First I added the TBD riser and stiffener kit. Then the full Xcarve upgrade kit from Inventables; 9mm belts, larger steppers, Z-axis, and dust sheilds. I wanted to keep my aluminum stiffeners from TBD so I cut up the acrylic ones from Inventables to be able to use them both.Traded the MDF wasteboard out for a .5" aluminum plate with T-Track and easily changeable MDF runners. Ditched the Dewalt 611 for a Makita rf1101. Gained the ability to run .5" bits, much slower rpms, and 1 additional horsepower. Added the stepper covers w/belt brushes and the V7 dust boot with 4" port from PWNCNC. Going to paint the blue Makita top red soon… got a thing goin if you hadnt noticed haha
Love the red color! Does the 4" dust port help to keep your bit any cooler?
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Assuming you have adequate dust collection I don’t think what size port would effect the cooling of the bit very much. Correct chip load, rpm, depth of cut etc would far more greatly effect temps. It does remove dust and chips nicely though.
tthanks for the quick reply. did you have to mount it to the 4 screw plate on the x carve? There is one at avidcnc.com with a mounting plate (i think)
forgive the flailing i will claim senior citizen status
I designed then had laser cut qty 2 1/4" aluminum plates that I could attach new spindle mount to then mount the plates to the upgraded Z. The .5" total thickness of the 2 plates allowed for the top of the RF1101 router clearance. I got the spindle mount off Aliexpress for $10. The avid one is alot more and on back order.
I would be totally interested in the belt brushes and stepper covers….
Links?
Looks great.
How did you do the wasteboard? Great idea.
I am extremely interested in the wasteboard idea!
The dust boot and stepper covers I got from https://pwncnc.com/. You can choose what colors and his turn around time was better than stated.
The aluminum plate I first laid out what I wanted in fusion 360. Got a quote from https://criticallaser.com/ which is an hour south of me. I then order .5" ATP-5 Plate from Midwest Steel and Aluminum | Buy Metal Online | Online Metal Supplier and had it dropped shipped to Critical. Went and picked it up when they were finished cutting it. Tapped a bunch of m5 holes. Mounted the t-tracks and mdf runners with hardware I got from a local nut & bolt supply house.
Is there anyway that i can get the drawing of the makita spindle mount that you came up with?
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I purchased the spindle mount on alibaba. I then drew up a plate that I could bolt the mount on to that then mounted to the z carriage and had it laser cut. Pretty simple.
Do you have a build vid/post about that waste board? I love that idea and was thinking of doing this on mine since i’ll need to replace my wasteboard in the near future
I know you were asking Jeremiah about his in particular, but in case you werent aware, theres a modular wasteboard upgrade option that inventabels sells, its less slats and less t track, but its also a premade kit with a full set of instructions…
Yea i saw that but i feel like i can make it much cheaper, just some t track and mdf, $200 is a bit steep for that imo
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The major difference between mine and the new inventables one is my waste board sits on top of a .5" aluminum plate. My machine is much stiffer than the stock one and can handle a lot more.
Johnathan I didnt make a video or anything like that. I first drew up the aluminum plate in fusion 360. I sourced the plate material from midwest steel supply and drop shipped it to a local lazer cutter. If you are looking for inexpensive this is not the route. All in all the new wasteboard totaled somewhere around $600
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Thats true, the kit includes some additional 2020 extrusions to support the individual pieces of the modular wasteboard, and thats the price we pay for convnience.
You could take the parts list, source your own extrusions and hardware and could save about $50 by spending an hour or so sourcing all of the materials and then have to track and receive the idividual parts from multiple vendors… it is an option though…
Here’s the cut file for the mdf part of the modular wasteboard in case you wanted to self source all of the brackets and copy the inventables design…
I really do like Jeremiah’s though, I have a bunch of T track and have been trying to convince myself to cut them up to do the narrow slats on my cnc (not an xcarve) as well 
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Are you saying here you have a .5" aluminum plate that size of your cutting area under your waste board?
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thats exactly what I am saying. if you look at the pictures at the top of the thread it is visible.
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I have a 3/4 aluminum plate. 1/2 would have sufficed. Made a massive difference. Machine was never move true or rigid.
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Does anyone have a suggestion for an alternative to an aluminum plate that doesn’t cost a small fortune? $500 is not in my price range unfortunately… I’m looking at a 2nd hand piece of granite for about $150 for example… Any thoughts?
how would you plan to attach anything to it? like wasteboards, clamps, work piece, etc? Im not 100% certain but I believe granite would just chip and break.