Show and tell: X-Carve assembly! [not troubleshooting]

What specific item are you building that you need that mutant?

Looks like it would be good for making signs!

My plan is to extend mine out in a similar manner (for sign making), but I figured I’d better stick with the basic kit for now until I get it all figured out, then add what I need to make it bigger.

Well on my way to have my X Carve completed. Due to lack of space, I did end up using the Racor storage lift to serve as the platform for my machine. As you can see in the pictures, I can raise it up out of the way to expose my assembly table for other projects. It has worked out great!! Very smooth operation. I will end up painting the bottom of the platform white to reflect more light and will add some lighting to brighten up the assembly table when the platform is in the up position.

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thats rockstar! i may have to atempt to steal that idea

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Dennis, I have purchased that lift as well for my X-Carve, which should come in a couple of weeks. I have questions! Is that just one layer of 3/4" ply attached to the kit side rails from the lift? Did you use just those two side rails, and toss the rest (the other cross rails, the mesh grid platform)? Any problems with flexing of the 3/4" ply, or is that why you have those extra blocks in the middle, to support it? Fits your 1000mm x-carve with no problems?

Mine is going to have to come down and rest on sawhorses, I think, when in use. Any tips on making the platform strong enough to not flex like that? 2 layers of 3/4" ply, maybe? 2x4 bracing underneath, maybe?

Do you use any secondary holding straps for when it is up to the ceiling? Like, are you afraid the lift mechanism will slip and drop your X-Carve?

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Hey Steve! Okay in order of asking: Yes, one layer of 3/4". Yes, I didn’t use the mesh. I wanted something more flat. I don’t have to worry about flexing as it sits on my assembly table. I added the blocks to raise it up a little and to have room underneath to rout some power across to the other side of my assembly table. When it sits down on my table it’s perfectly level. Fit’s my 1000mm X Carve with extra room for the electronics. I did add a small piece of 3/4 on the one side to clamp my laptop arm to. For sitting on sawhorses I would either double up on the 3/4 or build a torsion box. Either way the Racor lift will pick up 250 lbs. so that shouldn’t be a problem. No secondary straps. The lift is gear driven so unless the gear drive completely fails, I don’t see it being a problem. Also, Racor has a safety that you can snap into the mechanism to prevent the spinning part from moving.

I hope this answers you concerns and if you have any more questions just let me know.

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done and all with original parts, no extra wires used.( could be better job done, but :slight_smile: )

ooh! way too clean. needs a coating of dust on it! :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

My wiring looked pretty similar before i upgraded to a 300w 48v quiet cut spindle. Now I have 2 power supplies.

I can’t connect to easel so far or it would be so dusty

I’m kind of glad to see this thread. I really have to say that I didn’t like the instructions at all. I really don’t want to be critical about the team that handled the write ups, but from my experience without having done much reading prior to assembly the instructions were all over the place.

I ordered the 1000mm kit, before it seems like I’m ranting I’d like to say I’d order it again in a heartbeat. But, the If/And/Or structure with sliding text boxes made things unnecessarily complicated when searching for information such as: When you’re instructed to wire in your Y plates no specific length is given on those pages for the cuts. You have to advance forward to the wiring section to find the lengths which is kind of critical before you cut. When you’re doing your limit switches, again, no specified length given prior to mounting to the Y plate or Carriage which requires nuts placed inside the carriage that can complicate soldering a switch already mounted for a beginner.

To me, the assembly of nearly anything should begin with the structures/motors/main monuments and then afterwards have all wiring not necessary prior to closing constricted spaces left for later.

A lot of unneeded flipping of the work area to install individual screws when all can be slid in place on the extrusions and fitted to the board in a single movement. Some of the views in the images were hard to see and I felt the video was kind of useless, constant pause/start/repeat to pickup what was said.
Assembly of the arduino/power box/fan could be all on step the wiring of it for example. Why the x-y-z wires are connected before mounting the board made in the instructions me wonder.

I’m trying to plan my build a little so I’ve taken my time and done some reading on the boards. And as some other have mentioned, I prolly wouldn’t have ordered the waste board wood, I’m glad I have it now though, but I will make my own later.

Again, not trying to be negative, just bringing up some things I noticed.

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I had some of the issues that Eric is talking about, but I had to wait a month to get my X-carve and during that month I spent a lot of time reading the assembly instructions and watching all the YouTube videos on assembly.

For those of you that have seen a lot of moons go by you might remember a company named Heathkit. I assembled about 50 percent of the kits they sold, so I’m no stranger to putting things together. They had really good very detailed instructions.

So, putting those two things together, when my X-carve arrived I didn’t follow the order of the instructions, but assembled things in a different order which made it much easier to put the thing together.

Also, I bought some extra wire before I started and with that extra wire I still didn’t have enough to get the power supply away from the main unit as far as I would have liked. I added almost two feet of extra wire for most of the wiring and wish I had added more.

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I did about the same as Larry, I read through the instructions probably a dozen times while I was waiting for my unit to show up, so I more or less had all of it memorized before I even started. I also went a bit out of order, largely building sub-assemblies, then sliding them together to make life easier. If you are not entirely confident in your own visualization of how it should be at the end, just follow the instructions line-by-line, and you WILL get a good machine at the end of it. :smile:

And yes, more wire makes life a LOT easier! I just hit up Home Depot, and they had as much of the four-conductor shielded stepper wire as I could possibly want.

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Here are some of the upgrades people shared. I spent the weekend getting it dialed in after stock spindle died. I have the dealt 660 now…

wing nuts!







I also have the x axis reinforced with steal bar.

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After arriving Friday, my machine went live at 11:57 PM yesterday. Ran my first successful cut today. My second cut was not successful, as a V wheel came loose on the Z axis. It seems my task list continues to grow now that the machine is up and running.

Task #1 - Figure out why the limit switches are not working (probably due to me mangling the Terminal Block during assembly)
Task #2 - Get some thread lock on those eccentric nuts :smile:
Task #3 - Since I am not happy with how close the controller is to the machine, I think I will rewire it and add a way to disconnect the machine from the controller.
Task #4 - Get to cutting!!!

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Thanks for sharing this and your earlier posts for cutting on both sides.

I can’t tell the difference between the male and female ends… help?

Hi Theo,

Does this help:

Jeff

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Jeremy (sketch42),

can you tell me what size the sleeve material is that you have on your cables running thru the drag chain? I like the clean look you have achieved and when I start my assembly I want to make sure I have some on hand.

Thanks in advance,
Grant gad5264

Thanks @GrantDavis, I tried to get it as clean looking as I could.

I’m not sure exactly what sizes I used, but I bought 3 or 4 different diameter heat shrink and one size of loom. The loom sleeve is expandable so it fits most situations. You can also save some money by not putting the sleeve on all the way through the drag chain. I just made sure that there was enough overlap for entry and exit and left the wires loose in the drag chain for flexibility’s sake.

Here are a few pics that I took at the time… I have since run out of most of it.

These were referenced in my post about my original process of assembly found here:
User Assembly Tips - #36 by sketch42

Thanks for the info Jeremy. I appreciate it.

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