I don’t have any step-by-step, I just sort of winged it based on what I saw in the pictures, as evidenced by the fact that I didn’t catch the need to drill new holes for the belt clips.
And when I discovered that, I had a bit of a panic attack because I knew they’d have to be placed pretty darn accurately, and I didn’t want to have to tear the machine down again. But maple block of wood drill bushing to the rescue.
FWIW, having super-sharp drill bits on-hand would have made it go more smoothly. I stopped after my first set of holes and went to Home Depot to buy a new bit (much better!).
I ordered the spacers indicated above from McMaster (92510A649) and also 40mm long screws (I used button-head to maintain a low profile, McMaster 94500A302).
I think these were my steps:
- Disconnect x-axis drive belts on both ends.
- Disconnect y-axis drive belts at the front of the machine and slip belts off pulleys on motors.
- Remove all eight wheels from the x-axis gantry. I used blocks of wood to support the extrusion. I stated by trying to remove just the bottom wheels, but you’ll still need to remove at least one top wheel to get the extrusion past the wheels.
- Remove all eight screws holding the gantry plates to the extrusion.
- Swap the left and right gantry plates.
- Reassemble the gantry plates to the extrusion with the eight screws.
- Reattach the wheels.
- Used the spacers and screws to move the motors to the outside of the gantry plates. Adjust the motors to the top of their adjustment slots to maintain clearance with the steel pulleys.
- Wrap the belts around the y-axis motors and reattach at the front of the machine.
- Go to attach belt on x-axis gantry and notice the holes have moved, go DOH! and figure out a way to accurately drill new holes. For me that meant a small block of wood and some transfer punches to make the original holes and drill them in the wood, then flip and mark unused holes in the plates that I used with 5mm screws to clamp my block to the plates. This step will vary, BTW, depending on the version of the clips your machine uses. Some belt clips have two smaller holes and require screws+nuts, some belt clips have a single larger, threaded clip.
- Reattach the x-axis belt.
- Snug all your fasteners.
- Spend a decent amount of time with magnet is plastic bag, making sure you collect all your steel chips from drilling the holes (if you drill the plates in-place).
- Reverse the y-axis motor connections, as the orientation of the motors has changed.
I think that is about it. I haven’t calibrated my belts or anything, I haven’t even turned the machine back on. I still have to re-route all my wiring (OH, BTW, I don’t use drag chains, so take that into consideration and contemplate any necessary changes if you DO use them).