Thinking about moving Y axis plates to the inside, à la SO3

etxbkst · Post by **etxbkst** » Sun Apr 12, 2015 3:40 pm

To regain some x axis travel I am considering plates on the inside. I'd have to drill holes to move the motors up by a half inch or so. On the SO3 the motors are tucked behind the z axis extrusion inside as well. Since on mine I'd have to keep then in the stock location (outside, albeit higher), are there any downsides to this?

Post by **WillAdams** » Sun Apr 12, 2015 4:07 pm

Can’t use inside side shields

Increased machine footprint — you’ll need longer extrusions for the base

Motor placement may interfere w/ travel or you’ll need to put the motors on spacers

Gadgetman! · Post by **Gadgetman!** » Sun Apr 12, 2015 6:29 pm

How much larger workspace will you get by this?

I can't really see how it would add any travel to the machine at all.
The only advantage I can see is that the V-wheels will now be on the outside, and therefore slightly more protected from dust.

Also, as Will notes, you will need longer extrusions and all that on the bottom, so why not just do the sensible thing and rebuild it with longer extrusions all over?
I mean, pulling apart, then going through the laborious job of reassembling, squaring and adjusting it for a few mm of travel, when you can do the same for 500mm more...

etxbkst · Post by **etxbkst** » Sun Apr 12, 2015 6:56 pm

When I have side shields on my x is more limited than a stock machine would be because I'm using a wider/longer spindle plate. It drops the usable down to about 8ish inches from around 12.

Ive actually got it semi disassembled right now doing a 1000mm y upgrade. I kept the x at 500mm because I have very limited space to set up.
But the more I think about it, flipping the plates seems like a big headache. I may just forgo the side shields and hope my dust shoe does a decent enough job.

Post by **cvoinescu** » Mon Apr 13, 2015 9:11 am

etxbkst wrote:When I have side shields on my x is more limited than a stock machine

That makes sense. I was wondering what limited your X travel on the stock machine.

ijv · Post by **ijv** » Sat Jan 23, 2016 6:26 am

I've been thinking about the exact same thing, but my reason for doing it to try and keep the v-wheels clean. I'm in the middle of an upgrade to X-Carve style plates, so the spacing options are a bit better. But the only way I can see to mount the y-axis steppers outboard is to use some stand offs like the original SO-2 z-axis mounts.

Does anyone have any better ideas?

ijv

Gadgetman! · Post by **Gadgetman!** » Sat Jan 23, 2016 6:19 pm

Maybe this will work for you?

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:158778

I'm using it on my SO to move the belt off the side of the machine.

etxbkst · Post by **etxbkst** » Thu Jan 28, 2016 7:44 pm

I couldn't come up with a better solution than standoffs either. I will say this: mounting to the outside doesn't protect the wheels as much as I thought they would.

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ijv · Post by **ijv** » Thu Jan 28, 2016 10:46 pm

I couldn't come up with a better solution than standoffs either. I will say this: mounting to the outside doesn't protect the wheels as much as I thought they would.

Hmmm... thats good to know. So are chips landing on the rail getting the wheels dirty or is it something else. Sounds like something to put on the back burner for now.

ijv

etxbkst · Post by **etxbkst** » Thu Jan 28, 2016 11:19 pm

I've mainly cut wood, so that's where my issue lies. My dust shoe gets mostly all of the large chips, and a fair amount of the dust. But that dust... It just covers everything! The rails end up getting caked with it, which of course leads to it clumping on the wheels. If I were to do it over again, I would probably go with the standard configuration and then go with dust covers/side shields for the rails.

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Thinking about moving Y axis plates to the inside, à la SO3

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