Frage Enclosure Assembly Tips

Nearly completed the Enclosure assembly for the 840. What a major pain it is to assemble this thing...Part of the problem is the manual is terrible. It's the Ikea approach to a manual without the Ikea approach to product design....A lot of details are left out. There are few support videos and the ones referenced in the manual are misplaced and unhelpful.
The Doors are an absolute nightmare to assemble and you must pay very close attention or you will be disassembling them and breaking many parts in the process.

Connecting the doors with the rubber channel is probably the biggest challenge....The manual says to apply oil. I found NOT using the oil and relying on the talcum powder on the rubber works better. The oil seems to expand the rubber. The biggest help is to take a small screwdriver and slightly open the mouth of the T slot on the aluminum extrusion. Most of the friction and resistance comes from this spot. Make sure the rubber is laid out straight. Once I discovered opening the t slot slightly, they went together easily.

The platform board that sits under the machine has a groove milled in the edges. That is a relief groove so the board is squeezed into the channel on the base aluminum extrusions. The manual lacks the detail illustration of how it's assembled

The conduit for the limit switches is very important...Primarily because it acts as a stop to keep the limit switch in position. It has to be cut to the right length so the limit with is positioned over the door guide.

Once it's together it's a very nice enclosure but boy, what a hassle.

Do you have any suggestions as far as taking apart the door panels when you do put them together incorrectly? I couldnt agree more with your assessment. It's a bear, but I know once it's together it'll be nice.

I had to do this several times.....ugh....I used two wide mouth vise grips and two regular vice grips. I put the door on the bench, laid a piece of wood across the door frame and clamped it down to the bench with wide mouth vice grips. I then clamped a regular set of vice grips to the black plastic corner piece and clamped the other set of vice grips to the those vice grips so I'd have a surface to hit with a hammer. I used a regular hammer and tapped the vice grips until piece backed out. You'll have to unclamp and clamp to the other side to back the other corner out bit by bit...otherwise the stress breaks the corner piece. If you break the piece off inside just drive it down into the channel...you'll need many extra corners. They don't come apart easily

If it makes you feel any better I have assembled two of these. My experience matches yours.

Instructions that look good at first glance but are full of errors.

Different parts with the same PN.

Missing parts, that actually turned out to be the correct number, just the qty in the manual was wrong.

So many different door assemblies, that it is likely you'll get something wrong that will then break when you try to "un-hammer" the friction fit parts.

Hateful door seals that also act as hinges, take hours to assemble just to pop apart.

Just like the CNC machine itself, no mechanical structure. Just end plates with cross spars that fit in here somewhere, (Better hope you've got something very level to build it on.)

Doors that are held in with (and I kid you not) 3M double sided sticky tape. This means that they don't come out for service, or when the damn door seals fall out. I hate the doors and the seals.

And unforgivably they're too damn short inside. We've trashed work on multiple occasions as the extraction hose has jammed between the roof and the Z axis stepper, tying the machine in knots as it is completely ignorant of itself loosing steps. (Open loop steppers, no encoders...)

On the plus side the enclose looks pretty and makes the machine quite a bit quieter, especially if you have the industrial spindle, but next time it's 80/20 aluminium extrusions for me...

Owen S.

Has anyone contacted Stepcraft for an updated manual? I’m about to start putting my 840 enclosure together and I don’t see any changes to the manual since 2017.

+1
Took half a day to assemble the CNC. Took 2 days to assemble the enclosure... :/

Do someone know what the "socket head screw" (M5x30mm) of the last step (6.9) are for?..
How do they help the CNC to be "fixed in its final position in the enclosure"?..

You slide a nut into the extrusion that runs alongside the CNC on the bottom of the enslosure. Then screw the socket head screw into the nut. Repeat this on all 4 corners of the CNC and they act as “locks” to prevent the CNC from moving on its longitudinal axis.
Will not lock the CNC in place. Just prevent longitudinal movement.

G