The first thing you are going to need to do is insert the various inserts into the Base, 60 Tooth Steering Gear, and Upper Support. In the case of the Base, the positions of the inserts depends on the corner of the robot. If you look at the Base, you will see it is marked with letters:
The holes marked with an A should have inserts for all four corners. The holes marked with BL should only have inserts for the back left corner. The holes marked !BL should have inserts for all corners except the back left. The holes marked FR should only have inserts for the front right corner. Finally the hole that is marked BR should only have an insert for the back right corner.
Also, the Upper Support part has a only one hole for a 8-32 insert and that insert should only be applied for the Back Left Corner.
There are two ways you can apply the inserts. The first is to use a normal soldering iron as shown below:
Apply the iron (temperature ~250° F) as shown. As the insert heats up you will be able to push it into the hole. Note that you do not need a lot of pressure. You should try and keep the soldering iron as vertical as possible. After the insert is all the way in, you should immediately check to see if it is in straight by screwing in a bolt and viewing it from various angles:
If you do this right after you apply the insert, the plastic will be soft enough that you can reposition it if necessary. Note that if you later find that one of your screws is not straight, you can fix it by using a soldering iron to reheat the insert until the plastic is soft enough to reposition it.
The second way to apply the inserts is to use a tool such as this one. While this tool helps get the inserts straight, it is by no means foolproof and you should still check to make sure that they are straight.
If you really don’t want to be bothered by the inserts, you can, if you wish, use longer bolts and have them go through the holes and attach with a nut on the other side. However, despite the fact that applying them is a bit of a pain, you will find that it well worthwhile as it make assembling the robot much easier.
Once you have applied the inserts and let them all cool, you need to check the other side for plastic that has been pushed into a position that partially blocks the screw:
You should use a exacto knife to clean out the blocking plastic and then run a bolt all the way through to make sure it is clear.
The following shows the 3 parts that require inserts after the inserts have been applied. Note that these insert positions are for the Back Left Corner.
