At this point I’m not even sure what we have on there for steppers (we tested a lot of different options). We made sure that the machine is capable of stalling a VFD spindle, so that the machine is not the limiter, the spindle is, and that it moves at up to 5000mm/min. We did not add the biggest motors possible for safety reasons.
Any extra speed is dangerous for an unguarded machine where a user may not be paying attention and might reach into the machine. Any extra force is dangerous for the user if they get pinched in any part of it, and the extra force is dangerous for the machine in a crash.
Any claims we make about the power of the Shapeoko 5 Pro will be through cutting conditions, usually with videos to match, which are the only things that fully encapsulate the performance of a machine.
I’ve always trammed at the router/spindle mount. Tramming at the sides of the gantry solves the possible issue of the gantry not being parallel to a pre-determined plane of something like the un-surfaced slats, or extrusions. But as far as the endmill being perpendicular to the wasteboard, the mount seems to me the best place to solve that issue. There is usually barely enough adjustment in the bolts that mount the spindle clamp to the Z axis to get tram dead-on from my experience.
I’m not saying I’m severely prone to going down a precision rabbit hole and picking something like the hybrid bed extrusions to get the gantry parallel to.
I just placed my order. I feel like a kid waiting for Christmas. Hopefully, Winston and Luke will post videos of the Shapeoko Pro 5 soon. I need something to occupy my time until February.
I’ve been the one that won’t allow video of a non-powder coated SO5 (final prototype) to be posted. The black model looks too good to let video of the raw aluminum out on the Internet.
We should have our production SO5 in California next week. We’ll get it put together and then get some videos going before too long.
I propose, to whet our appetites, maybe a picture a day of some cool new detail. Things like the pendant in hand, the new electronics box, the new BitSetter…things like that so the rest of us CNC nerds get at least a taste a day and you can keep the pre-production unit a bit more under wraps visually.
So great to see a Carbide3D machine with a 4x4 cutting area. Congrats to you all it looks incredible and the price is extremely competitive.
Though I needed a bigger machine before you announced this, I’ll definitely be recommending this option (and all the other C3D options)
“Can a previous Shapeoko be upgraded to the 5 Pro? Unfortunately, they cannot. The Shapeoko 5 Pro is a completely new machine and I don’t think there’s a single shared component between the 5 and prior machines.”
Unfortunately a massive advancement in design usually means that there is little carry-over. That goes for anything, and was the case when the SO4 and SO4Pro were released as well. They were enough of an advancement that they had no carry-over to the SO3. But I did sell my SO4 last weekend for a pretty good price…
A 1.5 to 1.8kw spindle will probably be the sweet spot for this machine. I am curious what kind of rigidity difference exists between the HDM and the Pro 5. The stepper power is clear but I would love to see some deflection comparisons.
My limiting factor in aluminum so far has been heat build up from heavy cuts before stressing the HDM’s gantry, spindle, or motion components but that’s on fairly small stock.
That’s why I started with an Amazon mister, tried 2 at once, then ultimately went with a dual fog buster setup. I’m now trying the lube that @Vince.Fab recommended to get good cooling and better lubricity than the Coolmist I was using. I tried isopropyl alcohol first and it cooled great, but provided no lubrication.
The anti-production bling model. 