Volume 1 is undergoing final minor edits prior to printing proof copies, and should go on pre-order very soon. Not much more to say about that! Some Volume 1 facts:
- 360 pages
- ~75,000 words in 7 chapters
- ~200 illustrations including photos, micrographs, diagrams, and a few charts and tables
Volume 2 is in a bit of a transition state right now. My publisher and I agreed to switch the order of Vol2 and Vol3 only last month, so now the drivetrains book (belts, screws, deltas) will come before the stepper motors book. Rough status now:
- Foreword – 2700 words, largely identical for the first three volumes since they were written concurrently
- Introduction – not started, but I will probably pull ~6,000 words from the last chapter of the Steppers book, which was intended to lead into the drivetrain content
- Belt and Line Drivetrains – 18,700 words, probably need to split it in half
- Screw Drives – 12,100 words
- Deltas – 17,200 words, probably need to split in half
So, that’s ~56,000 words written and I’d imagine it’ll grow to 60,000 before editing is done.
The Deltas chapter is mostly illustrated already. I decided to illustrate it during drafting (which is not my normal workflow) because many of the kinematics concepts are so complex that I was worried I wouldn’t remember later what I had intended on illustrating. I normally just put a brief note in my draft like “[image of CoreXY gantry lines forces]” and come back for illustrations later. Saves a lot of work if I cut content later.
One reason the steppers book has been pushed back to Vol3 is that there is some new and exciting work happening in firmware motion code development now that I would like to see shake out before I really tackle resonance and ringing.