I’m putting my modified Shapeoko 1 up for sale. Since I have a Shapeoko 3 now, I don’t really need the S1 anymore.
It’s a great starter machine and quite capable of milling hardwoods at reasonable speed and with good accuracy. I was getting +/- 0.005″ with a little careful work.Continue reading →
I love the DeStaCo quick clamps. They have many varieties. I recently bought some of the push-pull style to make a fixture to mill my .50 BMG inserts.
I used some MDF to make the plate, and glued two blocks on to form a 90 degree corner. Then I added some #8-32 threaded inserts to bolt down three DeStaCo push-pull clamps.Continue reading →
I like using the old school waxed linen string for long bundles of cables. It doesn’t snag on things, it’s mildly soothing to do (once you figure out the right way to do it) and I think it just looks neat. 🙂
McMaster-Carr still sells the string and this is a pretty good guide on how to lace.
Lots of stuff today. Mostly testing and such.
First thing I did was setup the dial indicator to measure the Z flex. I set it up and measured in the X and Y axis with the Z fully retracted and then fully extended.
I wish I had measured it before I made the upgrades so I had a comparison, but oh well. Maybe someone reading this who has a stock S3 can duplicate my measurements.
I did decide that three layers of 3/4″ MDF was too high for the risers, so I glued up some double-thickness risers a couple of days ago.
Then I decided to go down and play around to see if that would be the correct height.
I realized that in order to replace the risers I would have to remove the rails from the end plates. Again. This is because the bolts are directly under the rails. Sigh.
So I took my Shapeoko apart. Again. I’m beginning to worry that I’m going to wear out the threads in the ends of the rails.
I did a whole bunch of work today, but didn’t take a lot of photos because it wasn’t really work that needs them.
I bolted all the wheels to the plates again and then realized that since I had changed the spacers between the wheels and the plates I was going to have to loosen up all the rails again so I could get the distance between them correct. So I had to completely re-level the machine again.
This post describes the process that I used to shim the bearings in my Shapeoko 3 V-Wheels. This process could be used for any V-Wheel assembly whether it’s used on a Shapeoko or some other machine.
The V-Wheels that I received with my Shapeoko 3 were out of tolerance (no fault of Carbide 3D) and the centering ribs were too thin. This lead to the bearings being able to move back and forth in the wheels, causing a loss of accuracy.
(I’ve kind of given up on the Part X numbering at this point…)
Last we heard I was waiting for my shims to arrive for the v-wheels. While I was waiting I decided to checkout out the spacer washers that go between the wheels and the plates.
The first thing I noticed was that there were some burrs on them from the stamping process so I grabbed some 400 grit paper and a flat surface and sanded them down a bit.
I have done some other mods to my S3 so as long as I’m waiting to hear from support I’ll write them up now.
While I don’t think mounting the control board to the back of the X rail is a bad idea, I’m not a huge fan. It makes running the USB and power cables a little problematic and I think the control board could stand to be more shielded from dust and metal shavings.
So I moved it.
Last time we checked in I had determined that the table was indeed pretty flat, so I was going to proceed. So I did.
