What with one thing (small enclosure) and another (bi-fold doors), and recent guidance of how often I should check screw tightness, belts and wheels, etc., it’s made me think a bit more about a plan I had - and forgot about until today.
I (think I) would like to dispense with the adjustable feet on the Shapeoko and mount the XXL on a sliding board, so that (a) I can do those things above and (b) bring the Shapeoko forward enough to cut mortice and tenon or dovetail joints.
It doesn’t need to come too far (perhaps 6 to 8" maximum), but I was thinking of mounting it on an 18mm plywood board mounted on several really heavy duty drawer slides, or perhaps mount the drawer slides in the middle and where the adjustable feet currently fit.
I appreciate I will need to lock the mounting in place when it’s closed or extended, probably result in raising the roof of the enclosure a bit, and making sure the wiring isn’t affected, but I’m up for that.
Has anyone else thought about this, or come up with another solution?
A couple of folks have done this sort of thing — so long as one doesn’t exceed the weight capacity of the slides it should work well — would putting the enclosure itself on a hinge or tracks be easier though?
Sadly not, as some idiot (me) designed the enclosure with only one wall, fixed to two walls of my garden shed and bi-fold doors to the front, and it sits on a workbench I had to make deeper for XXL to fit.
I’ll look through the postings (sorry, I should’ve done that first!)
How much height do you have to play around with? How sturdy is the bench under your XXL?
Effectively I’m wondering if you should build a torsion box between the drawer slides and the machine, or if you can rely on the structure under the machine plus a plurality of slides and a thinner board.
I’m pretty sure the bench - which is formed from the frame of the building, is pretty sturdy. The weight of the Shapeoko and me, when I was installing it, didn’t cause any issues whatsoever. Total weight about 180kg, including the bench.
Lots of slides was my initial thought, but I can only seem to find ball bearing, not roller bearing, slides. I think the latter would be better.
There are a few on amazon.co.uk - and up to £140 for two 48" rails, supporting 160kg of weight! I might go for four, maybe, with a lower weight capacity.
So, going on from this, does the panel think it would be better to use these drawer slides on the side of the XXL mounting board/shelf, with another one or two supporting the middle, or should I just put four between the worktop and mounting board?
Also, what about mounting the XXL on a board - or should I just use (properly measured) timber bearers between the baseboard rails and the slides?
I don’t see much advantage to using them on the side of the board, underneath makes a lot of sense just make sure they are all parallel. Will they be locking into place (when retracted) or will you add a pin or something to hold the board still?
Probably best to use something dimensionally stable like a decent grade of 3/4 plywood (cabinet grade maple, birch, etc). I use cheaper pine for enclosure parts (still kiln dried) but always use the better stuff under my machines. For a standard or XL I might cut a corner, but the XXL is pretty beastly.
Makes sense to me too, but the supplier’s just told me to use them along the sides
…and when they’re extended, hopefully. I only really want it to be drawn forward enough to hang (slightly) over the edge of the worktop so I can cut the ends of boards - but this might be Phase 2!
Hmm, my experiences with UK sourced ply is poor, at best, but I’ll do a ‘Google’ and see what I come up with.
I’m also getting a bit twitchy about disassembling the whole thing to do this…
Just a thought. Why not use something that is prebuilt and designed to carry a heavy load like that. I have a sliding bed (cargo sliding tray) in the back of my truck that I use to pull out and make things more accessible for me. It can hold up to 300 lb on the very end, and much more than closer you get to the truck. So it would more than handle the weight of a CNC machine which is approximately 175 lb for a Shapeoko Pro.
There are many versions available and mine cost me about $300. They come in various sizes to fit various truck beds, so I’m sure you can find one that would fit your needs. I’ve seen them as small as 24" x 24" that are made for SUVs. Here are a few pictures of a couple I found online that show the structure and functionality of the slide.
One thing before you go through with this modification. You should be aware that sliding your CNC machine out of the enclosure, even a little, will change the center of gravity for your CNC table. You do not want to pull that CNC out far enough that it will tip your table over because the weight shifted too far forward.
No need to reinvent the wheel. Just my two cents worth.
There are bottom mount and side mount drawer slides. For this application I would probably only use bottom mount, and I would probably have some way of inserting a thick dowel pin or something to hold the table positively in the positions of interest, namely retracted and extended. You wanted to still be rigid as possible.
I’m always happy to hear what you have to say, Tex!
I don’t intend to - once I’ve got it where I want it and fully set up!
The only reason I’m thinking about this now is just in case I want to cut dovetail joints. I really like the ‘obscure’ ones easily achieved with a CNC machine!
About those feet… My setup is really quite solid (the XXL on a flat workbench built within the structure of the shed, which is on a concrete slab, and supported along all sides - it doesn’t even flex with me and the XXL on the bench front!) but are the rails flat on the bottom (I haven’t looked yet) allowing it to sit flat on the workbench, or are there 'orrible little threads sticking out from the underside?
Hmm, really like that idea, @AsylumWoodworks and, as you say, there’s no point reinventing the wheel! Unfortunately, pick-up trucks aren’t as popular in the UK as they are iin the US (yet!) so these are quite expensive - even if I could find one that is suitably sized.
Using google serch, I did find quite a few children’s beds with slides, though
