Hello. Bit of a random question, am I assume I have not thought off all the issue with my plan so wanted to ask the community if it would work / things I would need to sort to get it to work.
I have the 1000x1000 machine but I just don’t use it deeper than about 300mm. I was wondering to save space in my workshop could I cut the aluminium extrusion down and re assemble the machine smaller ? I assume would need to set a few setting to account for this ?
You can certainly cut the makerslide down just as easily as swapping out parts. You’ll have to tap for m5 screws in the new cut. My machine is a shapeoko2 expanded to 750 x 1000 xcarve with all the bells and whistles up to the last upgrades.
I’d look for shorter used or new parts in case you want to revert to 1000 x 1000.
Inventables still sells this:
Open builds sells this stuff to bolt onto regular 2040 or 4040 extrusion. You need low profile screws for it which they also sell. Amazon is a good source for extrusion but beware that some of it has holes that are already drilled a bit larger than 4.2mm dia which is a little harder to find. That’s where Openbuilds is handy.
The reason I know all this stuff is I’ve been playing a bit with this stuff. I built a CBeam machine to make plates and I’m just wrapping up a smaller 3 axis router to take up less space in my shed than the X carve. It’ll be 500 x 1000 with round linear rails for the Y axis and openbuilds lead screws and C beams for X and Z.
I was surprised, but not surprised that Inventables got away from the parts business, as I tried to be a loyal customer.
These things are like an erector set for adults if you know what I mean. :-).
