Assembly instructions

• Assembly drawings

Assembly of Alex is very straightforward needing only a small posidrive screwdriver to alter the drive disc on the servos and tighten the case screws, and a pair of snipe nosed pliers to bend the wire for the links. The plywood parts can be glued together using white woodworking adhesive (pva adhesive), hot melt glue, epoxy resin or cyanoacrylate adhesive (superglue) etc. but I recommend you use hot melt glue.
Study the following photographs and sort out the parts needed for each operation. Laying out the parts as in the photographs will help you.
Although it is not necessary for Alex to function I suggest you lightly sand paper all the plywood parts, especially the edges, using fine sandpaper (e.g. 120 grit), it just makes the parts nicer to handle.

Assembly tips

• don't use too much glue, if it squeezes out of all the joints you are using too much;
• it is not necessary to use clamps whilst the glue sets;
• if you are using white woodworking adhesive and a little squeezes out of the joints either wipe it away or leave it a few minutes when it can easily be removed with the end of a flat bladed screwdriver;
• assemble each set of parts without any glue to make sure you know how they fit together then use the glue;
• when gluing protect the table top with a sheet of newspaper or similar, not only will that protect the table but if too much glue is used and it squeezes out underneath it prevents the part becoming glued to the table;
• the sleeving is used to keep the pins in place, see pictures 50,57,59,66,68,69,71,72 and 73, you will need 11 pieces each about 5 or 6 millimetres long; do not push them right onto the wires so the parts are tight; to prevent the sleeves working loose you can secure them with a drop of hot melt glue on the end of the wire.