Replacing V Wheels with Linear Guide bearings

Unfortunately, the hole pattern is not the same, the plates would need to be drilled same as what @EliasPolitis described in his C-carve mod post from a while ago. X-Carve mod pack 1

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Unfortunately, the hole pattern is not the same
Okay thank you

This is not dead or forgotten! Life got a little in the way, but I have some things mounted! So I decided I did not like have 2020 extrusion everywhere for this. When I found out 80/20 will cut everything to length for you with a pretty high degree of accuracy I decided to get all new rails for the base and Y axis. So for the Y I did 4 x 1500mm 20-4040 (40mm square) with 4 x 76.2mm (3 in) risers to support the the 4040. connecting the 2 Y axis is 4 x 864mm rails. Meaning I can keep the original X axis 1000mm length/rails. Since I was doing this I also decided to try and get rid of the belts too. I order 1 cheap Chinese ballscrew off amazon to give it a try. Now I can use flat stock for the plates with out having to add spacers.


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1605-screws? I got those aswell, work well for me :slight_smile:

Good to know, what size steeper do you have? Am I correct in thinking I donā€™t need microstepping anymore?

I use 270oz/in steppers, previously with a 24V PSU but upgraded to 48V PSU and 48V capable stepper drivers for more ooomph.

With the 24V PSU I managed 2000-2500mm/min rapid rate, which compared to the Xcarve is slooooow, but the step resolution and torque is much greater. Its like gearing down for a steep ascent up a hill.

Due to that I increased to 48V (and Leadshine DM556 & DM856 drivers) which allow me to push 5000mm/min, but for reliability I set my max at 4000mm/min. Acceleration 750mm/ss for comfort.

I run all axes at 1/2 microsteps to make it run smooth => half step resolution of 0.0125mm
More than enough :slight_smile:

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.0125 is insanely small, I would be curious if you run full step if you would notice any difference. I will likely follow suit but just curious.

I consider that highly unlikely for our kind of machines :slight_smile:
The only reason for microstepping is to smooth out motion/acceleration/retardation.

The incremental half/quater step etc dont have high positional precision (typical +/- 20%, or more) while full step position are within 5% or so for consumer grade steppers.

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So you lose some positional accuracy bit gain smoother motion?

In short, yes.
But one could argue that +/-20% deviation on 1/2step position is still pleny accurate enough, so in practical terms it doesnt matter :wink:

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Iā€™m not sure if anyone caught cnc4newbieā€™s latest update, but it appears they are about to offer a linear bearing upgrade to X-carves any day now.

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I hate these v wheels! Inventables should offer an upgrade kit that is known to work seamlessly as a complete replacement for the wheel system.

they should probably release an xcarve 2 with linear rails and some rigidity upgrades instead of re-iterating on this now ancient design.

New side plates, more substantial X-axis, and linear bearings and youā€™d have one excellent little machine.

and much more rigid extrusions as a baseā€¦

The problem is that would probably price them out of the market (and letā€™s be honest, you just described the other successor to the Shapeoko 2 with the latter point).

The price on machines has mostly been ever increasing since the Shapeoko 1 was designed by Edward R. Ford with a project goal of hitting a $300 price point ā€” itā€™s interesting to me that the Carvey and Nomad both have pretty much the same 8" x 8" x 3" working area as the original design, but are designed to be more friendly/capable (and cost over 8 times as much) and incorporate the design improvements you suggest ā€” the problem is that price scales. Also, who is interested in doing machine design at Inventables since Ed and Bart Dring left?

List of machine designs on the /r/hobbycnc wiki page ā€” it would be interesting to graph:

  • how much material is in each design
  • total cost
  • working area
  • material removal rate

and so forth.

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linear rails arenā€™t that much more expensive compared to the whole makerslide system imo.

As you said, the competitition is increasing and putting out more rigid machines than Xcarve can ever achieve with their current gen design. And at a comparable price point. The market is evolving, customers have more options and higher expectations. I wasnā€™t speaking on behalf of my personal wish list. I have a habit of just making/modifying things myself if I really need them. But I do think it would be good business practice on Inventablesā€™ part to get on board with this trend, or they risk being left behind.

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I was disappointed to see that it will only be for ā€œsmallā€ CNC machinesā€¦

Thereā€™s a comma after small CNC machines (and honestly the x-carve is a small machine in any respect) and it lists the X-carve, and the dimensions listed would fall within a 1000mm machine, so it would seem at least the standard sizing would be covered.

I hope they have them for the 1000mm at a reasonable price.

Guess weā€™ll see soon enough :slight_smile: