At long last we have received the parts to build Makerbot’s Dualtrusion 3D printer.
Instructions for the build are available here or ofr “educators” here! Confusing isn’t it!

There is the preparation work of popping out the laser cut wooden parts, running a damp cloth round the char left over from the laser cuts, and tidying the small nibs of wood that were holding the parts in place.
Once this has been done the first part of the build can start, it helps to separate the necessary parts out of the morass so you don’t have to hunt and peck so much to get going.
We chose the Automated Build Platform (ABP) as our X-stage platform to print on as we expect to do a lot of printing and need the printing to keep going by itself as much as possible. The alternatives are an unheated or heated acyrilic surface, or a static heated board instead.
The instructions I used for the APB are here on the Makerbot site, as I didn’t have the aluminium plate in my kit.
The instructions ask you to sand where the belt goes but as you may not have a clue for the overall structure and the wooden parts aren’t numbered you have no indication of parts to sand or what the idler is mentioned in the build text.
For context this is where the belt goes:-

I sanded here for both parts:

Sand round holes of side pieces only slightly as it is easy to overdo – you can always sand a bit more but can’t undo – you don’t want to revert to gluing them in instead. Push in until feeling tight about 2-3mm proud the other side – if not sand more. Push gently one one side then the other to ‘rock’ the round bearing into place until the toothed rim is right up against the wood.

The reference to left and right hand side in instructions for where to install the motor not useful as orientation of the piece not established first. See below for where it goes!

Also the 8mm M2 bolts for the motor did not fit and I had to take one of the m3 to open out the thread and then run through with the m2’s using the thread cutting technique of turning clockwise then anticlockwise then clockwise repeatedly until the thread ran freely.

The motor did get in the way of one of the nuts during the final part of the build, so I shifted the whole heated platform section to overhang slightly to give enough room, as above.

The final construction completed!
Tips:
Wash roller under tap and dry with microfibre cloth to remove dust that may have been attracted to the silicon rollers.
Use diamond files for speed and accuracy instead of the supplied sandpapers if you have them to hand.
Tighten the small bolts by hand and only tighten gently with the Allen keys for half a rotation or so depending on the feel.
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