Purchased my X-Carve a little while ago, and finally got around to assembling it this week. I had some upgrades planned, some of which worked out, some which haven’t yet.
The first was to upgrade the stepper motors to 269 oz, shielded cables, and better(?) belts (GT2-3M from Openbuilds). My first mistake was here… I got everything I needed, but I ordered pulleys with the wrong bore size. I toyed around with the idea of cutting off the pulleys on the supplies motors and still doing the belt upgrade, but I didn’t realize the shaft on the motors are round. I have the correct ones on order, but it’ll probably be an upgrade for later on down the road.
I also planned to use a spindle, so I ordered a different spindle mount and plate (and led light ring). The plate is a bit tall, though what I’m working with right now is thin enough it’s not really an issue, but it will be later on (only gives me about 40mm total travel above the work surface). I can still adjust the spindle height to offset this some temporarily, but the other issue it causes is that I’m unable to mount the dust shoe kit. I have a replacement plate designed, just deciding on what material to prototype it out of (open to suggestions).
I have an interesting situation where I don’t have a ton of space, and everything needs to be packed up nicely in a small space at times. For now, I’ve decided to mount the machine to a piece of plywood, which I’ve mounted to a portable miter saw stand, securing it with angled aluminum attached to the 20/20 extrusions on the base.
I’m sure I’ll think of more things I’ll want to do to it later.