Are there any after market rails available for the X Carve? Or any good after market rail stiffeners?
I may have bent one of my Y-axis rails and if so, I’d rather replace it with a heavier duty one (if available), or add stiffening brackets
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I am not aware of any upgradable rails, but there are brackets you can use to attach the rails to the base, to prevent flexing. It should be mentioned, however, that the biggest weakness of that machine are the plastic v-wheels. You can only get so rigid when running on v-wheels.
Fair enough. Aside from the Inventables store, is there another reputable place to buy v-wheels – just thinking of quickest shipping? I do need to replace one of them.
they’re just a delrin v-wheel, you can find them on amazon listed as v-groove wheel. You will want to make sure you get the measurements right because there are different styles, angles, and diameters, but it shouldn’t be difficult.
I should mention that if you have the pre-2016 two-piece x-rail then you can upgrade to the single piece model, that’s a big upgrade.
What would really be great is if someone released steel makerslide, which would allow us to switch to steel v-wheels and make these machines exponentially more capable. That would really be awesome. That or some linear bearing solution. Either way, you’re bridging into an entirely new machine at that time.
Use the wide Makerslide for Y rails. @CharleyThomas makes great plates that he will put holes for the wide slide in. He did mine and it made a huge difference
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Hey Chip-
I manufacture stiffeners that run between the rails and the base of the machine. They help a ton, and eliminate essentially all flex in the Y axis rails.
- Luke
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I almost post a link for tbd.com! Just received my stiffners in the mail today and can’t wait to install them. Will post pics when finished.
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What brackets are available for that? Is it through inventables, from the hardware store, or does someone elsewhere make them specifically for this application?
Thanks
openbuilds has some good parts readily avail
take a look at Luke’s posts above, he makes them.
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I ended up ordering about $480 worth of parts from tbd.
A little disappointed, not at TBD, but at inventables for making a product that costs $1500, but can’t run correctly without spending a whole lot more.
If flex has been an issue for so long, why is inventables forcing us to have to go to the aftermarket? Shouldn’t they be fixing this in house before sending out another xcarve? And shouldn’t they be making it right to those who have already bought one, and are fighting to get the stupid thing to actually cut precisely?
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I haven’t really given much thought to it, but I don’t see why the square X rail couldn’t be used to make stiffer Y rails.
It can be…with custom Y end plates made by @CharleyThomas who is amazing. (Excuse the mess)
It’d be pretty simple for Inventables to make this change and maybe they will on Gen3
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I’d agree. That should have been part of the Gen2 version. I think that will go on my list of future upgrades.
On Gen3, while the rest of us are spending tons of money in the aftermarket to get our crap2 to stop traveling during cuts… #nothappy
That is a Good idea. I’m gonna look into that. I wonder what it would cost for a machine shop to duplicate it in steel .
Whoa! That’s quite the upgrade …where do we find one of those?
Cnc4newbie will be coming out with some upgrades soon.