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The standard 2.5" of available height beneath the Z rail is insufficient if you want to carve thicker material or use a vacuum table(my next project).
Our good friend @CharleyThomas in Texas makes the fantastic lift-kits for your XCarve and he made these for me. He sells them on his web site. I asked for hole spacing to match the X-Axis square gantry as I plan on replacing the thin Y-Axis rails with the square ones a bit later on.
These taller End Plates give you another 1" of height beneath the Z-Axis. If I plane down a 4x4" post just a smidge, it’ll just fit with the 3.5" of space that is now available.
1/4" 6061 stock. Came sanded and packaged very well. I had to run to Home Depot and get some socket head screws 5M-12mm to fit into the horizontal extrusions and I had some longer 14mm screws for the rails. I did not use any of the same screws at all that are for the original end plates.
I just got mine installed too…they’re pretty awesome and I checked aluminum stock prices and it’s about the same cost but, to me, it was easier to spend a bit more for just an hour or so to install these than all the time to design, carve, and then install. I’m too busy with other business demands for that and in addition the real job. Time is money and it was cheaper to buy from Charley for me.
I didn’t consider material costs. I get most of my aluminum for free or on trade. My local scrap yard gets pallets of stuff from local mfgs. And they will deal.
We use them a lot at work to support cables and other things for test setups and just seemed like it would come in handy at home for the CNC especially when trying to make tiny adjustments for level or in this case, raising the entire axis. Plus I can put it in my light box and use it to support stuff for products photos or what have you. This is the one I bought:
Will these plates alone be enough to extend z axis while maintaining rigidity? I have been looking at increasing Z but im concerned that this along will not be rigid enough to maintain nice cuts. Looking to hear from someone who already has this implemented. I guess im not really concerned with flex in the brackets themselves, but more so the frame it attaches to flexing instead (or wobbling).
With these extensions does the z axis have enough travel to reach the waist board still? I haven’t assembled my X carve yet so, I’m not familiar enough to know.
There are lots of CNC machines whose end plates and gantry plates are made of the same material; 6061 1/4" aluminum. They are very rigid. I don’t notice any flexing/wobbling at all with these.
The Z-Axis can reach the bottom but just barely. I plan on making a thin vacuum table so my config should be just fine.
