My Shapeoko Pro XXL shipped quicker than what I thought it would which meant I had to get going on building my table. My goal is to get far enough along this project so that the table is sturdy and moveable so I can setup the Shapeoko and possibly use the machine itself to keep building the rest of the cabinet/enclosure to serve as a learning project.
I decided to take the advice I’ve seen on the forums and go with a torsion table build and I inserted some cheap ceiling tile within each of the sectors of the table. We’ll see how effective that turns out to be but if too much noise still gets through the tabletop I may drill small holes from the bottom later on and possibly add some spray foam if needed, not sure if anyone has advice or thoughts on that? As for the top plywood the size cut out is roughly the size of the machine itself (42" x 50"). For the remaining grids I’ll either stuff it with more ceiling tile or batt insulation and use the cross members of the torsion assembly to secure the top enclosure to it and fill the gap with stacked ceiling tile to raise to the plywood and cover it all with a 1/8" hardboard. I also saw rolls of cork when I was getting my materials and was thinking this could also be good to cut the sound and also dampen the vibrations from the base of the machine.
As for the lower portion I just used 2" x 4" which I ran through the table saw to square up the rounded edges to facilitate gluing pieces together. A jointer/planer would have been better but I do not have these tools, maybe later in the future. I also decided to make the base not as wide as the table so there’s a slight overhang for when I’ll access the worksurface from the front/sides.
I would have liked to start assembling my CNC today but waiting for an Amazon order to deliver the casters that didn’t show up today. Once I get the casters on I think I’ll follow up with the following:
- Setup the Shapeoko
- Build the top enclosure (priority will be to contain the dust over the noise of the dust collection/vacuum)
- Organize the space below the table (ie. drawer/cabinet, dust collection, power management, possible home for a future spindle upgrade/vfd, etc…)
- Sand, paint and add some extra cosmetic touchups.
Looking forward to joining this community and get my first projects underway. I’ll update this thread as I make progress throughout my enclosure build. In the meantime if anyone has comments/feedback/food for thought please feel free to share as I’d rather deal/catch something critical during the build process then discover an issue/flaw once is it’s all done and have to fix a finished product.