Building a Root 3 CNC

This post begins a series of unofficial build documentation posts for a Root 3 CNC machine.  The site for the open source/hardware project, as well as its 3D printed parts can be found at the following urls:

https://rootcnc.com/machines/root-3/
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1750276
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1023078667749894

Special thanks goes out to sailorpete for sharing his design.  Also special thanks to any and all who answer my rookie questions on the facebook group.

Since I have never attempted a build like this before, I plan to document the steps as I have performed them, knowing full well that some of it may not be optimal or even fully correct.  Odds are they will certainly be done in the wrong order.  Hopefully when I get to the end of this process I will have a fully functional CNC machine, and even if I don't, I suspect I will have learned quite a bit during the process.

The general principals I'll try to follow during this build include:

• source parts from convenient vendors
• ie, Amazon and McMaster will be heavily used for convenience, knowing full well that they may not always be the most inexpensive option.  Time is at a premium for me, so the convenience is worth the cost
• when convenience vendors are not an option, fall back to AliExpress or eBay
• try to use quality parts, but if I need to cut corners a bit for time's sake, I won't lose sleep over it

I started by downloading the file bundle from Thingiverse, and making a cursory pass through the BOM spreadsheet.  After that, I started diving in, printing and ordering parts as needed.

The one thing I wish I had known when I started (to make reading the official docs/plans easier)  was an axis reference.  Marking up one of the photos from the Root 3 site, I have included that below.

Due to time constraints (and long shipping delays from overseas on some of the parts), I suspect this project will take me months to complete.  Hopefully these posts will save someone else time in the future...