The final push

The printer now looks substantial, but also clearly incomplete. The basic structure is all there, but there's no control system and there are wires everywhere. So now it's time to ... add more wires.

The first step is to assemble the LCD display. This is a circuit board with a four line LCD display and a couple of controls that sit in a printed case. This is fixed to the frame with a couple of brackets and a pair of ribbon cables snake out to add to the nest.

Next we fix the metal plate that carries the print bed. This includes a heater and a temperature sensor, which are both preinstalled. The plate also has a number of powerful magnets that hold the steel print bed in place. The heater and sensor add to the wire count and still no destination for them all.

Last of these sources of wires is the power supply. This is, of course, completely prebuilt and sealed. It has chunky power cables that need to carry substantial current to drive the motors and heaters as well as a lower voltage supply for the electronics. It is fixed to the frame with four bolts.

So, speaking of electronics, we now add the place where all the wires will route to, the electronics assembly. This lives in a printed plastic box with a door that gives access. The circuit board is fixed into the box and the box secured to the frame.  Then the fun begins. The cables all have to be grouped and gathered together and fixed to carefully positioned points along the frame with cable ties. The description and photos in the manual are good, but some parts are still fiddly. There are two wrapped cable groups that have to be fitted into printed clamps and then the remaining loose cables are routed into the base of the box. All of the cables, except the power cables, are all terminated with plugs of various shapes and sizes and I didn't have much trouble connecting it all. The cables in the photo look a real mess - I could have made it tidier but then it would have looked like it belongs to someone else.

The last step in assembly is to push together the spool holder, clip it to the top bar and add a spool of filament.