I’m sure the XXL size will be the same working area as the Shapeoko 3 XXL (but the machine footprint looks to be larger?)
Please contact sales@carbide3d.com with your question on larger working areas.
@SLCJedi — yeah, I wonder if we should set up a tractor pull sort of thing where the force which a belt-driven machine will hold to is measured until it gives way, and it is demonstrated that a screw drive machine can and will tear itself apart.
Unfortunately, I have nothing constructive to add to this conversation, but I felt compelled to let people know that I’m excited! I, too, am endeavoring to work out the angle to approach my wife about this…
The Nomad 3 does a lot right but I’m curious, after Vince has shown rather crazy spindles on the Nomad with some relatively straightforward-looking upgrades (adding ballscrews) and Bantam has put a 300W spindle on their machine, why just 150W for the new spindle motor?
Would going higher require switching to ballscrews, linear rails and servo motors or something like that, leading to a drastically more expensive machine?
Going off the announcement, I’m still not entirely sure whether I’m better off buying the Nomad 3 or applying Vince-style modifications to the 883 Pro.
Can you share any concrete examples (e.g. feeds and speeds) of what the Nomad improvements mean in practice?
The Shapeoko Pro has the one main thing I would want on mine right now… linear rails! 
Too bad I am not in the position to be buying a new machine…
Squinting at the little pic of the Shapeoko Pro it looks like the Y linear rails are on the outside of the Y the extrusions and there might be enough room on the sides of the X extrusion to get some accordion chip boots fitted on the front of it?
ManOman… this is why you guys are the best… I love my current XXL but I see a pro in my future 
Oh, fine, thanks @robgrz, @Luke, @Jorge! Looks like I’m going to have to postpone my wife’s Sondors LX e-bike and order one of these bad boys. In trouble again, sigh.
Been considering an XXL upgrade kit, now you go and make a whole new machine that includes all the upgrades I’ve been considering but resisting because they cost too much and rely upon my shaky level of precision.
Or, maybe I’ll wait. It would be hard to give up the spindle I’m using now.
All this product development is really awesome to see!
The Nomad 3 is looking very solid! Is there any chance the interior lighting changes color to show machine status? The spindle motor looks beefy and people should know that 150watts in the cut can be surprising, especially with the right tooling. The 24krpm redline should be a godsend when using small or micro tooling and the upgraded leadnuts are exactly what that machine needed!
The Shapeoko Pro… well pretty much blindsided by this one! You guys are good at keeping secrets. Motor flip and the outside mounted Y rails are gold 
When you look at these machines you can tell they will do their job, and do it well. There isn’t anything I would modify on these…and it feels good. Pretty jealous on the 15mm belts. Whats it gonna take to get a few meters and couple drive pulleys for a retrofit effort?
I am drooling over that bed for the Pro, as an XXL user with a huge sag in the middle, I am jealous.
Wouldn’t pulleys that much longer require motors with longer shafts?
I was concerned on this point when doing my upgrade from 6mm to 9mm belts on my original SO3 — doubling the increase again seems a bit much — are the pulleys sufficiently stiff that this wouldn’t be an issue?
The setscew is located right on the beginning of the drive gear. I’m personally on a flipped motor setup so in any case the standoffs can be adjusted to suit. As long as the shaft diameter is the same.
@robgrz @Luke Shapeoko Pro questions:
What style and size rails are on the X and Y axis? (they look lower profile than typical HG15)
Is there one or two rails on the sides of the Y extrusions?
What is the overall footprint of the XXL?
What are the IPM rapids?
Is that Z-axis the Z-Plus (exact model)?
What is the bottom of Z-axis/gantry to table clearance?
(Stretching) would there [ever] be an offering of a bare bones machine (without electronics)?
Thanks @Griff! Also big tip of the hat to @edwardrford who was the lead on the Shapeoko Pro and knocked it out of the park, and @wmoy on all the work he put in leading up to the Nomad release.
Sorry I forgot @edwardrford and @wmoy! I remember exchanging a few emails with Edward “back in the day” when I received my SO3 with all its bags of screws, nuts, washers, wires, bits and pieces. Imperial and metric as i recall. Nothing pre assembled. Fun stuff!
MGN15. We looked at HG 15 but they’re out of proportion for this machine.
One rail on the Y, two on the X
I don’t think we have the parameters totally figured out yet. We don’t optimize for rapids much faster than what we currently have because we view it as a safety issue.
Nope, it’s different than the standard Z-plus.
Roughly 50" wide by 41" deep if I recall.
Roughly 4"
That’s not something we’d be likely to do.
That’s my favorite part of this machine.
Yep, it’s a very different place than where we started out.
Yep, any chance of that extrusion being made available to existing Shapeoko owners who want to upgrade their already reinforced beds?
It’s something we’re looking at. We have a few ideas about how to offer it but we need to work through it a bit more.
Great,
Remember we’re not averse to a bit of trial, error and modifications to make things fit.
There’ll be no grumbling about missing M3 bolts from this beta user 
I think I agree on your overall point here. It’d be great if the team was more open in the development. Not just so we know when/whether/what to purchase but also so we can understand what goes into making the machine and why it is the way it is.
As an outsider, lots of things look odd to me but I’m not a professional CNC machine designer like the Carbide 3D folks are. It’d really make me feel better about the Nomad if I knew why they didn’t use linear rails or ballscrews, or why the spindle is still only 150W. I’m sure there are valid reasons behind these choices but without knowing what they are, they’re just downsides to me and nudge me towards other machines that don’t have them, potentially to my own detriment.
For consumer products like iPhones, or for machines with some kind of secret sauce, I can kinda see the veil of secrecy being an important thing but for a more industrial tool like the Nomad that’s built on well-understood principles, I think a more open approach is well worth some consideration.
It’s called the “Osborne Effect” in business circles, named for the debacle that sank Osborne computers back in the day. After a hit with the Osborne 1 computer, the company began working on Osborne 2. Word got out that newer, better machine was coming, which killed sales of Osborne 1, which dried up funds to develop and deliver Osborne 2.
I was pissed because about 3 months after I bought a Sawstop Jobsite saw, they came out with Sawstop Jobsite Pro, for only about $100 more, and it had features I definitely would have waited for. But thems the breaks. I think we just have to understand that whenever you pull the trigger to buy, know that an upgrade is coming sooner or later. You have trade off value of having it now vs. value of waiting and maybe getting a better deal.