Ok so the first question is how do I not over tighten the screws/bolts when I’m putting my machine together. I’m not going to use a drill / driver do to the advice given on the assembly video but I am still weary of hand tightening. So any tips would be greatly appreciated. Secondly I would like to know what the maximum inches per minute i can expect to achieve with my shapeoko 5 pro. I know every piece of material is different and that my speeds are going to change based on what I am cutting. What I’m looking for is a maximum speed that the machine is capable of running at so I have a ruff speed limit.
Take it easy on doing the hardware, take breaks as needed, and use a ratchet — I used my most favourite tool ever:
(it’s also available in a less-expensive version w/o the Ti-Torque bar)
or you could get something like to:
For maximizing feed rates see:
Thank you for this reply. The speeds and feeds article is a bit much for me to take in at the moment but it is some very good information and I will be reading more of it a bit later. By the way where can I find the rest of that book that the article was from? It really looks like something I should have and read from cover to cover.
1 - If you have experience working on cars, the same types of torque apply for bolts going into aluminum…that has served me well. I don’t work at C3D, but I run the main Facebook group and I haven’t heard of many people over-tightening to the point of stripping threads. But I’m sure C3D tech support may be able to refute that. 
2 - It has a firmware limit of ~275 inches per minute. I have not seen that as any actual limitation as I have their VFD spindle on mine. If I seem to be taking it too easy and am running that fast, that shows me that I need to replace feed rate with a higher depth of cut. Speed is just one variable in how much material you can remove in a given amount of time.
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You should be able to navigate in any page from the link Will provided, but here’s the link to the entry point
Hope you find it useful, it is oudated versus latest Shapeoko models but the fundamentals remain valid
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