Let's set up an X-Tool P3. Now, if you're assembling your own, please consult your setup manual and safety instructions in addition to this guide. This video is a set of instructions to sort of complement them as a visual primer of what you're about to do, as well as give you some tips that we found to make this process a whole lot easier. Let's get into it.

Starting off, let's assemble the stand, which is just a rock-solid bench to sit your P3 on. We're going to go through setting up things from the full P3 kit, so if you don't have something, just skip to the next section. In your stand box, you'll find four of these column pieces. The order doesn't really matter, just find four of them, and then find four shorter side beams and slot them in. They should easily fit in with these funky wave joints. Just ensure that for all the beams that you put in, these drill holes are facing inwards like so.

Next, find the four long beams and slot them in as well. Two of these are going to have the X-Tool logo, so place it wherever you find it aesthetically pleasing. All of these beams should slot together pretty freely, but you might need a mallet to get one or two in. Once together, place the stand on its side and use 16 bolts to fasten the beams to the columns. Also, try not to shift the frame around on the floor as to not scratch it.

Next, get six of these remaining bolts to fasten the six board brackets to the top beams of your stand. If you did not orientate your beams with the bolt holes facing inwards, you will certainly realize this about now. Next, get your boards and mount it to the top of your stand with wood screws. There are little pre-drilled holes on the boards to line up with your board brackets. We had to lift the frame just a little bit to line this up, but it might be a smarter idea to prop it up with a few layers of cardboard or something like that.

Once you've screwed the top boards down securely, flip the stand upside down, and I would definitely be using some of the packaging foam here to stop your brand new bench from being scratched. With 16 of the shorter 10mm bolts, mount the four caster wheels onto the bottom of your stand. Once you've mounted that, flip your stand back upright and you are done. You're probably going to have a few spare bolts and board mounts lying around. These are intentionally spare so that you can mount your own custom shelf under it, but you will need to source your own panel though.

Now let's get into the meat of it, our P3. Open the P3 box and remove all the packaging from it. We even opened our P3 lid and removed all the accessories from inside the machine. We were just a little bit too excited, but we're going to pretend that we did it to make it a little bit lighter, because now you're going to lift the P3 onto the stand. This machine is heavy. It's a bit over 100 kilos, so you will need at least four people to lift it. Lift with your knees, not with your back, and plan out the route of your lift. You are handling a very heavy and expensive machine. Also ensure that you lock in the stand lift before you lift the P3 onto it.

Now that it's on the stand, you can wheel it around anywhere, and we just went ahead and shifted the whole operation into our Makerverse. If you haven't already, remove all the packaging from inside the machine and all the parts from it, as well as the tape holding on the back panel, and these four green clips that are preventing all the gantry pieces from moving. I'd probably try and keep these clips around in case you ever want to throw your P3 in a truck or something and move it down the road or anything like that, you know, just to help transport it.

In your little toolbox, you'll find your USB access control key. Insert it into your machine, and this is your, you know, master key, by the way. Do not lose it. The machine will not work without it. Also familiarize yourself with the e-stop switch on the other side of the machine. A quick check to do here, very slowly move your laser head along its gantry in both, you know, the left and right and forwards and back axis. We are just checking that everything here moves freely and nothing, you know, bad happened in shipping.

Before you power on your P3, you will need to fill up the water loop in the cooling system. You will need to source some purified water to fill this up with, as well as a measuring jug. Avoid using tap water as the impurities in it are not very good for the machine. You may also need to add antifreeze, which does come with the machine. This is where you might really want to check your manual as it will tell you how much antifreeze you need based on how cold it gets. Here in Newcastle, it pretty much never drops below zero, so we don't need any antifreeze, but we put just a little bit in just in case.

On the back of the machine is your water level as well, which has all the markers that you need to fill the antifreeze up before you put the water in if you're using antifreeze. It's worth checking this once in a while, and after running the machine for the first time, you may notice that it drops a little bit, so don't panic thinking that, you know, it's leaking water everywhere. It's just getting and flushing the air out. Once you have water and or antifreeze in your cooling loop, you can finally plug it in and turn on your machine.

Before connecting it to X-Tool Studio and running your first cut, you'll need to set up your air filtration or extraction system. We're going to be using the AP2 Max as it filters effectively enough so that the air can just be spat back out into the same room. You don't need to, you know, shove it anywhere or exhaust it anywhere, but if you have an existing filtration or extraction system or if you're dumping the air outside to somewhere else, you might want to set up the IF2 inline fan.

This should have arrived in the P3 itself, and it's pretty straightforward. Grab your inline fan, ensure that you have the airflow going the right way, and connect your hoses. The hoses have these little twist adapters on each end to help it just, you know, nicely connect to everything. If you do have the AP2 Max, go ahead and crack it open, have a play around with the funky foam packaging that it comes with, and then assemble it. There are a series of layers here in this filter, with the dynamic layer on the very bottom and then numbers one to six stacking on top of it with one at the top and six on the bottom.

So all you need to do is stack these in the correct order, but you also need to remove the plastic bag from each filter layer as well in this process. Try and put the filters back in the exact same orientation you pulled it out as they do have a correct orientation, but in case you mix it up, the number on the side of the filter has to be right way up, and there's also an NFC tag on the side that has to be at the back of the machine. With the filters in the correct orientation and the layers in the right order, place the NFC backplate on the rear of the machine. This will read those little NFC tags on each filter and know when they need to be replaced.

With that, you can finally connect the hosing from your AP2 to your P3. That's a bit of a mouthful. Now, even we were a little bit confused about this one, but as it turns out, you do not need the IF2 fan if you are using the AP2 Max. It may even hinder it as the AP2 Max can draw more air than the IF2 can handle. Also, side note, these clips holding in all the filters can have a bit of a pinch point at the top, so don't put your hand above the clip when you undo it.

Now we can get started with the software. Go ahead and install X-Tool Studio, run through the setup, and open it up. Plug your P3 into your computer with the USB cable, create a new project, hit connect, and you should be able to connect to your P3. Now you can use this wide connection just fine, but you'll also be able to set up Wi-Fi later on. But for the first time, you'll need to manually connect it this way.

Now, from here on, follow whatever X-Tool Studio says. The instructions I can give are nowhere near as good as what X-Tool Studio can give, as it's kind of all, you know, integrated into Studio itself, and it's a bit of a tutorial as well. One of the things that X-Tool does really well is software, and it will walk you through the process of using Studio, it'll make you watch the mandatory safety training videos, it'll update the firmware of your P3, it'll make you check the alignment of your laser with this cool little tape trick, it'll help you fix the alignment of your laser if it is a bit off, and finally, it'll get you to go through, you know, a first-time cutting tutorial using the included sheet of ply.

I would really recommend doing this cutting tutorial when it pops up, as it shows you how to use all the features of the machine, and probably avoid closing out of it, because it is quite hard to get back into. All of these steps are just so integrated heavily into X-Tool Studio, it's just super easy as well, just go ahead and do it. However, there is one more thing that we might want to touch on, and that is syncing your IF2 or AP2 Max to your P3.