Hi I am just about to purchase the 1000mm with the Dewalt 611 but I work mostly with 2-3" thick live edge Maple. Will I able to use this thickness of wood on the x carve?
There is about 2-1/2" between the lowest part on the X-carriage and the top of the standard wasteboard, so that’s standard.
There are modifications you can make to add a little bit of height, such as making custom endplates and Y-axis stiffeners that will raise it another 50mm or so, almost 2". You can do a forum search for tall endplates and terms like that to find the current discussions about them.
Thanks Robert the other thing I forgot to mention is that my mechanical abilities are great, but I am nervous as electrical and computers I can get by but I wouldn’t say I am knowledgeable.
No worries, once it’s running the job is part drawing, and part watching the new toy make shavings. I don’t know how well it will work with steel, but I cut Y-axis stiffeners out of 1/8" aluminum that work just fine. I imagine that the end plates (1/8" steel) could easily be replaced by 1/4" aluminum and be effectively the same, but the new plates could be cut at whatever height you wanted. It’s something I’ve been thinking about, but I don’t see a need to do it anytime soon.
I got to thinking that if you are consistently using wood of the same width, you could carve the extra 1/2" out of the wasteboard. It’s 3/4" MDF. I wouldn’t suggest it if you’re planning a variety of widths though, since it may subtract from the overall stability of the X-Carve.