I did this one when it was first suggested, several months back. It works extremely well!
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I swear I almost bought today press drill to do steel plate mod others did. This is brilliant way of doing this !
Saved me tons of money for sure !
Come on, go get that drill press 
I think I’ll give this one a try, it’s a lot cheaper than getting a piece of steel ground to the right size and no drilling required.
I love this idea and I have been ready to upgrade to a Dewalt 611 but this mod had been putting me off of the upgrade for lack of drill press and I was about to buy one of them as well to be sure the holes were done right. If this works just as well then it will save me a big headache of tearing the machine apart and potentially screwing it up. Thanks! I wish they would sell a reinforced axis now that the standard spindle is the 611.
To be honest, I found the m5 bolt to be just a hair too big. I really would have to force it between the makerslides, and I felt like that was spreading them out just a hair, which is exactly what I don’t want. I found that some 3/16" machine screws with washers and nuts fit much more cleanly. Kinda makes sense, because everyone else’s steel bar mod uses 3/16" steel stock as well.
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From previous threads/posts, the gap between makerslides is 4.75mm - based on the CAD drawings. I measure an M5 bolt as being 4.86mm. That’s a difference of only 0.11mm. Not sure if I’d worry too much about that.
I agree with @AlanDavis, yesterday I cut 2 pieces of 0.093 thick 1 1/1/2" X 38" acrylic and put them between the makerslides and used furniture bolts like the others to hold it together. It worked great and there is no more flex. I like what @MattWheeler has done here, it looks easier than what I did.
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I loosened the bolts that hold the slides to the end plates, dropped an M5 in next to each end plate for temporary spacing, then placed the 5 M5 bolts with washers from the top, every 6.5 inches. I started in the middle, clamped the slides together, and tightened the 5 M5 bolts/washers. Then I removed the temporary M5 bolts near the end plates, and tightened the end-plate bolts.
From what I can tell, everything it lined up nicely.
-Kelly
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Just got done with mine this morning, worked like charm !
6-32 x 2 inch screws
On top nr 6 washer and nr 8 washer (anything wider wheels were pushing on X axis motor side)
On bottom side 1/8 by 1 in washers with 6-32 wing nuts.
Now Inventables stop slacking and add 5$ worth of bolts with your kits.
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It might flex under heavy stress, keeping bolt and nut big enough might give more rigidity. That bolt seems a little weak, especially the Phillips head. I’d rather to use 3/16" bolt with stronger nut and head.
I know its far from perfect. One thing for sure, I was able to flex the beam on router side easily with my hands before I’m not longer able to do that with 6 bolts in place.
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Thank you all for the original
mod and the variants. I ended up using eight #10-32 x 2" machine screws with round heads, and some #8 washers.
I chose that number because they came in packs of four. 
Installed before my first carve. Everything is working beautifully.
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Thanks for this idea! It took some time before I got around to it, but I finally stopped by the hardware store and picked up the supplies. Super simple, super cheap, super quick to do, and it made a noticeable difference in the stiffness of my gantry.
I put 10 of these across the gantry with a 90mm spacing and used nylon lock nuts and large washers to create mor of a T underneath.
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Has anyone encountered any issues with this mod? What are some benefits compared to the stiffening mods?
No issues (nothing’s come loose, for example), and on my machine at least, most of the remaining stiffness issues have to do with the Z axis now. Not sure it’s worth it for me to stiffen my X axis any further until I can fix Z first.
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There is a list of benefits for this mod at the bottom of the original post (top of this thread). Basically, the mod is fast, easy, cheap, light (good for fast cornering), and makes the X-axis far stiffer than the Z-axis.
Reorganizing the nuts and bolts on the z-axis stage really helped. It’s critical to be able to adjust the v-wheel axle holding force and the eccentric-nut position independently. I’m thinking about switching all the eccentric-nuts to eccentric-spacers, to make both axle-clamping-force and v-wheel position easier to adjust.
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I got some eccentric-spacers just for this reason… probably the next thing I’ll do to the machine.
@Rcannon95 Matt is right, the full list of benefits is up there. For me, the fact that I had virtually no down time on the machine, and there is a significant increase in stiffness to the point that other areas are the weak link are the key benefits.
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@MattWheeler
Hi Matt. I looked at your picture on the original post and I think I see what you are doing, but…
Would you mind explaining how to properly adjust the v-wheels and the eccentric nut? Also how to make the optimal router mount to v-wheel adjustment.
Thanks.