Currently printing out parts and ordered Lowrider kit. Anyone build a 5 foot x axis machinej? Would love to cut full sheets of Baltic birch. Would use thick steel tubes (weight a problem?) 1inch OD. Is this just too wide and cause too much deflection in the center? Weight overpower or slow it down? Will go 4 foot if I have to.
Thanks for any suggestions, Mark
I have a 4x4 right now and I don’t notice much deflection. I’m using mild steel tubes at the recommended thickness. If I get a chance tonight, I’ll do a deflection test to see what the difference is between the ends and the center.
It is definitely worth trying it. I think it will work fine, as long as you’re doing through-hole cuts. It will be OK with carving (v-bits have width errors proportional to their error in Z), as long as you keep those jobs smaller.
I wouldn’t really increase the thickness of the tubing too much, if at all. From basically a 5’ span to a 6’ span, I don’t think the extra weight of something like double thickness will do you any favors.
The length component doesn’t really matter, as long as you can make a table that long. What matters would be the tubing dimension.
Some things to keep in mind: You can always cut it shorter, or buy more tubing to make it larger. The width between the wheels is going to be larger than the work area. So if your goal is to just fit the sheet into the machine, you would be pretty close without making the machine any larger. If you want to cut the entire area, then the total width would be closer to 6’. A circular saw and a “door board” sit right next to my machine in the garage. I use them all the time to cut down sheets before I feed the CNC. It is easier in my mind to work with the smaller pieces and throw away the smaller scraps. I do understand the desire to cut whole sheets though, just not sure what to do with an assortment of 5x5 sheets with holes in parts of them…
Thanks for the responses! Haven’t bought the pipe yet. Will use the calculator to consider the correct size. Worst case scenario too much flex or whatever, can cut down to size and convert to 4x. Will let everyone know… About half way done printing parts. Have an Ecubmaker which is a pretty slow printer, but no errors yet and pieces very strong with 30% infill.