Good evening, over the Holidays, I ordered both the belt upgrade kit and the Z axis upgrade kit and now finally have the time to do the installs. Is there any advantage of doing one upgrade before the other?
Douglas,
More work involved with the belts and Nema motors, the Z won’t be in the way (much taller). since your upgrading should consider Makita mount
it runs much Quieter1/2 the noise and lower speeds longer cutting tool life.
Thank you Ken. What model Makita are you referring to?
amazon has it for c note
also, the brushes last longer too
Makita RT0701C 1-1/4 HP Compact Router - Power Laminate Trimmers - Amazon.com
Thank you.
well, If you purchased the fill kit as one package, then the instructions would have you do the 9mm belts b4 the Z.
However IF you are also installing the stiffeners, then I would jump to the Z instructions, remove the Z (making the gantry lighter and easier to work with, THEN perform the Stiffeners upgrade and the 9mm belt install, and then finish off the Z upgrade.
**Don’t forget to do the machine setup and select the new machine in order to re-set the grbl settings for the upgrades… OR the Z will plunge into the wasteboard the first time u use it from the calibration being set way too high…
Also the Limit Switch for the new Z is a TAD BIT higher than it should be and likely won’t press fully when you perform the first homing with it (the solution is to bend the end of the tab downwards, causing it to be pressed a tiny bit more and actually activate the switch)
The next common issue is mounting the Z assembly at the very top and that makes shorter bits not reach the workpiece, so keep that in mind as you might need to loosen the backside 4 screws and lower the Z assembly…
They added a note about this problem into the new machine assembly instructions about a week or 2 ago, but haven’t added this same note to the upgrade installation instructions…
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Thank you Seth. The upgrades actually came without instructions of any kind, so I had to look them up on line. I did the Z axis first and am about 50% done with the belt upgrades. Thank you for the guidance. I will make sure I incorporate it all before firing it up the first time.
Doug
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Just reiterating, based on Doug’s question, I purchased both the 9mm Belt and Motor Kit upgrade and the Z-Axis/Riser/ Stiffener kit. Should I still, based on the comments, start with the Z (remove it) THEN perform the Stiffeners upgrade, then the 9mm belt install, and then finish off the Z upgrade?
the z needs removed either way, removing it first just makes the gantry lighter for the other stuff, that’s all… you can do it one at a time and follow the actual instructions if you like, but doing it with less weight on the Z makes it easier to handle, that’s all.
I agree, having gone through it now, I would have done the belts first and the Z-axis second for the weight reasons Seth indicates.
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