Tag: upgrade
LAYZOR upgrades
Yeah I know. I haven’t even spent any time using the finished v1 LAYZOR and I’m already upgrading it again 🙂 The thing was, I had to disassemble the machine partly in order to finish th... Read More
2016 upgrade roundup
Here’s a summary of the whole process of upgrading my machine from a pretty much vanilla setup to the beast I have at my disposal today: 1. X-axis stiffening 2. Y-axis and more 3. Re-assembly ... Read More
Shapeoko upgrade (12) – wasteboard + closing up
Last but not least, I decided to put a new wasteboard in place. I had 2 pieces of 6 mm MDF cut to 750 x 750 mm panels. Then, cut a hole pattern in both of them that matches my threaded insert spacing.... Read More
Shapeoko upgrade (11) – new Makita mounting brackets
Ever since I installed the linear rail Z-axis, my spindle hasn’t been mounted perfectly perpendicular to my bed. The old mounts were a tad flimsy and not 100% identical.  The widening of t... Read More
Shapeoko upgrade (10) – Gecko G540 / Mach3
I actually almost forgot to write a little something about maybe one of the more substantial yet invisible upgrades: I ditched the whole Arduino/Gshield setup and bought a real CNC controller: theÂ... Read More
Shapeoko upgrade (9) – Drag chain bracket
Next project on the block: making a new drag chain bracket. I actually made one ages ago mostly with hand tools, and it worked to a degree, but there definitely was some room for improvement. So here... Read More
Shapeoko upgrade (8) – Aluminium Z-plate
A new day, a new project. Today: cutting a plate for the final version of my Z-stage out of 4mm aluminium. Why have a plate and belt drive at all instead of direct drive? Well I mentioned this before:... Read More
Shapeoko upgrade (7) – New belts, pulleys and idlers
Ok, so now that I have the much more powerful 276 oz-in NEMA 23 motors driving my machine, I went on and replaced all the pulleys and idlers in order to have them accept 9mm GT3 belting. I do this... Read More
Shapeoko upgrade (6) – New motors
Phew. It’s been a while! As I mentioned earlier, I did some traveling and I also needed to do some projects around the house during summer, so there was hardly any time left to put into hobby... Read More
Leaving on a holiday…
But I couldn’t resist showing the upgrades I have in store when I come back. 🙂... Read More
Shapeoko upgrade (5) – Z-axis
Originally, I was going to start using my Shapeoko again for other projects after having completed the last batch of upgrades. But for some reason I got it in my head to order some more parts and kee... Read More
Shapeoko upgrade (4) – First cut
Well it is finally time to test out my upgraded Shapeoko. I finished it by adding an LED strip underneath the X-rail and put the enclosure back over it. So here it is in all it’s glory: I must ... Read More
Shapeoko upgrade (3) – Re-assembly and troubleshooting
Final day of my Shapeoko rebuild. Once again, I did a lot of small modifications and corrections. First of all, I took out the locked up bearing I noticed the other day, and pried off the shielding. ... Read More
Shapeoko upgrade (2) – Y-axis and more
Today I proceeded with the Shapeoko upgrade. Nothing massive, but a lot of small things that took some time anyhow. I checked, and where necessary, fastened all screws/bolts. I flattened all of the ... Read More