Material thickness

[FabLabEP]

Is the material thickness on the laser cut acrylic parts critical? Thickness is specified in metric units, but it may be easier to source material in imperial units for US-based users. What is the allowable tolerance on that dimension?

Also, the base plate rails are specified as both 3mm and 8mm but it is unclear which parts in the file should be cut at each thickness. Perhaps separating into a 3mm parts file and an 8mm parts file would be more intuitive.

[Yuffster]

Thanks for the feedback! It's really helpful as we try to simplify our build instructions as much as possible. I could be wrong in a few of these things, but since I have a robot sitting next to me for reference, I'll tell you what I'm seeing.

Most of the pieces are structural, so the material thickness is mostly specified to make sure they won't snap. Should be fine if it's a little off, but you'd probably want to round up rather than down when doing the unit conversion.

The bottom of the baseplate rails has to match the thickness of the tiprack base, so that it can slide in properly. If you wanted to adjust it slightly it should still work fine as long as everything matches. Looks to be around 8mm on the bottom piece and 3mm on the top. The thickness of the top doesn't need to be quite as specific.

Let me know if this information works for you. I'll revise it as necessary for documentation.