I have a heavily modified Shapeoko 1 (dual extrusion x axis, dual y motors, Improbable Constructs ACME upgrade). It looks like since I have the double x extrusion, the Shapeoko 2 upgrade package should be compatible with my machine. Is that correct?
Assuming that is true, would Improbable Construct’s ACME upgrade be compatible as well, or would I have to purchase a new one?
In general you should be able to use X-Carve parts to upgrade your machine. The wheel spacings, etc, are the same
A Z axis with Improbable Construct’s ACME upgrade is compatible. If you are trying to use just one part of the Improbable Construct’s ACME upgrade, you will probably have problem.
I have begun upgrading my Shapeoko 1 with the X-Carve upgrade package and new ACME lead screw kit. I have found a few issues that those upgrading from Shapeoko 1 instead of Shapeoko 2 should be aware of.
There are a few instructions that have to be tweaked. For example, the Shapeoko 1 has eccentric washers, not nuts, so a longer bolt and an additional nut is needed for each instance. I’m pretty comfortable tweaking my machine so this was not a big deal for me, just something I thought I should mention.
The main problem I encountered is with the pulleys. The shapeoko 1 uses MXL belting, which means my x and y pulleys are not compatible with the GT2 belting. This has halted my progress and I will need to order new pulleys before I can continue. I’m kind of bummed as this was what I was trying to avoid when I first opened this thread, but at least this can be a heads up to other users.
Adding another missing component to the list… 
The Shapeoko 1 did not use t-slot nuts to anchor the belting so I am short 6 of them. Off to submit yet another order…
Hi Nicholas,
I have a group of students that are going to upgrade an original Shapeoko-1 using the Inventable’s Shapeoko-2 kit. Your post pointed out a couple of additional things they weren’t aware of. Did you come across anything else in the past year?
One thing I recommended to them was to use the double wide makerslide that the X-carve has on the X-axis instead of doubling up on the extrusions. Also we are having a discussion on whether to go with a 500mm vs 750mm since our current 1000mmx500mm is too big for one student to move. I am assuming we can cut and retap our original 1000mm length of makerslide since from Bart’s post it looks like wheels are the same.
thanks for any tips you can provide!
Hi David,
It’s been a while since I did the conversions, but I don’t remember lacking anything else. As far as the changing the makerslide length you are right all you will need to do is cut and retap the holes. You will also have extra belting, but I would recommend not cutting it shorter until after you install it on the machine. I accidentally cut it too short before and had to reorder. Good luck!
Good to hear that. I was able to find Bill of Materials for SO-1, SO-1 dual motor upgrade, SO-2, and 2015-XCarve, so I gave the team homework to figure out how to do a diff on the lists and come up with what we need to buy.
Maybe we’ll still get new makerslide so we can keep the all black motif 
We have our own Wiki that they can publish the results to and it we are successful I’ll link to it on the forum.
Thanks!
