I admit to being a little bit disappointed. I just received my X-Carve on Friday and won’t have time to assemble it until the end of September or early October. To say my timing in ordering it was bad would be a huge understatement!! But what’s done is done.
My question is, since I won’t be assembling it for quite awhile, should I order the new Maker Slide or go with a modification of what I have. Does anyone think the upgrade is worth the further investment. Any other upgrades I REALLY need? I pretty much blew the budget with the purchase already so I’m not sure what to do. I definitely can’t afford the X controller right now!!! Any advice from those with experience with the original - I have the 1000 x 1000 model - would be much appreciated.
Thanks,
…Gord
Hey Gord, first off welcome! There’s a great group here to help you along with any questions or to get past stiffness issues etc. and I can highly reccomend reaching out to the inventables team for support, they’re spectacular!
If you peruse the forums you’ll see a wide range of modifications and cutting techniques but what you’ll also see is a good number of people getting amazing results even on aluminum with nothing done in the way of stiffness upgrades. The biggest factor is honestly how well you assemble and maintain the machine and after that its all about cutting techniques. I would highly recommend searching for the It’s Alive thread from @ErikJenkins to understand what the machine is capable before and after upgrades. I myself am planning on assembling the machine with minimal upgrades at first and seeing what needs to be done at that point to achieve the results I want. I believe with a simple stiffening mod like the 30 and 60 minutes mods and many others referenced in this forum you can make the x-axis rigid enough for most applications.
All of the modifications you have read about (30 minute/60 minute/Y support/linear Z) have all shown great improvements over the stock options. You only realize what good they do until you implement them. The new Gantry design is one that addresses all of the modification recommendations and has been shown to be just as valuable by those who went with the 40x40 rail from OpenBuilds. Short answer is Yes, if you can afford it, go with the upgraded gantry beam.
I guess it depends what you are doing with the x carve and what your expectations are. People are using the old stock x carve and it’s fine for their use, some people stick a few 4mm bolts with washers between the two makerslides, and some people get aluminum/stainless bars to sandwich the makerslides.
With the cost of the new wide extension being $49 for the 1000mm it wouldn’t be too much more expensive (and a lot less work) than the sandwiching of makerslides. It’s going to be a lot more expensive than buying a few bolts,nuts, and washers though.
If it was my decision, I would not buy the makerslide and just assemble what you have and determine what kind of stiffening you need. I would do the 30 minute mod (4mm bolts) and see if that’s good enough for the speeds/materials that you’re cutting.
I can see potential for a slight misalignment of the two small makerslides if you do the steel bar upgrade, which can cause some issues. Having a single makerslide would provide a lot of stiffness and zero chance of misalignment, which I really like. Not sure just how much of an increase in stiffness compared to the steel bar, but I’m sure that’ll be revealed in the next couple months as people swap them out.
That being said, if you have the parts to do a stiffness mod I’d go ahead and do it just so you can use it. It looks like the new parts won’t be out until late September, might as well not delay cutting if you get the chance to assemble yours sooner. Who knows, maybe you can be one of the first to do a comparison and let the rest of us know which you think is better! 
Maybe call Inventables and see what they might be able to do given the timing of it all?
I’m in sort of the same situation as Gord. I just got my X-Carve this past week. Unlike him i am in the middle of putting it together. I think if I had know that a brand new version was going to come out a week later I might have held off on purchasing until then. I have been in and out of the forums the last month or so and maybe I missed that an update was coming so soon. Now I’m not sure if I should order upgraded parts from the new kit or work with some of the modifications I see people on here doing to their 1000x1000 model.
Slightly disappointed,
Ted
If anything I would go with the new X axis rail. No bolting adjusting or fine tuning involved. It’s set for your machine. I have done the 40x40 mod with openbuilds parts. Works Great!! However there are alot of T nuts ,screws and fine tuning involved to get the rails parallel. The new rail is one solid price designed for our set up. I’ll be switching to that as soon as it comes in.
I would call Inventables and see what they might be able to do for you. There is another thread in the forum regarding the new X Controller, which apparently Inventables gave those that have ordered one a surprise (which is being kept super secret). But it was apparently quite generous. They might do the same for those that have received the old system in the last week or so.
I probably would, the flex in the X axis is one of the weakest points in the original design, and the new wider rail looks to cure that almost completely. Replacing it would be a fair bit of annoyance once it’s in place, so better to do it the easy way and put it in right off the get-go. I have the 30-minute mod on mine and it definitely helped, but I’d imagine a contiguous piece would be far better!
I just finished sandwiching mine with aluminum and have found some in consistencies. For the price I ordered the new extrusion. Out of all the new improvements that,to me, is the best one.