Then compared to the motor…a full 1 degree off plane:
My fix for this was to cut a couple of thin strips of sheetmetal, double-them over, and wedge them under the appropriate corners of the motor. This leveled me out but I’m not crazy about it:
Should these smooth idler bolts be standing proud like this?
The only good fix I could think of last night is to further ream the countersink for the bolts, but I don’t think I have a drill bit that will handle that (my countersink bits are all for wood).
I seems like a drill bit the same size as the diameter of the counter sink would remedy that. I have also used my wood counter sinks on metal many times - a quick squirt of wd-40 before drilling should do the trick and apply very light pressure. You don’t have far to go.
If not, simply putting four washers on the motor bolts might be a more elegant solution. Mounting steppers on stand-offs and spacers has never impacted the performance of any of my machines so washers wouldn’t be a big deal.
Hey Zach, it’s really cool to see how involved you still are in your product. Having a similar need for balance between ops and strategy in my own professional responsibilities, I really respect how hard it is to keep that up. I hope that you’re just sniping here, rather than this post being one of the many that you continue to monitor.
I would like to add that - while I have been unfortunately diverted recently to other nerdy endeavors - the X-Carve is truly a revolutionary development. It has opened my world to really cool stuff that I could never accomplish with traditional woodworking techniques. Well done, my friend…American ingenuity at its best.
The Customer Success team at Inventables does an incredible job helping customers become successful. They do far more than I could do.
I do spend most of my time on strategy but I believe understanding our customers is a critical input into that process. I learn best through experience and I have found there is no replacement for visiting, talking to, and interacting with customers. You can look at data and reports but they only tell a part of the story.
Is this the same issue? here is a clip of the 750mm x-carve instructions. I just assumed that the larger hole for the stepper motor is countersunk shallow to create a space for the idler screws. Sorry if I’m misunderstanding.
I chucked the screws in a drill and took them to the grinder and removed the head down to the taper. They still were a little proud and I was afraid of loosing too much of the hex wrench hole so I countersunk just a tad to make everything flush.
I have a “new” X-Carve that I received late Dec 2016 and I have the exact same problem. I saw the reference in the instructions to this issue so I assumed it was a known issue. I am noticing uneven belt wear because it was almost impossible to get the motor completely parallel to the mounting plate. I’ll have to get a metric counter sink and get those idler screws below flush. Is seems like this is a known issue, both X-Carves I have seen other than mine also have this problem and its mentioned in the assembly instructions.
