Upgrade Parts!

[hobbs1210]

any update on the parts ?

[TonyB]

Getting kind of ancy here...

It's been a month and a day since the blog post saying these were promised a quick turn around.

Any news?

I assume it's kind of out of your hands, but it'd be nice to get a solid date :/.

I'm getting tempted to buy some thick aluminum and cut them myself...

[Ing Chao]

^ Pretty much what I'm fixin' to do!
Just got my DW660.

[WillAdams]

Has any sort of consensus been reached as to how thick the aluminum has to be to be strong enough?

Every time I picked up my carriage plate I couldn't help but feel that it's not thick / strong enough....

[SnapFracturePop]

It might depend on the grade of aluminum & how much force you need (how heavy the tool end is, how deep of a pass you plan to make, etc.), but on the end plates, I can't see anything more than 1/4" being necessary. But that's me and the scraps of aluminum I've got lying around.

I just got a drill press & hope to try out the measurements I posted here a while back, if I ever get the time.

[cvoinescu]

I remember having read that aluminum plate 50% thicker than steel plate is about as stiff, but lighter (and more expensive). 4 mm stainless steel endplates seem plenty rigid, so I can't see why you'd need more than 1/4" (6.35 mm) aluminum. By the same logic, if 2 mm steel motor plates are enough, a 3 mm or 1/8" carriage plate should be about the same. However, I made some 4 mm aluminum carriage plates, and I really liked the feel of them compared to the 3 mm ones (but I'm not an engineer, so my "feel" is uncalibrated).

[Jlm]

I've been waiting for these to become available for months. I don't have the equipment to make something similar myself. I've even looked around repeatedly to find someone local to fab them for me, but that always ends up coming out wildly expensive.

I've even had money set aside (several times) to buy them as soon as they're available. I've got several other upgrades I want to do to the machine, but the fundamentals require some open end feet.

[jkanzaki]

inventables said early this week... but its mid week now. So maybe Next week? or the week after?

[NormanF]

inventables said early this week... but its mid week now. So maybe Next week? or the week after?

I solved that problem. I finished an order for some other parts Thursday so they should go on sale in the next couple of days causing me to spend more on shipping.

[NormanF]

Well, I hope they go on sale soon, I kind of need them now. I learned the hard way that you need to take your time when tapping the holes in the rails: the tap sheared off inside the very first hole. I thought, "Hey, this is cutting pretty easy" and got carried away. Luckily I already have a set of taps including 5mm x .8 so I do not have to replace that too. I had planned to widen my machine slightly to 500mm after I got it running in a mostly stock set up (I have the dual Y upgrade) but I might as well do that now as well as upgrade the x-axis with a 40x40 extrusion, openrail, and steel wheels. I need the upgrade parts to handle that.