Y Axis Braces and Belt Dust Shield

Thanks greatly appreciated @RobertA_Rieke

Just ordered all the parts from Inventables and Home Depot. I like this design because it seems it’ll contain most of the dust; I don’t have a dedicated dust collection system except for a shop vac, which I don’t want to run for 10 hours a day, and it’s the last stiffening mod I think I’ll need. It’ll also be a good introduction to cutting metal and plastic for the first time.

One addition I was thinking of doing was to put a 4"x36" piece of weatherstripping (or other flexible barrier) along the front, held on by fridge-type magnets on the sides and along the bottom. That would allow easy access for additional dust collection along the front, and would seem pretty cheap to implement.

It’ll help contain all the big stuff that a dust collector or shopvac doesn’t get, but I’d definitely recommend getting a dust collector if you don’t want to run the shopvac all day. The little dust will still go everywhere, especially if you don’t have a dust shoe.

I like your idea of putting the flexible barrier across the front and back, it would help keep the big chunks in just as well as the dust shields on the side.

Is there a video of how you created this mod? I find videos to be extremely helpful, when combined with the photos.

Unfortunately I don’t, I’m still struggling to figure out how to make a CNC project video that isn’t (a) screenshots of me working on the computer or (b) endless video of the CNC moving on its own, or both.

I cut the aluminum yesterday using your settings, and the metal plates came out great. I adjusted my copy of the Easel file to have the holes drilled all the way through, and it worked just fine. This was my first metal cut, I’m impressed with how well it worked.
Now just waiting for the acrylic mirror to show up from Homedepot.com, which is only taking forever.

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I’m glad to hear it worked, thanks! :smile:

When you cut the acrylic mirror, I’d suggest using some double-sided tape to hold it down if it doesn’t peel the back off. That, and make multiple thin passes instead of one thick pass like I did.

Good suggestions. I also just now noticed that the rails aren’t lined up with the wasteboard, so I have to move the wasteboard over a bit. Oops.

Thank you Robert. Used your posted project files and everything turned out great. Reduced chatter and much more solid. Great idea.

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Another alternative to cutting your own y axis braces from aluminum is this:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/MakerFoot-Revolutionize-your-Shapeoko-or-MakerSlide-CNC-500mm-pcs-x2-/121395852283

They should slide right onto the Y axis. Then all you need to do is add the dust shields.

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Good idea, but $60 x 2 for a 1000mm build? No thanks. I’ve got a total of $10 in aluminum into mine using Roberts plans…and it was a great learning process too! Now all want to carve is aluminum…

Woah, these are COOL!

1st place for cleanest work area ever spotted on forums.

That looks great, I’m glad it worked well for you! Great looking area too, it’s catalog-clean. :smile:

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Haha. Thanks. Didn’t realize the clean comment was directed towards me. I can’t take all the credit. The vacuum table doubles as dust collection when a small piece of material is used. Thanks again for the awesome bracket idea.

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Yes sir. 1600mm Mustang. Crashed a few times but still going! Fun to fly but my primary passion resides on the other side of the shop.

Thanks for the project @RobertA_Rieke just finished

cutting, now to install.

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Do you have a thread on the vacuum table?