I was given a 500mm shapeoko 2 yesterday. I ordered the Shapeoko 2 > x-carve upgrade kit during the black Friday sale. When the 50$ gift card comes in I plan to order the Dewalt mounting plate and hopefully ill get the Dewalt router for Christmas or shortly after (Birthday). For now, i’m going to have to deal with the default spindle / my Dremel 5000.
For now I ordered a few end mills from Amazon and going to try and get it going once they come in.
Amazon.com & Amazon.com
Eventually Ill upgrade the motors as they are currently NEMA 17s and hope to get the NEMA 23s. I will also upgrade the size to 1000mm once I get the hang of the machine.
Is there any recommendation on order of preference? motors, rails, router etc…
Thanks for all the help!
My order recommendations:
proper electronics enclosure with fan
limit switches
some sort of dust collection system and technique
z-axis depth probe (via GRBL)
Automatic Spindle control
Dewalt router and mount and 1/8" collet
nema 23’s when you upgrade to 1000mm
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I’d almost go opposite of @JeremyJohnstone with my recommendations. I assume the machine came with the electronics necessary and is operable right after you assemble it, definitely get parts you need to get it working first.
-Shopvac or other dust collection
-NEMA 23’s, to support the weight of the 611
-611 or equivalent (and mount)
-Rails
-X-axis stiffening upgrade
-Y-axis stiffening upgrade
-Relay to allow spindle on/off from a program
The limit switches are only good for homing unless you do a little programming/wiring magic. If you don’t plan to have a specific point on your wasteboard for homing on every project, they can come later.
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Thanks for the recommendations!!..
I think it is all set, it was already assembled as well…
Attached is a picture of the current status.
Once I get the end mills in, I’ll try to do a basic project in pine to test everything out…
Did you order the ACME rod as part of the upgrade? If not I would recommend it.
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Well I ordered the dewalt kit and 1/8 collet. I was playing around with the stock spindle last night and there is a ton of play and it appears the first pass of a carving didn’t touch on some spots… I read the troubleshooting and it appears it could be a few different things, maybe the next upgrade will be the ACME rod…
Thanks again for the recommendations…
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