Prototype: Bare Z-axis Plate for the Adventurer in You

With so many people wanting to try so many different routers as spindle upgrades, I thought it might be nice to have a “bare” Z-axis plate to experiment with. This is lifted straight from Bart’s PDF drawings of the spindle mount, and simply converted to an SVG file and imported to Easel. I just finished cutting a prototype version out of a 1/4" thick HDPE sheet and it appears to be the right size. :slight_smile: I haven’t put the calipers to it yet, but a calibrated eyeball comparison to my spindle mount looks mighty good. Even at 1/4", it’s only fractionally thicker than the aluminum on the X-Carve, and (at least on my machine) there’s more than enough threads left on all of the hardware to attach it with no issues.

So, if any of you adventurous folks are interested in designing your own spindle mounts, here’s a clean platform to build on. I’ve got some 3/16" 6061 aluminum plate (it’s closer in thickness to the existing mount) headed my way sometime next week and will be taking the plunge (ha!) with that.

You can get the Easel file here: Easel - Z axis plate (shared)
**Be sure to check/edit all of the machine and material settings before you try to cut this! My settings will more than likely not match yours perfectly, and bad things might happen if you just blindly hit “Carve”.

I hope this is at least somewhat helpful to someone! :smile:

3 Likes

Nice idea, I was holding my spindle upgrade to DW611 which on my hand for this reason. That holding bracket Inventables selling not enough to hold that heavy router by only two screws on delrin material. I will definitely try one. Thanks Timothy.

You’re very welcome, Alan! I hope it works out for you. :smile: