New Canadian primo j

Yes steel can be a bit tricky
Tube and pipe are two different things in strength and it the way they are measured.
I chose the primo j bc it was for 1” od generally speaking 304ss is the most common as it’s used in the food industry for food safe.
The usual deal breaker with finding stuff is getting it shipped.
I too live in the middle of no where and had to get it shipped.
Now there is a couple things that would dramatically lower the cost of that.
Like order a 30’ length of 304 ss 1” od tube.
Get a tubing cutter from Canadian tire that will handle that size. Then you can go to the place and take it out to the parking lot and cut it up quickly to fit in a car.
Or you could pay a buddy to grab it and pre pay at the metal place and have him cut in half etc.
The metal shops will cut things but it’s at a cost. Usually not much but I am a real cheap bugger so.
If you know anyone who does industrial kitchens, welds or works for winery fabrication they could get some.
I am down in Osoyoos btw.
At work we order a lot of metal and millennium and metal supermarkets are the best.
Some metal places will have what they call a crop rack.
That’s basically a spot that has smaller cut offs usually under 4’ sections. But the chances they have all of what you want is unlikely but worth a shot.
Like action steel in Penticton bc.

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Thanks for spotting, I thought 1.05 would have been close enough, but never went the final step and multiplied by 2.54… doh.
I’ll try some other options, was staying away from DOM as I didn’t like the idea of dealing with rust.

Thanks for the suggestions, I live a little closer to “the City” so I shouldn’t have a problem, I think I was just looking in the wrong place by looking for pipe rather than tube.

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That’s fair. I live in colorado. Which is very dry. Rust is really just a theory here, unless you leave something in the snow.

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I’ve found a local supplier of both DOM and stainless steel, so I’m going to look and pick some up on Saturday.

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Shared some other options here (ignore online pricing for metal supermarkets, talk to their sales if considering them):

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Thanks, lot of good information there.
I did email back and forth with metal supermarket today and get some quotes.

Just picked up some more tubing 20’ cost me 86.00 and they cut it into 5’ lengths for me free.
I really should bring those guys some tim hortons next time.
Anyways my plan is to extend my x axis so I can fit a 889mm width roll of Eva boat foam flooring in. “That was the whole justification with the wife as to why I built it “
Just wondering if there are any large x axis machines that have long tubes but have it made so you can shrink it down again and use the smaller preferred size.

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First thing I have designed in free cad and then cut. Not amazing but was a lot of fun.
Making cutout pockets for the bottom of my table to add casters.

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I have resisted the urge to extend the mpcnc and decided I will make a low rider.
Does anyone use their mpcnc board and tft for both their machines.
I do realize there is some differences with the firmware end stops etc.

I suppose that it’s possible to re-flash the firmware for differences with the SKR Pro board, but I don’t know that I’d want to do that the flash ROM. Repeated erasing and rewriting will shorten the life of the board.

I had an idea go through my head about setting up a firmware with 2 X, 2 Y and 2 Z drivers (Using all 6 drivers on the SKR Pro) With no switch in place, the unused end stops would report as triggered, and the unused motors would stop and report as homed (I think).

Two problems:

  1. The Primo uses the touch plate (NO switch) for Z and the LR uses NC switches for Z. Also the Primo homes Z down while the LowRider homes Z up. I suppose you could get around this by adding a Z Max NC switch to the Primo, probably the cleanest way

  2. With the LR, we use one of the Z stop ports for the touch plate, and we normally use the S Min stop on the Primo for the touch plate. Now we need all 6 endstops. You would need another data pin for the touchplate, preferably a buffered and protected one.

If you have the ability to modify the firmware, this is a potential solution.

Honestly though, I think it’s more trouble than it’s worth

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Thank you very much for your advice!!

I think I will let my builds sourcing decide what get what.
If I can get a Bart ding board then I will use that for the Zenxy and use the skrpro I just bought for the lr3.

Really I just wanted to use the lr3 to cut a hole inside my table that will make the glass sit flush for Zenxy.

Then it would probably sit not used for a while until I start the boat floor foam project.

I really should have dug into the cnc’s differences better before building. lr3 was probably better suited for me at the start.
I am really in no position rn to alter firmware and adjust pins etc. It’s best I stay aligned with the norms and piggy back off all the other builds.
These things are addictive.

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Tell me about it.

I built a Primo, then an MP3DPv2 then a ZenXY, then the ZenXYv2, then a LR2, then the MP3DP Repeat, then the LR3, and I’m considering the Repeat V2…

Hi, my name is Dan, and I’m an addict…

Ive had some other priorities in life this past couple of months, but actually these machines don’t tend to sit idle for too long. Admittedly they’re mostly building other machines, I have my CoreXY laser engraver, LR inspired panel saw, router table (rebuild in progress) and a few other peojects, but I also have an 80 year old house that needs a few things.

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Hahaha that’s awesome, it really is addicting. I have almost all my stuff for zen xy and lr3 now. It’s just so much fun building things and having a great community to help you with. Can’t wait to get the zen xy going.
Also I am trying my absolute hardest not to look at the laser stuff.

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Well In the quest to use new tools sometimes you must over complicate things lol
Needed a recess in a base board for a cover plate.
Yes sure I could have just used the router as it was intended, but that wouldn’t force me to learn more and use the new tool.
I did find some things that helped me anyways I am sure this is all common knowledge but I will list it anyways.
Some green tape worked great as a dust shoe for the vacuum, cheap easy to attach and also easy to move out of way to change bits.

Upcut bits like to grab the material and thread themselves out of the collet easy. I used some red and tacky grease on the collets to help it slide seemed to help

Base board seemed to work good as a straight edge I could use to get my piece centered in my work area.
I placed it against the feet of the y axis and used a square to get it straight. The first pocket I did I just eyeballed it so that’s why it’s slightly crooked.

Very impressed with the accuracy on these machines. I did diagonal test and it was a little less than .1mm off.

I know it’s pretty basic but so am I :slight_smile:

Such fun cutting a 16’ piece of material, pretty versatile IMO.




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The dust boot not to be confused with das boot.
Worked very well for the fine dust. Almost considered hair charging balloon for static cling of the fine stuff.

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Well, if you start saying, “we have got to get the water out”, then you probably switched to water cooled spindle… :smile:

Awesome movie btw

Had some fun doing test cuts in acrylic worked good but the longer cuts the bit got hot and the material started to stick.
I never tried using air or anything. I am going to pickup some mdf tonight to cut up the proper pieces for my lr3 build.
So much fun

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I have not done much acrylic. Besides air or coolant, I would think lower rpm, or faster feedrate to get bigger chips. I do have a few chunks laying around. I really need to try some again.

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It was a lot of fun to just mess around.
I used a single flute upcut 3mm.
I started at 20mms then tried 22.5mms and it didn’t seem to help much. For the first bit it was throwing nice swarf for sure. Then it was molten balls of plastic.
I was going to use two pieces of acrylic stacked together for the lr3 xy and xz plates for the lr3 but it’s quite flexible so I think I will stop at the lumber yard and get some mdf.

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