After having the Shapeoko 2 and upgrading it to X-carve and rebuilding it because it wasn’t square, and after that still it wasn’t square I decided to rebuild my X-carve but now better.
From the electronics to re tapping holes and also making a new future-proof enclosure.
I designed the enclosure to be smaller than my previous one, but yet with more space, I don’t have many tools but I upgraded from a jigsaw to a circular saw, so I designed the enclosure based on that, I also want everything to be self contained. the electronics area will have more space and better cooling, I will be using panduit and terminal blocks for the wiring, the control panel will be on acrylic with independent panels for different functions, like switches for independent lighting, cooling, spindle control, e-stop and pendant.
the shop vac will be on a muffler box with soundproof foam, a piece of pvc pipe will run through the enclosure where it will attach to the hose on the top.
the rest of the compartments will be for future stuff, a vfd and storage,
Once I start trying to cut aluminum or my spindle dies I will upgrade to a 800w 220 spindle. .
Here is my previous enclosure
and this is my new one
I’m waiting on the extrusions to reinforce the x-carve base, and start rebuilding the xcarve. so I started with the electronics section
I mounted the 48v power supply(I’m also waiting on the 24v ps) and I started mounting the panduit, it may seem like an overkill but I like having all the wiring neat.
Thats all for now, I will update once I got more work done.
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Wow, this looks great! Is your acrylic enclosure on the top intended to both soundproof and contain the dust?
Yes, the acrylic will contain the the dust, I don’t know how effective it will be on soundproofing but I guess it will help.
I didn’t put it on the model, but in the front it will have a door, so it will seal all the dust inside
Very nice, I can see I have some work to do to mine in the future.
I did some work yesterday, I started disassembling the x-carve
I will inspect each part to find clues why it’s not getting everything square, and also modify the stepper and lighting wiring (I had the wiring going to right before).
I also started with frame, adding some reinforcements, I’m still waiting for the extrusions.
Here is some more work that I made this week
I finished the base, squaring everything was a pain, it took me 2 nights to get it right
then i started with the x carriage, I changed some washers to 1 mm round shims, i added some white LEDs and also added standoffs between the top V wheels now the top 4 wheels are always making contact.
after that I started assembling everything. I re-tapped the holes for the makerslide and used 22 mm M5 flanged screws. I also used 1 mm round shims for all the v wheels and that made a huge difference while squaring everything. Then I wired all the stepper motors, LEDs and spindle
after all that I wired inside the panel, I left the wiring for the led, and spindle long, because i still need to make the acrylic cover for all the buttons and switches.
so now my x-carve is working, but there is more work to do until i can say that its finished.
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I made more progress fro the shop vac control
I used some parts I had laying around to make the relay box to turn the shop vac on and off
then I used the x carve to do the cutouts for the plug and the switch
I also made a plate for the inside of the enclosure
and everything fitting together
I made a hole and installed the plug
and then put the box in place
for the inside is just a simple circuit, 12vdc and 120vac come in, the 12vdc go through the switch and then to the relay coil. the relay only switches the L1 to the 120vac plug.
I used a SPDT switch because I want turn on/off the shop vac from the box and the control panel, “II” will be for automatic control from the gshield or switch from the panel, and “I” for temporary control since I haven’t finished or started the control panel.
and here is everything done…
…for now.
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