Looking to purchase mt first X-Carve. My question is can the X axis be increased to 3000mm ? if so how do you do it? Has anyone made this upgrade ?
I’m not sure they sell rails that long. And if they do you’ll need to make the Y axis the longer one. 3m of X span is practically impossible.
If you can’t find 3m rails, there are people that have bolted 2 rails together to form 1 long one. Results may vary. You’ll also need a good few Y rail supports.
Personally though, I don’t know if the Xcarve is the best way to go for the size you have in mind.
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in theory, yes… but I’d think you’d want to extend the Y axis instead of X… much easier to add supports to prevent bowing at such a long length…
what I’m not sure of is the availability of the same extrusion in 3m lengths. if they’re not available it might require a fair amount of modification (or butting ends together, but that can introduce errors). You’d also need longer belts, and at that length it may be hard to tension them properly, but I do believe they’re available.
an alternative would be just doing multiple cuts, moving the work piece for each section as you pass it through.
I think they used to sell makerslide in 1500 mm lengths back during the shapeoko2 era. Also open builds sells that bolt on rail in 1500mm lengths.
We sell 1800mm. I’ve seen someone pin them together and use supports along the span.
Have you ever built anything like this before?
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In theory one can extend the size as much as you’d like or have room for. You will loose some accuracy but depending on your carve requirement may still be well within that.
I would suggest going with wider, thicker and stronger belts for a 3000mm machine to reduce belt stretch.
Machines of this size are usually Rack & Pinion-based.
Tiling long work pieces are also possible as Nox mentioned.
Nice.
I’d add some JB Weld in between too just to make it 1 solid block. Maybe around the V rail too and the lightly sand until it is completely smooth.
Also, when joining, make sure the joints on the Y rails aren’t at the exact same spot. i.e. left rail 1200+1800 and right rail 1800+1200. That way the wheels don’t go over both joints simultaneously.
Do you guys still sell 1800mm?