Turn the spindle 90°, parallel to the Y axis?

[QCDvacuum (Jeff Cable)]

@samsongli

I don’t have the HDZ mount, mine is the standard ShapeOKO4 mount, maybe it is called Z plus? I am using a single tooth thread mill to cut the thread on some stock and quite happy with the result.

If it looks like this, it is the Z plus.

Shapeoko Z-Plus

When I installed my spindle on the HDZ, I got an immediate increase in Z height from the old Z plus (about 94mm) to the new spindle and HDZ (about 125mm) and the HDZ is a far more sturdy Z axis and a very worthwhile upograde if you are considering keeping the SO4. After my upgrades to my SO3, I decided the HDZ was a worthwhile investment and it gave my machine a completely new lease of life. I would not part with it now.

New lease of life for my standard sized SO3

I purchased my SO3 in July 2020 and took delivery at the beginning of October of the same year. My teething troubles were related to assembly and insufficient knowledge to improve on how I was managing to use the machine. Eventually, I understood that an improvement in workholding could improve my work pieces. I created a sea of holes with M6 inserts in MDF. It worked well enough for a while but the inserts started to work loose and I could not manage sufficiently accurate work to undertake two …