Duane published a new build:

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Progress so far:
I have ordered and received my plates last week.
My V-slot arrived today from openlab.com.au
I have ordered my steppers and power supply from omc-steppersonline.com, The con note shows they have landed in Australia and awaiting customs clearance, I hope to have them next week.
I ordered most of my hardware from the OpenBuild parts store last weekend, for some reason my order status is showing waiting for payment, while my paypal account shows the transaction is complete. I will follow it up again shortly.

According to my very untidy spreadsheet, I am still to order:

Stepper motor controller (can't decide, but leaning towards tinyG)
double brackets (out of stock at openlab.com.au and openbuild, thinking of making my own from aluminium angle)
Low Profile Screws - M5x30mm
GT2 (3mm) Timing Belt 5metres
Low Profile Screws - M5 x 8mm
and a few other bits and pieces that I should be able to find in the mess below or from a local store.

My biggest problem at this stage is this :


I'm hoping to get in there, clear it out and completely rearrange it this weekend, then build a bench for my little big OX.

Look forward to your seeing your build take shape Duane! I am planning on building a machine the same size as yours but with the Frog plates. I built a mdf machine 12months ago and it was good initially but now has become all warped so pretty excited to find the openbuilds v-slot to replace it with. Where are you in Australia and what was the freight cost like from openlabs?

The wife has filled up the social Calendar for the weekend, not sure how much progress I will make on the shed, but hope to get a good start on it.

I thought the freight from openlabs on the v-slot was very reasonable, this is a good thing as I don't think I have any material for the Z axis!!

Road/Sea freight from Perth to Hobart took 10 days.

It would be really nice if someone from the open build parts store got back to about the hold up on my order Not in a great rush, but the lack of response is making me nervous.

Stepper Motors are at the local freight depot, missed the delivery on Friday. Five days from China is much better than the 3-4 weeks I normally wait for my eBay purchases.

The Part Store has got back to me and my order should be underway shortly.

I spend some time looking at controller options last night. I've ruled out anything that needs a parallel port, and as I have zero experience with Arduino I'm still leaning towards the tinyG. Unless I discover something in the next 24 hours that changes my mind I will order it. International freight is about half if you buy through Inventables or the Maker store as opposed to Synthetos.

The shed is half cleaned. I can't believe how much junk I've accumulated in the five years I've been here. I found a home for some of it, and decided to throw a whole lot of it out. I need to relocate a workbench, or maybe some storage shelves to make room for the OX bench. That shouldn't take too long once I've made up my mind which way to go.

Unfortunately I won't get a start on the workbench until next weekend, but there isn't a whole lot I can do with it until the box arrives from the parts store.

That's great. I started mine on the same basis as you : weekends to progress with the OX between the other weekend activities. Actually got a few late night hours during the week lately, so things have progressed.

As you, I went for over sizing my OX mostly to reduce cutting v-slot and partly to finish with an OX which could work on 4' wide pieces of "any" length.

As a beginner myself, hunting for all the parts, I ended up with regular profile screws. They work, one just has to use shim to clear them. For the Z axis, Two shims were added at base of the four "stack" to clear the thicker head screws of ACME screw block.

The thicker gantry plates also required a bit lnger screws in some areas, at least when I put my OX together.

So I did some back and forth with a local fastner store and I now have some spare screws.

Oh, those M5 screws which came with solid wheel kits, use them in your built. I threaded my V-slot deep and "recycled" those screws to assemble the frame.

Get plenty of t-nuts. I must of missed a B12 (vitatim) he day I calculated the effects of over sizing the base OX plan and I'm way short of those tiny buggers !! So built is now on hold as I need just a few. The local fastner place doesn't not have these, in metric. What they have are much larger in size and price !

Otherwise, I mamaged to get everything ... Even some limit switches, some bling (a few lengths of LED rope and such).

Next weeekend is also out, a few family celebrations being scheduled.

I'll have to squeeze in time for pictures, my parts list and costing (with and without extra inventory) and get around to starting a "build" here.

While waiting for the missing t-nuts, I'll start working on the electronics ... Keeping in mind the OX is not in full physical form. It is ok to do baby steps and a few warm ups as I decide on the final piece : the router. Do I start with the old Dremel I have collecting dust in a dark corner of the garage or do I get something like the Dewalt DWP611 or 618 .... the allocated budget is already a bit over .

The saga continues ... But great fun and learning experience even without having turned the power on. I can't wait to complete "part 2" .

I've ordered just about everything now, except some screws that are out of stock and things I know I can get locally.
The double L brackets are out of stock in a couple of places but as they are only needed to hold and position the centre table supports I'm pretty sure I can make my own from some aluminium angle.

Thanks for the tip on the t-nuts Serge. I didn't think about the extra support rail when I placed my order.

So far I think I've spent around $1100 aud on parts, not including the work bench I am still to build and the MDF base board.

I too plan on starting out with my Dremel, but I use it for so many things that I think I will start to miss it if it's bolted to my OX for too long. My current thinking is I'll upgrade to a Bosch trimmer, but they are available locally so it's not a decision I have to plan too far in advance.

My biggest mistake is that I currently have no v-slot left over to make my z-axis and the Aussie open lab store is out of stock, unless I want a length in black. If anyone has an off cut they want to send me...........

I'm also starting to think about an E-stop. The tinyG isn't configured for one, so I'll probably wire it in to the main power supply.

Just a quick update on the stepper motors.

I ordered these from http://www.omc-stepperonline.com/ based on a referral from another forum member. The prices are the cheapest I have seen anywhere else. Total cost for the four steppers needed for the OX, the power supply and deliver was $US131.90.

I ordered 4 motors and a power supply on a weekend and they were shipped from China to my door in southern Australia by the next friday, ie 5 business days.

The next thing that impressed me was the packaging. The amount of padding inside the box was excellent, there wasn't any room for the goods to move. It was more like they were packing for crystal figurines than big chunks of metal. Data Sheets for the motors were included, and a dodgy customs invoice was attached to the box.

Obviously it's too soon to comment on the functional aspects of the gear, but everything feels solid and looks good on the outside.

The only thing to be wary about if ordering the Nema 23's for your OX is that the current model matching the Open Builds spec has a 6mm shaft as opposed to a 6.35mm shaft. I wasn't sure if this would be enough to noticeably throw the geared pulley out of whack, so I chose the dual shaft version at the same price. If the extra shaft gets in the way, my Dremel will fix it pretty quickly.

Indeed, sweet prices and incredible packaging. Cost of shipping in my case, similar order, was a bit steep, but had the package not stop through the US first (extra customs) and, most important, the local shippers done their jobs I would of had the items in two days (!) ... Instead of nearly two weeks. StepperOnline stepped up to plate and worked something for my grief. I highly recommend them for service, packaging and at least looks of items. I'll need to power up the items to comment on quality of products.

I ordered the dual shaft, just in case I wanted or needed to do sonething with back end. I'll figure something out .

StepperOnline has tons of choices, so check the specs before clicking "order". I'll have to flatten shaft for positive grab of set screw.

By the way, the mounting holes are too wide, in models I ordered, to thread M5, so longer screws (recycled ones supplied with wheel kits) did the trick.