I contacted the man who sold me the plastic parts, and got a better understanding of how he intended them to be put together, as well as what other parts to order. Since then I've gotten the pulleys for the belts, and a heated bed for the machine.
With these parts in hand I felt ready to continue with my building, and I assembled the X-axis carriage. I even recorded that assembly, so here you go:
That was 2 days ago, and yesterday I disassembled much of the machine to add a new, clever idler-holder for the Y-axis belt that the seller explained to me how to do. After doing this I felt so happy with myself and the progress that I kept on going and put the plate on the smooth-rods.
I've been going back and forth on what kind of plate to use, and whether or not to use a heated bed. I did get hold of some MDF for the two beds I initially thought I'd need, but that material was very thick and would cost a lot of vertical room. I finally ended up buying a small sheet of aluminium, and cutting it to size. This is what I mounted on the smooth-rods yesterday using linear bearings. Have a look at this beauty:
I addition to being really thin it's shiny! I do like shiny stuff. On top of this I'll mount the heated bed, and that'll be my printing surface done!
It's really coming together :)
