Step 02.08 — Secure the carriage before the printer is turned over¶
Step 8 of 44 · Chapter 02 — Z drives, Z idlers, Z rails, deck panel
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Parts:
- masking tape, or the rail's plastic shipping stoppers · consumable
Do: Tape the carriage to the rail, or refit the plastic shipping stopper, so gravity cannot walk it off the end. The printer goes upside down at Step 02.11 and an untethered carriage slides off the bottom end.
Check
The carriage cannot move to the end of the rail under its own weight.
What you're looking at
Manual p.26: the carriage and the risk. The carriage rides on recirculating ball bearings retained only by the rail, so it must be tethered before the frame is inverted. A carriage that runs off the end spills its balls and is scrap.
Good stopping point · ~25 min since the last one
the first Z rail is centred, tightened centre-outward, verified smooth over full travel, and its carriage is taped. A rail is a self-contained unit; stop only with one finished, never with half its screws started.
Source: Voron manual p.26