Thoughts on Stiffening mod

Thanks Grant. I’m very happy with my table, and closing the pull out computer draw prevents dust from other projects getting to it. (saved on space in the shop as well.)

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I had considered clamping them together on spacers and filling the gap with two part epoxy mixed in a bottle with a spout. Probably waaaay too much time mucking around with old boats…

Or at least too much time smelling the epoxy!!! :joy:

Lacquer thinner more likely…riding herd on a bunch of maniacs in a high volume laminate furniture and fixture factory was probably not helpfull. haha

Seeing all of these solutions got me thinking, so I came up with these 3D printed spacers. I used the CAD files to create the profile, and then fine-tuned it by printing tests on my XYZ DaVinci. I ended up having to offset the profile by about .5mm all around, and made another small adjustment to the tabs that lock into the channels. The result is a snug fit that should stiffen up the X-axis considerably. Not as much as you guys using steel and aluminum plates, but more than stock, and I don’t have to modify the makerslides with holes for bolts.

I printed these 1" long at 50% infill and .3mm layer height and they are VERY rigid, while still weighing very little. I’m sure they could be printed at 100% infill to achieve even more rigidity, but I’m going to try these.

I’m attaching the STL file for anyone else that wants to try these out, just remember that this print works well with my XYZ DaVinci printer, so you may need to alter slightly if printing on a different machine. I can also post the vector profile if someone wants to try milling these out of another material.


x-gantry-spacer-print-final.stl (1.1 MB)
x-axis-spacer-print-final.pdf (43.5 KB)

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i want to try to make them with my xcarve, cuting the profile on 1" thick wood (and later on aluminium !)

edit : 1" will be hard to mill… XD (i usualy use metric… sorry ^^)

I really like this idea. Thanks for sharing!

Great idea, but you might still want bolts on top and bottom just to wedge the adaptor tight to the makerslide.

Haven’t played with my x-carve for a while as I have slowly been insulating and redoing the inside of my garage and it currently resembles a clustered table with all sorts of random stuff on it. These seem like a great idea. I don’t have a 3D printer but will probably be recreating a few of these on my bandsaw or also attempt to mill them on my machine when I get it cleaned up. Thanks for the great idea . :slight_smile:

Tried this modification and it works wery well.
I did not remeber how yours looked so mine came out a bit different.
Mine are thinner, 5mm. Made five of them and distibuted them along the extrution.


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I just wanted to share how I did the gantry upgrade. Instead of dismantling the makerslide I used my self-centering hole jig, which clamped perfectly onto the rails. Once I got up the courage to make the first hole everything went really smoothly. I did the 1/4" hole and then reset the jig for the 11/32" hole for the furniture bolt cap. The trickiest thing was getting the wire fed back through after all of the bolts were in until I realized I could take the bolts back out and feed the wire through replacing them as I went. So everything is set back up and running smoothly.

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Just the check, are these 4.14mm or 3/16"? I know you said you used the cad files, but I already pounded in some 3/16 that I want to bust out of there.

Here’s the 40x40 V-Slot with OpenRails inside the X carriage. 3mm spacers and a little slot expansion on the Y plates did the trick. Also shown here with a bunch of other mods.

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@EliasPolitis that one looks good! I can get 40x40 rail here (Australia) but no one seems to sell the Openrail locally :frowning:

Not local. Add $70 for shipping, and that’s just for the Openrail itself, not the extrusion.

Great Idea! I too really dint want to tear the machine apart, this is a great suggestion.

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I can say, after having used the machine a good deal since the modification, that it has improved the accuracy and reduced shutter considerably and that using the hole jig had no negative effects aside from saving time. :+1:

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So where does one get a self centering hole jig like yours?

It’s a woodworking tool: Task - Premium Doweling Jig

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