Nomad - Custom linear rail Z conversion with new 500watt spindle

Carbide3d recently announced a new version of the Nomad will be coming out shortly with various upgraded parts. However nothing will be backwards compatible.

I had drawn up and designed this in Sep 2019 but recently had the time and motivation to finish the project. The round rails were replaced with square 15mm linear assemblies and a custom Z plate with lead nut mount was born. Cut on a Shapeoko btw :wink:

The Z plate allows for stock spindle mounts and HDZ easy tram attachments. It was designed with the new bearings to be very low profile and the new spindle center location is only 1" Y+. Right now I have a 1" spacer on the height probe but will integrate a bitsetter soon. Z travel has also been increased to 4" and runs flawlessly with Carbide Motion.

The spindle used currently is a brushless Makita converted to run on a 500watt/20 amp power supply. While not as powerful as the corded rt701c, it should generate less heat and noise both electrical and audio. Zero disconnects have been seen during operation and the double insulated body allow the use of a touch probe (as long as you don’t ground to the main plate). It has an integrated led light, double safety on switch, air blast via internal fan, and 0.375/8mm capacity along with 30,000 rpm

This conversion is still in its initial phase but gen2 plates are getting drawn with the required changes to make a kit :slightly_smiling_face: Ide love to get my hands on some upgraded leadscrew nuts to really round off this package.

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Amazing work as always!

Will you make a new baseplate for the more forward position of the spindle?

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Thanks, one can only stand 10,000rpm for so long lol.

There is actually a decent amount of travel that can be gained by relocating the Y limit switch. Along with cutting the table slots farther, you’ll gain that inch back. I plan to also draw up a new base plate as well but will probably only go thicker.

Oh, i took some DB measurements while cutting aluminum last night.
70db at 20,000rpm during operation

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I have also reached the point where 10,000 is just not enough. Are you considering selling the pieces for this conversion? I was also trying to figure out if I could mount (new screw holes) a z-plus to my nomad (https://shop.carbide3d.com/collections/accessories/products/shapeoko-z-plus). Did you look into trying to attached the z-plus before building your own mounting solution?

I’ll post up the designs once something is final. A linear bolt on takes a little patience to install. While I did look at the Z plus, its wouldn’t be worth it imo because the spindle would be pushed even farther out and that starts to make things complicated when using the full machine bed and tool length sensor. Also I haven’t had a good look at the new lead screw Anti-backlash nut but it sounds like it’s much more heavy duty than the Nomad’s.

Right now I run the Nomad around 20,000 and its really happy. Just did a V carved emblem for a boat today and it was nice not having to worry about the spindle bogging with 1/4 V bits.

This is the type of stepper that I purchased. Once you go ballscrews it tough to go with anything else as long as your travel/rapid speeds are in line with what’s required.

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