S3 XL Work Area Missing 4" at rear

[Dewa.Designs]

I've assembled my S3 according to the instructions (I think) with the DeWalt spindle. The advertising states that the work area is 17 x 33 inches, but mine is only 13 x 33 at best. The lost X axis dimension is at the rear of the machine where the Y gantry comes to a stop. The X axis does advance to the end of the X rails, but it leaves the spindle hanging out in empty space.

[xfredericox]

that is a correct statement

That is why I added a wasteboard that sticks out a bit on the front side.

[WillAdams]

http://www.shapeoko.com/wiki/index.php/ ... 3#Overview

Cutting Area (note that this includes a 2 3/16" overhang area at the front of the machine)

Metric: 425mm x 425mm

[Dewa.Designs]

I'm not comfortable with an unsupported overhanging spoil board hanging out the front. It looks as if I could swap the left and right ends of the Y axis assembly to sacrifice Y axis length (about two inches per side) for X axis travel, resulting in the X axis motors towards the front rather than the rear. Is this feasible? I'm trying to machine from 16 x 32" blanks of material, but the more important dimension is the 16".

[WillAdams]

while you could rotate the gantry motor plates, the intent of the placement is to protect/ hide the wiring and to balance the gantry.

The XL and XXL really need a supplemental wasteboard and a spoil board -- almost 1 1/2 inches of material which ought not to flex over a ~3" span. (Though you would need to route a groove or add a thin spacer for the front edge.

[cvoinescu]

The lost X axis dimension is at the rear of the machine where the Y gantry comes to a stop. The X axis does advance to the end of the X rails, but it leaves the spindle hanging out in empty space.

What the others said -- but, just so you know, you have the X and Y reversed from what we usually refer them as -- and, more importantly, from the instructions, the labels on the control board, the controls in the host software, and the way they're defined in CAD and CAM. The axis with two motors on stationary rails is the Y, and the one with one motor on the gantry is the X -- so the lost work area would come out of Y travel.

If you need them your way and you have the four-driver Carbibe Motion controller, you can swap them by recompiling GRBL with a different pin assignment; or, if you have the three-driver Sparkfun Stepoko, simply by swapping the X and Y motor connections (and reversing one of them).