A 60 minute x-axis stiffening mod to reduce chatter

If you loosen the screws holding the endplates to the makerslide, you should be able to wiggle the makerslides around a little bit.

Unless you are going to change to 9mm belts, the 60 min mod (bar top and bottom) is so quick and easy to do, I highly suggest giving it a try first. I think you will be surprised with the level of stiffening. Its also easy enough to remove, with no damage, if you then want to try the bar in the middle approach and or change to 9mm belts in the future.

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I am curious: Are you guys in need to stiffen the X Axis because it flexes when cutting hard materials like metal?

I mean, for cutting Acrylic, PVC, and Wood… the de-facto setup is fine or you also encounter problems?

(I am half way assembling my x-carve, but If I need to do a mod like this beforehand, would be nice to know).

Sorry if I am a bit late in the discussion.

Thanks!

Advice that I have been given on this forum, by knowledgeable people, has always been to do the stiffening mods on all axes (X, Y and Z), as you assemble the X Carve. There are threads and videos showing all of them. Just search the forum.

Just out of curiosity, besides this mod of X axis, what other 2 mods did you implement for Y an Z? Can you point me to them? :).

Thanks

I also did these y-axis braces (see pic in earlier post on this thread): MWP Y Axis Braces | Inventables

I have not done the z-axis yet, but I think this is the one folks are talking about: A mod to make z-azix more stiff and easier to adjust

I just got a chance to test my 3/16" steel bar from Lowes, turns out it’s 5/16 thick (per the mic) despite being labeled at 3/16…

I’m going to take the mic over and find one that’s accurate and try the “bar in the middle” X mod again.

These guys have very decent prices on 4mm * 40mm * 6 foot aluminum flat bars. I bought one for $25 (including shipping). Being slightly smaller than the ~4.1mm optimal spacing means it’s easy to add something to shore up the difference (rather than the 3/16ths bar [4.7625 mm] being slightly too big). Haven’t installed it yet, but I’m hopeful it’ll work out nicely.

Anyone have a trick for getting these freaking stickers off the aluminum Everbilt bar stock??

wd-40 works pretty good on stickers

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Actually I had pretty good luck with a Clorox cleaning wipe and an eraser, back and forth for a few minutes. Got all the residue off.

On a more important note, I have my aluminum bars cut (I tested it, you CAN insert a full length underside 0.75" wide piece of 1/8th inch aluminum on a 500mm X Carve) and I’m about to drill the holes. Have all of my 4mm screws, washers, lock nuts, and locktite ready. I just wanted to make sure that 0.25" offset for the top bar was ok for clearance on the GT2 hardware? @PhilJohnson, I saw you were planning to do 0.21875" offset, why is that?

Yes, but did you choose that offset because you found that 0.25" wasn’t enough clearance?

I guess when a post is old enough you can’t edit it…

Don’t buy the M4 screws I linked to on ebay. They worked ok for my mod, which I believe helped the rigidity of my makerslides greatly, but the socket cap heads are too tall to use with washers. I used washers on the underside, but they interfered with the V wheel assemblies inside the gantry with washers on the top side. Definitely look for screws with a lower profile head for this mod so you can use washers.

I think the consensus for this mod is that M4 is the way to go. My M4s slid in between the makerslides pretty easily, but I could feel there wasn’t much room. I’d go as far as to describe it as a “slop fit,” because the tolerance on drilling your holes down the centerline from human error artificially inflates the necessary gap to get the screws through. I had to do the mod twice because my first attempt was with some clamps and a hand drill.10 thou left and right of the centerline here and there was enough to make it impossible to pass all 10 M4 screws through on my 500mm machine. So, I bought more aluminum bars and used the drill press at work and deburred, then it all went together. I’d be hesitant to do M5s unless I had another larger CNC to mill the holes in the bar stock perfectly.

Hi guys, I am new to this forum but couldn’t help replying to the thread as I have tried both the M4 bolts and washers between maker slides and the drilling x gantry and fitting plate between. By far the most effective is the bolts through the maker slide!

If you intend to drill the maker slides you must make sure you have the drill in the right place to avoid the channels that the end plate screws mount into. Also when reassembling make sure everything has been cleaned up and there are no burrs anywhere. Make sure to pre-thread the right hand Y stepper motor cable before inserting bolts. Also I used 2 pieces of 2mm x 40mm x 1000mm aluminium from B&Q (UK Home Depot’ish). I did not have to cut the plates at all and everything just dropped in. I used these bolts and nuts from Screwfix (UK tool supplier) unfortunately supplied in packs of 50!!!

B&Q (diy.com)
Aluminium Panel (Plate) (L)1m (W)40mm (T)2mm Product code: 3232630604359

Screwfix (screwfix.com)
JOINT CONNECTOR NUTS M6 X 17MM 50 PACK (83521) £4.99
JOINT CONNECTOR BOLTS BZP M6 X 35MM 50 PACK (87106) £2.59

The heads of these connectors are flat and miss all important bits of X carriage.

Total time for conversion/upgrade <60 minutes. Result is a super stiff Z axis - result!

Happy to advise if required but super easy to do.

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Hello,

can someone give me the dimension of the braces (with holes position) in mm? I have disassembled the machine to make some upgrade and I have a friend that can cut me those, but need the exact dimension.

Thanks

I’ve finally got around to doing the 30 minute X axis - or so I thought, turns out I’ve actually done the 60 minute mod :grinning:

Top piece is 12mm x 3mm aluminium, drilled and countersunk for M5 screws. Bottom piece is 32mm x 3mm mild steel bar, drilled and tapped for M5 screws. The most difficult part was making sure that the holes, especially the tapped one, were in perfect alignment so the Makerslides could clamp together nice and square.

Not sure about the 60 minutes, took me the best part of yesterday to drill/tap the two bars!:smirk:

http://imgur.com/jjJ1tZS

http://imgur.com/0N0obsf

http://imgur.com/EpTa8gi


More images of the job here. http://imgur.com/a/Re4tN

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Safety Alert! Or perhaps idiot alert might be more accurate.

Prior to painting the 32mm steel bar silver (to match the Makerslide), I thought I’d remove the mill scale you get on hot rolled mild steel. The standard way to do this is with hydrochloric acid as it’s very hard surface that takes some serious effort to sand/grind off. OK maybe the lazy rather than standard way
I got an old plastic bucket from the shed and put it outside well away from the building, rubber gloves and safety glasses (full face helmet style), old clothes, a container of water - just in case. Gently poured a little acid on the bar over the bucket and waited for the magic to happen.

I should have checked the bucket more carefully, turns out it contained about 50mm of fine, aluminium fillings which generated lots of unexpected hydrogen? gas, smoke and heat. Got a good lungful of fumes before I managed to pour enough water in to stop the reaction.
Next time, it’s the grinder…

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What do you folks think of the upgrade?
The wide maker slide?

It would be great to have someone measure and post the deflection for each :wink: