Total newbie to CNC and just got the XXL!! I’m building my table this weekend and hopefully the enclosure as well. My question is since I’m going to relocate the electronics to the outside of the enclosure (I’m expecting I’'ll need to solder some extension wires) can I flip the drag chain to the other side to make it easier? I’m planing to make a control panel with an old laptop and it needs to be on the right side of the machine. Has anyone done this before? If so can you please send pics or tips?
Its been so hard not to bust that box open and start building this bad boy!!
Folks have done that. The reasoning behind the layout/arrangement seems to be that the drag chains and so forth are less likely to interfere with the homing switches.
Mine is on the right side. It’s a pretty trivial change (just use the rail that they call out for the left…on the right, the rest is pretty obvious). In my case I did it because putting it on the left would interfere with a Nomad that was on the same workbench, and I could hang the “extra stuff” off the right side of the bench because the bench wasn’t quite long enough. You don’t need to create any extensions, it’s just flipped left to right. What works well is to put the electronics in the box, as designed, then mount a laptop on an arm to the right side of the bench the machine is on, you can then pretty easily move it around, and doesn’t require any fiddling with the machine - it’s just a usb cable to the laptop.