Machining Parts at Home

Location: Asheville NC
Level: Beginner

Hello all. This is my first visit to this site and my first attempt at building something of this magnitude. I've been doing computer programming for a wile but I have limited machining experience. I plan on using a rotary Drimel tool and the Drimel drill-press adapter to machine most of the parts. I see that most of the parts look pretty small so I hope the Drimmel will work as an effective tool for this project.

I'm having trouble determining whether I have the scale on the parts correct. The program I'm using shows the (Bed-clamp.stl) holes are 5.4mm in diameter and that the peace itself is 6mm thick. The (Bearing-insert-180-X.stl) shows a hole 8.4mm in diameter. This is vary small. Could someone please confirm this for me so I know I'm getting the measurements correct.

Thanks!
Josh

They sound about right but the holes have been made bigger to allow for a side effect of the Stratasys FDM process which causes them to come out smaller than the file specifies.

The 5.4mm hole is clearance for an M5 bolt. The 8.4mm hole should be a snug fit on an 8mm rod.

When I made the parts on my machine the holes came out even smaller so I had to run 5mm and 8mm drills through them.

If you are making the parts from scratch you need to tighten up the 8mm bearing holes. I would drill them 8mm and finish them with an 8mm reamer.

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Thanks! Is there a list of measurement changes that I should be aware of, or are the instructions on the build your own Reprap page sufficient, or should I what for the instructions off the Reprap II machine to be posted? I wonder how long that might be?