XL to XXL upgrade any improvements made by Carbide

CNC Machines Shapeoko
1

I am interested in upgrading my XL to XXL, but I have seen a lot of posts about the process.

  • shimming the board,
  • slop in the middle of the XXL / no level etc
  • adding new Rubber feet
  • adding a waste board beneath the XXL to stabilize etc.

So I am looking to see if there has been any improvements in the upgrade to the XXL. I have a XL and it is working well, but I am afraid if I try and upgrade to the XXL, it will throw the whole alignment off dramatically because of all the extra steps it takes to get it back to normal (shimming, rubber feet, additional waste boards etc)

Looking for some warm fuzzs to make the purchase and upgrade. See too many, I had to do this or that to get it back to normal on this forum.

thanks

2

I upgraded from XL to XXL without any issues. I did have a little difficulty tramming the spindle, but I have and aftermarket Z Axis and spindle. Other than that I thought the whole process went really well. I had it switched over in a few hours.

You do have to do all of the calibration/squaring again though.

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3

Thanks David, did you have to do anything to the middle. I have read that sometime it sags and had to either put additional feet under it or place another sheet of MDF to keep it stable. Thanks Sir

4

I have read that here too. I haven’t noticed anything like that. I have been using it to make furniture mostly, but some signs and aluminum parts. but, honestly, if it gets pushed down a couple of thou in use, I wouldn’t notice, and I’m not taking precision interments to measure it either. If my parts start to come off the machine wrong, then I’ll start looking.

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5

My XXL wasnt an upgrade, but it did sag a LOT in the middle. I removed the feet which helped a lot, after a year or so of good use I replaced the base board with 3/4" ply, which does not flex at all

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6

Good to know, I am wondering if Carbide has made any modifications to eliminate that sag., thanks for your input, I am still considering it but least I know what I am getting into, thanks for the feedback. :slight_smile:

7

No worries :slight_smile:

I don’t know if they’ve made any changes since mine, it’s a few years old now. even taking off the feet pretty much sorted it out, it’s rock solid with the new base board though :sunglasses:

only took me an hour to cut to size, drill and install

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