Finally, the parts list (bill of materials) for the eShapeOko kit is on the wiki.

I ordered the fasteners yesterday.  Everything was in stock, so they will be here on Monday and I can start divvying them up into kits, to get a head start.  I’m not looking forward to counting washers!  Luckily, I have a small set of scales, so I can weigh them instead (and add a couple extras, just to be sure).

There will be two dual-X upgrades.  Both include four extra V-wheels, but they differ in how they keep the distance between the X plates, and what distances they allow between the X rails.  Kit A uses standard bolts and nylon spacers, and works only with the two X rails touching each other, back to back (or bolted together, but no fasteners are included for that).  Kit B needs some M5 threaded rod which I’ll have to cut in pieces.  It is adjustable, and it allows the X rails to be as far as 40mm apart.  Kit B is a little stiffer: the nuts can be tightened more, because there are no nylon spacers to worry about.  It is also more difficult to assemble, and will probably end up costing a little more.

As we approach the day when the eShapeOko kits are ready to ship, I am going to try to keep you up to date.  This is the first of these updates.

Yesterday I received a shipment of 18-tooth MXL pulleys.  Unfortunately, they are utter crap. At least half of them are unusable, and the rest are just awful.  Some are more eccentric than the eccentric spacers, all have the toothed part slanted with respect to the flanges, and none are bored straight.  Most flanges are not parallel, and the distance between the flanges varies between less than 7mm and about 7.5mm.  They’re not anodised (as they should have been), and the tooth profile is inaccurate, with valleys too wide and ridges too thin: they would have lots of backlash.  To add insult to injury, one of them (just one!) has 20 teeth, not 18. I have no choice but to write them off.  (Of course, I will try to get a refund, but I’m not holding my breath.)

Fortunately, I know where to buy good pulleys, so the kits won’t be delayed because of this setback.  They won’t be cheap, but I won’t increase the price of the kit.  The dual-Y upgrade also includes one pulley — I won’t change the price of that either.  However, I have to give up my plan to sell extra pulleys in the store, because I can’t offer them at a reasonable price.

I am ordering the fasteners and Z threaded rod today, all in nice shiny stainless steel, from a UK-based supplier I trust.