Use drill for assembly?  

Re: Use drill for assembly?

M3 is a small screw and even though there are a lot of them manual tightening is fine. Using a drill would be like swatting a fly with a sledgehammer, complete overkill.

Also a lot of the fasteners need tightening with care otherwise the plastic that is holding them will strip.

IMHO using a drill for screw insertion and tightening would be a very bad idea.

Re: Use drill for assembly?

I’m reading the assembly guide while waiting for the printer and noticed the big number of screws. Reading this forum I realized that every small detail may have an impact in the final print. I was wondering if it’s ok to use a drill at its lowest clutch setting to avoid inserting each screw by hand. Is that not recommended or it’s fine? I was not able to find info about this online so asking here.

Thanks
Gaston

Using a drill for tighten the screws is a bad idea. High chance of breaking parts and the torque twist from the drill would make it hard to keep the parts correctly aligned as they are tightened.

You would be better off buying a good set of hex drivers with comfortable a handle.

Re: Use drill for assembly?

Thanks guys for the feedback. I won't be using the drill then. I was not thinking of using it for tightening but for the initial insertion part. Will go by hand and be patient then. 😎

Re: Use drill for assembly?

I used a drill for the "insertion" part only because im lazy. The actual tightening was done by hand.

Basically you only need the supplied tools to assemble. But there is the one thing i strongly suggest. Get a 5mm or 5.5 wrench instead of trying to screw in the nuts with the pliers - so annoying.

Re: Use drill for assembly?

My compromise was to use a proper hex driver set. Not the kind that looks like a Swiss Army knife, but the kind that looks like proper screw drivers only with hex tips.

I can’t stand those stupid hex keys. I did use the included ones to locate the heat bed spacers, and to attach the einsy case because the ball-tip was actually quite helpful there.

Re: Use drill for assembly?

I got a decent set of hex drivers also. This was a big help

Debra

Re: Use drill for assembly?

I used a electric screwdriver to assemble most of my MK3 kit, with careful torque limit setting and hand-tightening at the end where it seemed appropriate. I didn't break anything and the selftest and printing are fine.

As long as you use the torque limiting clutch wisely, and are careful not to cross thread, or overtighten where gentleness is specified in the instructions, I see no reason not to use a "screwdriver" or "drill" (the difference is mostly that the latter has a chuck instead of a hex socket and a higher top speed).

I might not recommend this for someone with very little experience putting in screws, though.

Re: Use drill for assembly?

Ended up getting a good screwdriver and metric hex bits and assembly went very well. There were many many screws to install but it was easy.