Came out great @DanStory
This is basically the machine I wish C3D offered.
With the option between the two new Z offerings.
Note: Most likely at some point this year intend to purchase a stock size Shapeoko with the Z Plus.
Ideally not have to essentially replicate this effort with the linear rails and toss stock wheel parts to the bin. 
I agree entirely. These are the details that keep me from doing this too. Trying to align details over 500mm within 0.1mm tolerances seems super difficult to me.
Dan, I see that you placed the Y steppers on the outside, did you gain Y travel? A few months ago, I had suggested that as a way to modify the Shapeoko to inrease Y travel by a few inches.
I plan on providing the designs (Sorry :)), but I hope people understand, I was gonna charge a few bucks for it, as lot of time and money went into it. Changed my mind.
Also… is it weird that I used inch measurements with metric hardware? 
They started at 1/2" and I surfaced them down to 3/8" with a flycutter on the mini mill to help with flatness/parallelism. I was gonna try 3/8" ATP-5 later, to reduce operations and setups but we’ll see (as <=0.5" is spec’d at 0.005" flatness).
2-sided ground flat 6061 is a little too pricey.
This would be one of the design mistakes I made for the X-plate, after I had the Y rails and plates I kind of rushed on the X, I was too excited. I have widen it in my design since then, but have yet to take a big sigh and remount the rail with a wider stance. At that point I might do an epoxy fill, I did skip that I filled the extrusions with sand+pea gravel mix, this increased the weight of each by ~10 lbs.
It is not for the faint of heart, that’s for sure. Y rails I mounted both to spec of my drawing, I scribe’d a line for the rail center using layout dye. Then clamping the rail on, aligned the two ends from extrusion face to rail edge using a digital caliper, referencing my drawing measurements. I center punched the two edge mounts, using the scribe’d line as validating center alignment (I didn’t capture this with a photo). I drilled and tapped those two holes, and used them as a mount for the rail again to center pouch the rest. Firstly I should have used a transfer punch (didn’t have one at the time), second I’m a gorilla with M4 tapping I have found. I didn’t do proper chip clearing and chowder’d several threads or cut very weak threads. Thank god for E-Z Lok thread inserts.
I ended up purchasing transfer punches and a M4 thread form tap afterwards for the X rails, that worked so much better (G-Wizard has a nice reference on drill sizes for both cut taps and form taps). Also got spiral flute taps up to M8 for the other tapping I had to do on the plates themselves, highly recommend vs hand taps. Basically, the lesson here is to have the proper tools up front (and don’t be a gorilla) 
When it came to alignment, most of it wasn’t difficult. I first aligned the rails to the extrusions, checking parallelism to the side. I also double checked height deviation, which was <0.0005", both on the face of the extrusion and from bottom to carriage block using a cheap little grade B granite surface.
Aligning the two Y rails to be parallel was a little harder, but mostly cause of the span. The most PTA part is the height parallelism of the two extrusions AND the bed. Because there is sag in the bed (which I tried to mitigate) and it being the typical 6061 plate, it isn’t very flat itself. I basically used a surface height gauge, going back and forth on the front two corners then the back two, using a dead blow and machinist jack for many hours to get them as close as possible. Eventually I will replace the bed with a thicker ATP-5 plate for better flatness.
Yeah, I was gonna get the BeaverCNC HD Kit eventually, instead of going this route but that is no longer offered 
That is the TSM from Vers.by, I actually need to hook it back up.
I designed the plates to support both, mount as stock (steppers in the back) or flipped like I did. Honestly, there is no reason to have them in stock mounting position, as the X-rails push the Z further forward. So you regain some of the Y workspace you lost. I basically made their length as skinny as possible, I also incorporated to be as short as possible, to clear the HDZ mounting ears. Just have to watch out with the front frame now
Yeah, with the mounting slop, inaccuracy in steel frame, extrusion cuts, bed sag and having the required tools, it isn’t a simple task. I actually had binding issues with my X axis and not Y, but that is more due to one bad carriage block. The mounting face was not ground to spec which required shimming between it and the plate, and it did not roll smoothly. I rebuilt and cleaned it, but still not great. I will just have to bite the bullet and replace it.
