Over the last two weeks, I worked on constructing the gantry as well as the frame that holds it. I was able to construct the 4xidraw part of the gantry since all of our parts had finished arriving. I was then able to print, assemble, and attach the z-axis to the gantry. Currently, the parts required for the z-axis movement are assembled, but the end-effector is not attached, since we are still waiting for the vacuum pump and the relays to arrive. There is an issue in that the z-axis can’t extend very far away from the gantry, as the weight causes the rods to sag. In order to remedy this, I’m planning on attaching a bar horizontally onto the part where the z-axis attaches to the rest of the gantry, which will rest on two other bars so that the front does not sag. A picture of the current gantry is shown below.
I am a little behind schedule, partly due to delays in the shipping of the gantry parts as well as the end-effector parts. I plan to fix the sagging issue on the gantry next week, as well as hopefully get the electronics and the code for the 4xidraw working.