I’ve seen those miscellaneous parts on eBay before. The handful of the ones I looked at have been pretty forthcoming stating that they were parts recovered from lost mail or purchased as miscellaneous warehouse lots.
I was outbid on a set of Pro end plates recently, was that you, Eric? haha
I too have watched those listings on eBay, wondering if the bolt hole pattern are the same on the pro and SO3 extrusions.
They might be perfect for a SO3 rail/ballscrew upgrade project.
Well, something has to happen to the vast quantity of goods that UPS and FedEx incompetently fail to deliver…
My recent Pro XXL purchase, the box was damaged and the end caps were missing. C3d replaced them. This was 3 months ago…
I’d worry about the heights working without a hybrid table. Let me know if you need any measurements!
@CNCInspiration These were from an XL and most on ebay seem to be as well. Maybe the XL box has them packed on the end of the box?
@BrokenEndmill I’m a buy it now kinda guy 
If you don’t mind me asking how much are these plates going for?
Someone might be making these plates and selling them as it’s a simple task to clone them. If there is a market for them someone will get into it. There are So3 clones from china floating around.
Also CncInspiration might have uncovered a shipping company conspiracy where an employee at the shipping company Carbide ships through selectively damages a shipment here and there snagging parts knowing several machines flow through it every month. I’m curious what the number of shipments Carbide sends out that are damaged or have parts go missing.
Thieves are clever these days so nothing is out of the realm of possibilities when it comes to valuable goods.
About $130 after tax/ship (which is a pretty great deal considering the bitsetter is $120 for the 4). These are definitely authentic, as they come in a real Carbide 3D box, have the signed card that comes in every box of the Shapeoko 4 steps, and include the real bitsetter and limit switch. I don’t think the Pro bitsetter is an off the shelf thing, it would be more of a thing for someone to clone it for this purpose. Plus stock on ebay is pretty limited. This seller definitely had more than one because the photos of the box are different than mine. Mine says ‘Shapoeko Pro XL Plates’ on it. Here’s the listing: Carbide 3D Shapeoko Pro End Plates Black | eBay
Well at least you got a good deal with the plates having the bitsetter included. There is room for ball screw mounting although you will have to take the plates back off to machine them but you do have the stock plates so I guess it’s not too big of a deal should you got that far. Who knows maybe next year a HDM control board might pop up allowing you to step up to 36v high torque steppers.
My future road map is to add ATC and a Masso to the HDM but that is only if everything goes to plan and this year things keep falling apart on me so fingers crossed next year doesn’t mirror this one.
Your machine is looking good!
Tapping Fluid is your friend, even in aluminum.
It really makes a difference.
Tap Magic has a formula for Aluminum but I believe some of their other formulas do Aluminum too if you can’t find a small bottle of the Aluminum.
There are other brands but haven’t used them.
Also make sure to brush off the aluminum bits on the tap before starting another hole or if a deep hole you might do that at mid point. A chip brush works great and are fairly cheep.
For a blind hole you can screw the tap out and blow out the chips with a can of air or compressor then continue tapping.
If you have a blind hole but not a bottom tap drill a bit deeper if you can.
Like one other poster said, go a bit then back off a turn or two and then go forward.
Thanks,
Jeffery
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