I originally upgraded my SO2 from a 500x500 to a 1000x1000 using the two extrusion gantry configuration. This leaves a slight gap between the two extrusions and even with bolts and spacers this setup twists appreciably and I’m curious if there is a reasonable upgrade path to put a solid beam in there without changing all of the z-axis plates, rollers, etc…
There’s “Wide Makerslide” from Inventables, but I don’t know if it’s better than the home-grown solution of either a pair of angle extrusions or a T extrusion (or a pair of T extrusions?) in-between the two pieces of MakerSlide.
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You might get some better traction here: https://forum.shapeoko.com/
I think you could pull some flush connectors from mcmaster:
Look at the butt connectors, if you could get maybe two of those to sit on spots where they dont interfere with the machine, I think that should add some extra rigidity.
Edit:
Also this might be helpful: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQJKxtc8bf4
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Possible on the other forums I guess. I got lost with the whole Inventables / Carbide / Shapeoko thing as I built this machine when there was only the one company and one forum so I came to where my account was still active and as I saw the Shapeoko tag I figured I’d start here 
That said you guys have been plenty helpful so far so it was worth a shot. I’ll take a look at that YT video and see if there is anything I can glean from that.
Those butt connectors go the wrong way. The make slides are sandwiched back to back to give a wide profile. I can get a picture but it looks exactly like the x-carve in the video since from what I can tell they are exactly the same machine with different color maker slides.
c.f., the Wiki section:
https://wiki.shapeoko.com/index.php/Upgrade_Overview#Gantry_rigidity
I’m afraid some relevant pages were deleted recently (see the logs) — the ideal of course would be an I beam exactly as tall and wide in the middle to fit between the two extrusions, but a pair of T extrusions would be a close second (maybe they could overlap?)
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Looks like the I-Beam solution from that video may help considerably. I’ll have to give that a try.
I forgot about the SO wiki. I think I even had some original content out there at one point but I’ll have to do some digging just to reminisce Maybe I’ll find some other good nuggets that have been added over the last few years.
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