Assembly - Putting Pieces Together

Quickly after placing our laser cutting request, our parts were ready for pickup from the WATiMake lab on the University of Waterloo campus. With some simple touchups and reorganizing, we could confirm that all our parts were in fact cut as we specified, and no pieces were missing from the order.

The next process was to actually start assembling the parts. There are many pieces to glue together, so the assembly process will take some time, but for testing purposes, assembling the first few pixels was a priority to verify a proper fit within our supporting structure.

With five pixels fully assembled, a central pixel could be constrained on all four sides, replicating what the fit would be like in the final assembly. While the internal mechanisms for moving the pixels was not yet constructed, we verified that all the pixels to fit nicely into our web structure, with very little friction and restraint. We also had a little fun emulating what our terrains might look like with a few D&D minis that we had on hand.

Finally, we furthered our component acquisition with the purchase of a NEMA 17 stepper motor with a lead screw, as this would be the source for our core lifting mechanism. Now, the power supply remains as the final major component still requiring purchase.