Mine it’s alive too!
Another quick sign this morning in 1/2" cherry. I really like using the double sided tape for holding the piece down.
You don’t have to waste that much tape, just 4 equal pieces like inch and a half to 4 corners and one piece to center is enough. That’s what I’m doing for a long time. They’re expensive.
It is expensive tape. I’ll try it out. I was a little gun shy about not using enough tape as I tried some cheaper tape and had a piece of cherry come loose…never fun.
With that setup you could use five globs of hot glue. Cheaper
What kind of tape? Carpet tape is cheap, but maybe won’t hold and/or release well enough.
FYI, I use this double sided tape. It works pretty well. Super convenient to use too.
For holding down something irregular, (like rough saw wood), I use Roberts carpet tape. This tape is much thicker and holds well, and actually pretty easy to remove as well.
This is the tape I am using…it comes off perfectly clean with no residue of any kind and holds extremely well.
I still think that tape is best by far, but I did find one downside to using it. If I am make a through cut of the material the tape will really clog up the flutes on the bit. I was trying to avoid using tabs on some parts and it really affected how well the tool was able to cut.
I had some gunk on a bit from the tape once as well…I shot it with GooGone and hit it with a brass brush and it cleaned up quickly.
I made two more tall end plates today out of 1/4" aluminum, I dropped the bottom makerslide holes 20mm. I’ll do two more tomorrow and see how it works.
Here is one of the the new and improved Y-Axis plates and rails assembled with the newly cut supports added. The bottom hole on the supports will connect to the extrusion under the wasteboard. The other two supports are being cut now. This thing is solid as a rock.
That looks really good!
Can you make a new set of X end plates that allow for V-Wheels on both makerslides?
Keeping those aluminum chips contained is a real pain isn’t it!
I have already drawn up new plates just for that. I will be making those in the near future.
And as far as the aluminum chips…it goes everywhere…my wife asked where all the glitter came from…lol
For those that use V-Carve or Aspire and want to cut new plates, it is very simple to pull the original plates into v-carve to edit. Simply create a new file, set your material dimensions and use mm for the scale. Go to the PDF files of the drawings and import the PDF as vectors and the plates will be brought into the program at the correct scale. The PDF files are all located here:
The new endplates and X-axis rails are now installed. It is extremely solid; not a bit of flex in any direction. And for a size reference the wooden block in the last picture is a 6" x 6" x 3" hunk of walnut.
Can the old Z-axis even reach the spoil board now?
Nope
The 1/8" bit in the router gets to just under 1.25" from the board. This is temporary…more changes coming soon. Until then I’ll put a couple pieces of 3/4" MDF down as a temporary waste board.
So I must have missed a step. You made new Y axis end plates, did you also buy two more 1000mm rails?