Should i upgrade to Aluminum Bed

[LiamN (Liam Newcombe)]

There’s a good thread here with lots of folks discussion of aluminium base for the machine;

Aluminum Base for XXL

[cncbase][engineturning base] I picked up the new base for my XXL yesterday. The finish on the MIC 6 was like a mirror . I could just imagine how the shop lights would reflect back at me. So today decided to engine turn a pattern into the base. Not to sure that I would want that as a everyday job!!. Tomorrow I will be pulling the old base off and installing it!!

There is certainly sag and deflection in the baseboard of the XXL, I measured the amount of deflection (up and down) in my spoilboard and decided to bolt the whole machine down to a rigid base;

Aluminium base waste board question

So, Here’s what I ended up doing to my XXL. Beware - warranty voiding drilling involved… Carbide3D has a compromise to make between weight, manufacturing cost, shipping cost, difficulty of assembly etc. and outright rigidity. They also need to ship something that is maximally tolerant of being installed in unpredictable conditions. In the case of the XXL and me having a flat surface for installation, I think the compromise is large enough that it’s worth doing something extra as a user, but t…