Okay I ordered the xCarve but did not order the wasteboard. Upon arrival I noticed that the wasteboard should have many holes on it. Obviously mine was just going to be a piece of plywood. How can I make this work without having the pre-drilled holes on my plywood?
The holes are for clamping only.
They aren’t all required.
Only like 6 holes in the stock wasteboard are used to hold the wasteboard down to the extrusions.
So then I should be able to assemble the frame and place it on top of a piece plywood and just make the holes to anchor the frame to the board, correct?
Basically you can assemble everything and after it is all squared up you can have the Xcarve make the holes for you. You can purchase M5 or M6 inserts on ebay etc.
I bought a piece of better quality interior veneer plywood as I’m not a fan of mdf. On saw horses, I laid out a grid of holes for threaded inserts and drilled them. These 1/4-20 inserts are used for boat building. They are a bit taller than the plywood, so I stuck a fender washer under it first.
In retrospect, I wish I had about 50 % more holes closer together. The lower depth of the X carve axes makes the clamping situation a whole new ball game. I still use double sided duct tape a lot of the time, as my clamps are too tall. I did make a set of wooden ones like Inventables sells using the X carve, but I clamp 2" thick stock, so a different iteration is necessary.
I use MDF and just drill a pilot hole and use grabber screws where needed. After a few cuts, I have most of the holes I need due to mostly similar materials being cut. If I ever need to cut something else, I just drill new holes. It doesn’t need to be over complicated. Lots of holes and inserts are nice, but far from a necessity.
Okay I did not order the waste board. Now I have come to find out that the screws that hold down the framing to the waste board are not in my kit. So now I don’t have the screws with the flat nuts to hold down the framing to my plywood. What screws did you guys use to lock down the frame to the plywood?
short M5 types with the internal spring loaded nuts. I had some 10mm ones here, but had to counterbore the plywood to fit them. I found it helped to have extra parts around when I was messing with the shapeoko2.
I think I will just go buy some screws. It says that it takes 12mm screws but even those seem too short with the plywood. I am just going to get longer screws that will not have to be counter sunk as much. The 12mm screws will have to be counter sunk more than halfway on the 3/4" plywood.
I seem to be missing the nylon lock nut for the Drag Chain Bracket (30265-08
Nylon Insert Lock Nut M4). Have any of you had this happen to you? The screw that it calls for the Drag Chain Bracket seems a bit small. It concerns me. The video does not say what size screw goes there.
Okay I finally got it assembled. I have these left over but do not know where they go. Any ideas?
Thanks
The grounding stuff may be for the dust collection accessory if you ordered it. Static builds up when dust moves through plastic pipe and can cause an explosion.
The collet adapter is to use a narrower shanked bit in your collet…1/8 fitting into 1/4 perhaps?
Not sure about the two nuts.
The nuts are still included to hold one of the limit switches but the holes it installs to are threaded now. I ran into this too this weekend.
The two nuts are used in the homing switch assembly instructions.
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Yes, mine has threaded holes.
Yeah I put mine on when the instructions said to, easily missed I’m guessing because why would you need them? But I forgot to tighten them with a tool and they both fell off during the test cut, lol.
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