Someone tell me why this is a terrible idea. Trying to get more Z clearance

You know he wants to know if you are willing to accept less precision, accuracy and speed.

I guess that would need to be quantified, maybe the loss in precision/accuracy may be minimal and I’m not sure why the speed would be affected.

Also supply chain management is probably an issue, it’s a lot more cost effective to buy the rails cut in a high quantity than a reduced quantity the difference between 100 and 500 units can be astounding on a per part cost. So if you know what you’d sell, you can figure out what the cost is and if we’d pay for it… and so on…

Some one should just poll the forms with new ideas. " Would you buy this…?" “What would you spend?” The 7 or 8 of us in this thread (that’s metric @RichCournoyer :stuck_out_tongue:) are probably not enough.

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FWIW, we did a poll on upgrade sizes ages ago:

https://forum.shapeoko.com/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=5652&p=48749

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Unsurprisingly, it looks like being able to fit half sheets (48x48) and full sheets (48x96) of stock were the most popular choices in that poll.

It’s easy to say that you want something when you don’t know how much it costs.

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I’m surprised with the results! half sheet size !!! If people looking for that large machine why they choice a desktop one ! I think it’s not easy to go large For many reasons the main reason indeed will be the cash !

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I’d just love to know what the cost for a half sheet would be… my bet is $1500+ for just the rails. I mean don’t get me wrong I made a horrible mistake upgrading to a XL not an XXL, but half a sheet pheewww…

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I suspect that answer is implied in:

https://carbide3d.com/blog/2020/shapeoko-development/

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@RichCournoyer - perhaps once you’ve mastered that, this could be your next challenge:
image

https://www.amazon.com/Router-Rotary-Table-Rotational-Self-Centering/dp/B06XSFNKCN

One can only dream…I actually did look at these…but there are a couple of reasons why that will never happen with this design. The belt drive does not have enough braking (magnetic field) strength. Good for light wood and laser work only…and since I cut metal about 90%…it’s not for me. Secondly we just don’t have enough Z clearance…

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Just make your Z extender plates extend a bit more!

But I don’t have any easy answers for the lack of retaining power. :frowning:

Look at how the 4th axis and height limitations were addressed here.

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If you’re only trying to get an additional ~15" of length (to make 48" instead of 33"), you could build a fixture to machine the ends one at a time. You really only need a way to accurately set a stop outside of your travel. I can think of several ways that could be done.

@Luke and Carbide.
I think that hazing and bit of clearance is important and much needed to the “pro-sumers”. I will also add that the machine in itself needs a stronger and squared frame.

@RichCournoyer, amazing work.
I noticed that your aluminium bed is not the full area of the base of your machine. Looking at the Nomad as a precedent, I was thinking that I would want to do the same (and then I noticed your photo) - see I am not crazy people.

What is the base of your machine currently made of, and how big is your aluminium table.

I DO have a full 1/2" thk (Black) Aluminum Bed (Table), but it isn’t flat enough for my needs (it had a 0.015" crater), so I bolted a 16" x 14" (0.022" thick) aluminum plate, and then meticulously, machined it flat within 0.0005".

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How in the world did you get 5 tenths across the entire surface? I’m so jealous :angry: After about 7 hours of tramming and cutting I’m down to the typical wash board pattern with a .001" height change /2"… Something is causing nod in my traming that I can’t get rid of. Honestly I’ve given up and I’m waiting for my HDZ, hope the “tram” feature fixes that!

Here is the secret. First my rails are within 0.001 (4- corners) parallel to the aluminum table (Everyone should have this, when you set up the machine), then I take 4 light finish cuts (in no particular order) X, Y, +45º, and -45º (at the same depth).

That’s it. I think I had a short video on my IG showing the results.

PS Most of the table is with in 0.0002" I had one small area (think baseball) that was 0.0005" high and another (same size) 0.0005" low

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HA, I think the person that was operating the equipment the day my XL kit was made might have had too much “cooling fluid” as nothing was square on any of the ends. I was able to salvage my Y rails on a Sharp mill… but the X was too long to get a good setup. Apparently I’m the only person that had this issue though, so my X rail is full of shim stock and bits of finger where it meets the side plates.

Maybe I was just unfairly blaming the X rail all this time. I’ll have to take another swing at it I only did X,Y no 45’s, and I never measured my corners… Thanks for the PRO Tip!

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