Update: This project is now finished. Final post is here. Want to do the same thing to yours? Check the LAYZOR website.

Previous articles: part 1 – part 2 – part 3

I managed to get all the necessary frame profiles out of ten 1980mm 2020 extrusions. I made sure I overcut every piece just a smidge and sorted them all by length. Then I used a bump stop to cut all of them perfectly to size. This also helped a great deal in getting cleaner edges, because my saw blade was getting dull. “Measure twice, cut once!” is the essential strategy here.

In the end, only a handful of waste pieces found their way to the bin.

Building the bottom and top surfaces:

And eventually connecting them with the vertical pieces and adding the profiles which will hold the rails:

I also started working on the bed. I bought this honeycomb mesh online which handily ships in compressed form. As per the seller’s recommendation, I crafted two sticks with nails and tried stretching the mesh as evenly as possible. Some manual manipulation was required but in the end I got it as close to rectangular as I needed it to be.

I assembled the 400 x 600mm bed and hot-glued in a few 6mm U-profiles for support. The glue will be at the bottom so there’s no immediate risk of it getting touched by the laser beam.

So that’s it for the day. A finished frame and bed. In the meantime I have received nearly all of the materials for the rest of the build, except – sadly – the bolts and screws. Not too bizarre since I ordered them last. But it is a nuisance, because without those, I’m kind of stranded.