How much are you going to charge for the anti backlash nut normally?
@JeremyHanks probably around $9 each. They do take a moderate amount of time to make, mainly tapping the acme thread since that has to be done by hand for each one.
I have to see how the anodizing does – may be a little late but barring catastrophe I’m still shooting for early next week.
I don’t have any definitive answer on the Suckit other than they are working on it. I will be exchanging kits with them (their new kit including new brackets in exchange for a production sample of one of my Z axis for them to test on).
Quick update – I was running a little late on finishing with milling all of the parts (lots of friends & family help issues came up over the past couple of weeks) and had a minor catastrophe trying to finish them up. I wrecked my last two 1/4" 2-flute end mills which I’m using to mill out the bracket bores – the only ones I had left were tiny 3mm and big 1/2" / 12mm mills and a few ball end mills, none of which would be suitable for milling out the pockets. Fortunately I had the foresight toorder some more end mills on Friday so I can get the parts finished up today but that put me behind a bit.
Casualties of this project so far:
4x m5 muilti-form thread mills ($50+ each!)
3x 1/4" 2-flute carbide end mills
4x 6mm 3-flute carbide end mills
6x 5mm twist drills
1x 6mm chamfer mill
1x JT1 drill chuck
1x ER20 collet holder
1x ER20 collet nut
1x ER20 1/4" collet
Not to mention blood, sweat, and tears. I really want to ship the pre-orders before Friday but I can’t make any promises. It will be very soon though!
1 Like
Pease don’t rush it.
Quality takes time.
1 Like
Completely agree. I delayed my plate orders for 2 extra days just to make sure they were cut and fit to my standards. I emailed all my affected customer right away to let them know.
Good job on keeping everyone on the thread up to date! 
Looks great. For the backlash but are you doing something similar to the one like openbuilds does with the tension screw?
? Not understanding?
@StephenMonroe I am not automatically including the anti-backlash nut for every kit but those with pre-orders will get one as a pre-order bonus. The design is conceptually similar to toe openbuilds one but I designed it from scratch specifically for the 3/8-12 acme screw the X-Carve uses. For those who opt not to get the anti-backlash nut, the Zplunge will work with the original acme nut included with the X-Carve. Those of us using heavier spindles (water cooled VFD etc.) may have reasonably good bottom surface finish without anti-backlash but it should improve bottom finish when cutting metals.
@BobJewell sorry unfortunately I don’t have any good news right now – I had some difficulty with getting the remaining plate parts milled out and wasn’t able to get them to the anodizer yet. I was up until nearly 4:00 AM milling parts last night and while I was hoping to finish the rest and get them to the anodizer this afternoon, I ended up over-sleeping and being exhausted for most of the day. I am going to try to drop them off on Monday morning and hopefully get them back before the end of next week (every anodizer I’ve heard back form has said 5 days, the 7/4 holiday may not help with that though). I should be able to start assembling and shipping units out the same day I get them back from anodizing.
@RichWood just waiting to get parts back from anodizing. Once I have them I should be able to start shipping same day or day after depending on what time I get to pick them up.
2 Likes
They should be getting a prototype of their updated mounting system to me soon. I am also sending them one of my axis assemblies to validate their designs against.
I heard back from the anodizing company – my parts should be ready on Monday. In the meantime I’m going to finish getting the rest of the materials ready (installation hardware kits, packaging, installation guides, etc.) so hopefully I can get some or all of the pre-orders out before end of day Monday 
Great news!
I was just cutting something the other day and cringing from the chatter (with stock Z axis). So glad to hear that I’m only a handful of days away from having those days be behind me!
Will the X carriage need to be taken off the machine for the install? (j/w if I should do that ahead of time to get a head start)
The X axis will not need to be removed. I will have an instruction manual included (and provide pdf) but the installation is basically just removing and taking apart the stock Z axis, attaching the Zplunge assembly to the same mounting holes that the makerslide normally bolts to (4 m5 cap screws) and attaching the motor plate and leadscrew parts. The final step is attaching the spindle mount which is now very quick and easy to do.
1 Like
Any word?
The anodizing took a lot longer than expected (was supposed to be 5-7 days, ended up being 13 days). I am in the process of assembling some now.
Ok I have shipped the first 5 pre-orders (that incldes yours @BobJewell!). A couple of notes regarding the pre-orders:
-
I have not included a printed manual as I was having issues with getting them to print correctly. I will post the PDF once I get that sorted out.
-
I accidentally ordered M2 screws instead of M2.2 screws for the self-tapping limit switch screws, and M2 is too small. I had some other M2.2 screws and included both types – 1 is phillips but may be too short for some switches, and the other is definitely long enough but uses a T6 torx drive. The latter screws are definitely the better of the two and you should be able to get a T6 driver at stores that sell tools (Home Depot, Lowes, Harbor Freight, etc.). I included a 1.5mm hex key in each hardware kit for the original screws and while that won’t work for the included screws you can keep them as a bonus
I should have the remaining pre-orders shipped either tomorrow or Monday. I will also re-enable purchases tonight as I need to update a few things on my store.
1 Like
Yea, I got a tracking number.