After much internal debate, evaluating options, store platforms, my life ( 
), I decided to open the designs to the public freely. Don’t hate me Julien 
Feel this will give me less burden, with my perfectionism nature and limited time as is. I don’t think I’ll ever get them to the point where they are “flawless” and I got other projects I want to do 
Note, I have only uploaded the Y-Axis model, as that I feel is in a finalized state. I plan on making and testing my design changes for the X-Axis next week and have those uploaded too.
Oh my. How do I unsee this thread. There goes my plan to reduce the length of my Todo list
But, 
Good idea! Was thinking CutRocket too, though wouldn’t have the CAM ops, at least for the time being (they are still very in flux and might be aggressive for stock SO3 
).
Merlin’s beard!! I have seen things you people would not believe, attacked ships in fire off the shoulder of Orion, I have seen sea beams glitter in the darkness off ten housergates all these moments will be lost in time after seeing so3 on hiwin rails (little nod to blade runner) nice BA nice!
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Thanks @WillAdams for unlocking the thread, I just didn’t quite beat the time limit
There hasn’t been much attention on the X-Axis, mainly because I was working on fixes from the rush job.
I pretty much redesigned the whole X adapter plate at this point, originally it was fairly simple rectangle piece with a large block to act as a spacer for the stepper motor and belt idlers, as I milled it manually. I never actually milled the spacer block out of aluminum and just continued to use my 3D print prototype with temporary (oversized) hardware.
From the design flaws of that first attempt and seeing other people’s implementations; I widen the stance of the two rails, added bumpers that act as mounting point for limit switch(es) and protecting the bearing blocks from colliding with the Y-Axis plates. I also reduced additional hardware required by redesigning the motor spacer and mounting.
The design has not been verified yet, I am working on milling them out today, and reassembly tomorrow. I will have to remount the linear rails due to the wider stance but it will be better in the end.
Very much enjoying this thread. I would love to do this.
Just checked your instagram … very impressive work.
May I ask what is the green tape that you use to hold down the Aluminum? Seems to hold on great. Havent found anything like it.
Also, seems you using 1 flute cutter. What is the advantage vs 3 or 4 flute … do you run them faster? Slower, … ?
Sorry for the questions but I am learning and you seem to know your stuff!
Thanks.
NYC CNC popularized the tape+glue method, originally using blue masking tape. They since evolved to using “Power Coating” tape (aka Polyester [PET]
tape), that they mention in one of their videos. It is less susceptible to liquids (i.e mist coolant) and heat
Winston breaks it down best on Machining Aluminum with the 278-Z on the Shapeoko
What can I say, I’m a day behind
Finished milling the parts, made a human error on the last one but it is still functional. Accidentally had the wrong g-code loaded, what happens when they look so similar and are named too similar
I am using ATP-5 for the adapter plate this time, want to verify if I can get away with its flatness spec instead of having to manually mill 6061 for flatness and parallelism.
Just waiting on some longer M4 screws than the ones I have at hand, but should be about it.
Dan, great, thanks for getting back to me. Super!
I think you mean “powder coating tape” as it’s often used to mask for powder coating. It uses a silicone PSA that resists alcohols much better than the rubber-based PSAs used in masking tapes.
Ended up remaking that last part, the motor mount. I added some counterbores so I could use hardware on hand too.
To show the gist of assembly, you would attach the the HDZ via M5 screws where the V-Wheels used to be, plus now also the original x-axis stepper mounting location.
Next you place the spacer on (loose), it has clearance holes for the M5 screw heads from the previous step, plus three M4 clearance holes for the mounting the spacer and motor mount onto the adapter plate in the next step.
You’d then place the motor mount on top, and mount with 3 M4 screws. You also mount the OEM belt idler pulleys in the lower M8 threaded holes (not shown cause they are still on my Shapeoko ;-))
And lastly mount the stepper motor.
Now I just need to remount the linear rails to the new spacing spec and make sure everything fits and clearances met. Once I verify this I’ll upload these additional designs to Thingiverse along with the other CAD sharing sites mentioned before to complete the project.
