in place. It falls right of then you lift the assembly to continue with step 4.

Step 4

• There are multiple parts that fit the drawing in 4a.
• The parts added in 4a will fall off during 4b-d all the time.
• 4d: You have to bend the thick wires to fit through the slots.
• In 4d the on-off switch is not shown in the drawing and it it completely unobvious where it has to go.
• Doing 4b before 4d makes fiddling the plug trough in 4d more tiresome then it needs to be.
• In 4c it is not obvious from the drawing what part to use. (2 parts fit,  4 parts look like the drawing. 1 part is correct)
• Seriously....Makible wants you to join about a dozen taps at once? In a tap&slot construction with no tapper and 0 allowances? Did they ever assembly any tap&slot or T-slot construction before? This is insane!
• Tools required: flat rasp and mallet!
• The bolts are too short to compress the parts together!

Step 5

• This step requires some force. It would actually be easier if the part was not pre-assembled because the rods block the way for the hex-key.
• For Step 5 B and C the flat part is one of the metal parts.

Step 6

• easy

Step 7

• 7b is tricky. The bolt has to cut it's own thread, yet there is not support form the other side. Why the plastic part had not been designed to fit is a mystery.
• Page 7 (like others) doesn't follow western reading traditions of left to right and then up to down. So make sure where steps A, B and C are and execute them in alphabetic order.
• The spring loaded platform is something I know from the old Repman. However this one is not good. The holes in the heated bed should be larger then the bolts! This way the plate tilts and then cants on the bolts and the springs have no effect anymore.
• The position of the bolts makes leveling the bed and adjusting extruder height a nightmare!

Step 8

• 8c : I'm not sure about their way of routing the cables. I usually try to keep cables away from heated metal plates. 
• Warning! The printed instructions forgets to tell you that the bowden tube has 2 DIFFERENT ends. Check this video to see what end goes where!(The end with the deeper support goes in the hotend)

Step 9

• I'm not sure that using bolts on acrylics without washers is a good idea.
• Attaching the edges is very difficult without using a thread-cutter first.
• Force the bolts into the edged first without the acrylivs, then remove them and then mount them. This requires enough force that the bolt actually gets hot (no powertools involved). Again this would be much simpler with another type of bolt that was designed to cut it's own thread.
• Do NOT put that cable through there like instucted. It's too short later!

Step 10

• Yes, you have to partly disassemble your preassembled extruder. That's correct.

Step 11

• If you mounted your Z stepper wrong...now you'll regret it.
• Also...what direction is X and what is Y? There is no imprinted hint! (Y is the longer axis)
• HE?
• HB? Maybe "Heated Bed" 
• The drawing shows 3 endstop-headers but the board has 4. 
• The video doesn't do the cabling in step 11 but aparently wires X and Y in some previous step. 

Step 13

• aparently as with any other hole nobody thought of allowances and tollerances for the hole for the power plug. Even though that hole could easily be 8mm bigger and still nobody would notice.
• I'm not exactly looking forward to installing Google Chrome just to run the damn printer software. A standalone Java program would have done exactly the same without installing such a thing on my Macbook. I don't see why I need to enter my Google account somewhere to use my local and offline 3D printer.

After Step 13 - Software

1. Power up the board with the power supply and plug in the micro-USB cable
2. Remove the jumper in the middle of the board at connector JP14

• Right after we are told how to screw the case shut above the board..
• I absolutely don't like that the host app is a Google Chrome app. Standalone Java already has a serial port API and doesn't require a new browser that auto updates without asking me, no knowledge of my Google Account and works!
• Installed the Google Chrome app.
• "Über die Chrome-App-Übersicht können Sie Ihre Lieblings-Apps direkt vom Desktop aus starten." Had to search a while to find that this damn thing has nested in my launcher WITHOUT ASKING FOR PERMISSION TO DO SO.
• 5D print says "no device". No hint how to tell it that my printer is already connected and running.
• bed leveling is a nigthmare.
• The PID control is not good. I tell the bed to go to 35°C...it goes to 35....then slowly to 36....37....38..stays at 38. 

Links

• official assembly instructions
• one inofficial assembly instruction