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There’s about .005" of interference between the M5 threads and the gap in the x-axis makerslides. I just used a paint stir stick to open the gap a bit when inserting the bolts (didn’t loosen or disassemble anything, just moved the carriage away). It doesn’t take much force to open the gap enough. I like the snug fit. I clamped the makerslides together firmly at each bolt when tightening the nuts. The threads of the M5 seem to cut into the makerslides a few thousandths, leaving a snug and well aligned fit.
Supporting the weight of the router while tightening the bolts does sound like a good idea.
Received my 0.3mm washers today so started making up the steel bar I’ll use as washers on the top of the MS and nuts (tapped holes) underneath the MS.
I think the chuck in my drill press is a bit eccentric so the holes drilled were not exactly on the mark. This doesn’t matter for the 20mm bar on the top as I can drill out the holes a bit but for the 32mm bar underneath, it’s critical that the holes line up properly. I’ll remake the 32mm bar with the threaded holes using the X2 mini mill, I know it’s accurate. Just as well I bought a few metres of each size steel.
This was such a simple fix for such a production killing problem. I fortunately had some bolts laying around that were the perfect size. I’ve only ran a single test cut but seems far to be much more ridged. I’ll report back after some bigger projects.
Decided to go with whatever was in reach in the home shop. (6) 8/32 x 2" screws through .2" acrylic pieces 8" long. Really tightened up and introduced me to many ways to true the machine I didn’t want to know!! Turned 30 minutes into a couple hours of exploration…
I did it for my 500x500 for aluminum milling and have been able to almost double my cutting speed without chatter. It is very much a good mod for even the smaller mills.
Can anyone recommend from the nuts and bolts (Can get the washers here locally) sold here on inventables store to use for this mod ? Reason is that all the wonderful sizes and lengths of bolts and nuts are vary scarce here in Ecuador. Im about to order the mount for the DWP611 so might as well get the bolts on here too.
Yes, you will want the mod for the 611, from what I hear and have seen on youtube (my machine will be arriving over the next few days, but I’ve invested a lot of time learning everything there is to know about the X-carve). I bought some of the 50mm socket head cap screws, because of this: http://www.buildlog.net/documents/b17022_rev_3.pdf and the fact that it will probably take about 10mm for both washers and a nylock nut to fit onto the bolt. I did buy some of the 10mm zinc oxide washers, which I am hoping will do the job. Fortunately there is a thoroughly stocked hardware store a block from my house that I should be able to get larger area washers at moment’s notice if need be.
For the nuts I just added two packs of the M5 nylon lock nuts, aka ‘nylock’ nuts, which I will also be using to keep my eccentric nuts on my vwheels from moving about. I bought 20 of those (two packs of ten) to use on both the X axis stiffening mod, and to keep all my V-wheel eccentric nuts from unscrewing themselves.
Yep, I made the secondary waste board on the X-Carve. When I need something to be spot on, I bolt this down with the 5 bigger countersunk holes and surface it. When I made the board I surfaced it and engraved the lines so that if I surface it a few times the lines still show up. Just filled the lines with a sharpie. Works great.
I worked out that I need to fit thinner washers to the X carriage v-wheels to get everything to line up properly.
The internal dimension of the X carriage is 57.15mm, one v-wheel is 11mm (1/2 the dimension of two v-wheels), two Makerslides are 40mm and my M5 bolt measure at 4.86mm. This leaves a difference of 1.29mm. Divide this by 2 (for the 2 washers) means each washer needs to be .645mm, the standard washers are 1mm. As I couldn’t get washers of exactly the correct size. I went with 2 x .3mm washers as a replacement for the 1mm ones. I figured a difference of .045mm is not going to cause a problem
M5’s wouldn’t drop straight in for me. The thread’s caught on the lip of the MS. I just used my cordless drill to run them down through, they basically “threaded”. I had no issues related to doing that.
I would have preferred to get a piece of 5mm steel ground to size but the wallet wouldn’t let me. $10 for a handful of M5 bolts and some drilled and threaded steel bar worked Ok for me.
