New "Y" Maker Slide End Plates

Ok…I did it! Bugged me that I couldn’t fit a board any longer than my waist board was long. The Y plate v-wheels were only 1/8" from the surface. Couldn’t carve in the middle of a long board. Now I can! I made brackets (1/8" steel) and raised my end plates and Y maker slide 1.25". Now I have 1.375" of clearance from my waist board surface to the “Y” v-wheels.

I may still have to make my “Z” maker slide longer. The v-wheels come very close to falling off the grove on full down. I did drop my 611 as far as it will go, but still close. I am still planning on lengthening my “X” axis from 500mm to 700mm. This will now give me a cut area of 11.4" x 19.2". Should be a lot more versatile and still fit the cabinet and not take up any more room in my small shop. I think I am going to be a happy camper!

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I like it! Stupid question though, why didn’t you put the board along the Y axis?

I could have, but it’s visually challenging to cut something in that direction, for me anyway. Gives me a headache tilting my head that far to look at it. Plus the cabinet is usually up against the wall or something else. Just seems more natural this way I guess.

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I think same way. Any time I put long side to Y direction, it gives me uncomfortable feeling. Very good modification Jeff.

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Fair enough, plus, it expanded your cutting capacity. :smile:

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Don’t mention expanding to him, he’s already sorry choosing 500X500 machine. :tired_face:

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Yeah your right Allen. If I knew then what I know now, I would have bought 1000mm machine and cut it down to what I wanted. But hey,when have any of us known then what we know now. Just doesn’t work that way…lol :smile:

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Hi Jeff, thanks for posting this … you have given me the solution to a big problem. I have a soundproof booth to house an x-carve so I can work at home … Problem is it is only 58cm x 84cm so the only way to fit it is side ways into the booth.

With your solution I can see that with some customization I can have it in the booth sideways but still have a 70-80cm board :smiley: I only need to work on the ends of the board, but the board needs to be 70-80cm.

Thanks again for sharing this great solution :grinning:

Your Dewalt looks like Caterpillar Heavy Construction Truck on that little frame.
But one thing sure, there is also benefits on small machine. You have more stable machine. Honestly, my machine never seen 30" X 30" work yet. Biggest work I’ve done is 20X24" .

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Sounds like this mod will work for you too. Glad it helps with your problem. I am very happy with it. :smiley:

:grinning:

I learned about go big or go home from my first machine, a piranha. With it’s puny 10 x 13 work area, I exceeded the needed really quick.
I went 1000 mm from the get go.

I may apply your riser mod for a different reason though. I cut a 800 x 800 mm pocket into my waste board to receive a secondary, sacrificial waste board. and lost a bit of z in the process, this would be a way to recover it.

@JeffParish

Since you’ve already proven that you’re no slouch carving stuff with your XC500, maybe you should contact Inventables to see if they’d be interested in subsidizing an upgrade to 1000mm. You’ve already done the difficult/expensive part and you’ve obviously got it dialed in. How much would it take to get a few MakerSlides? If you documented the upgrade/build, that would be invaluable to Inventables.

I’m with you. personally I think 500x1000 is about the perfect size. I wish that would have been an option day-one.

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I did something pretty similar. I wanted to give my xcarve a lift so I cut some extended aluminum end plates. Here she is torn down, test fitting the new endplates.

<img src=“//discuss-assets.s3.amazonaws.com/original/2X/1/1325b29c3e6c6572ba6cdba5f52114386a35bf71.jpg” width=“690” height=“388”

I gained ~50mm in Z height which was great, but I think I might have over done it since its actually possible now to run the z spindle mount off the rail if I go to deep.

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nice mod!

I also raised my long rails 50mm.

Dave
Ariel, WA

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Those look nice. Aluminum?

Yes 1/4" 6061 t6

The more tormachs I see the closer and closer I get to just dropping the dough on a 440 :wrench: