X always shorter than Y?

I made the leap and ordered the LR2! I am excited to join this community and assemble the LR2. I don’t have much space now and am planning on a 4’x2’ footprint. In the next year, I should have more space and would like to upgrade it to 4’x8’.

I am considering building my first table as a 4’x2’ orientation instead of a 2’x4’. My reasoning would be that I would only have to buy SS tubes once and they could be used later for the 4’x8’ table. This strategy would save money and a little time. One of the first instructions says, “Width (X direction on rails) should always be the shorter axis.” What are the disadvantages of making the Y longer than the X?

If the disadvantages are minor, I’ll continue with my plan otherwise I’ll buy a new set when I upgrade my table size.

It will me more rigid and the gantry will be lighter if you make the short side X. I have a similar build though with the long axis as X (48x36), and it works as well as the 4x8 builds.

If you made the X the short side, you’d have a better performing low rider, until you went to 4x8.

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Thanks for the quick reply! It sounds like increasing the X size decreases the rigidness which may make it less accurate. And increasing the X size increases the weight which would probably make the LR2 slower.

As I don’t have a specific date that I will have a larger workspace, I think I may stick with the shorter X for now. There is a fair chance I may not have access to more space well over a year. Perhaps I will make my own carbon fiber tubes when I want to expand the size. The weight of the longer CF tubes would be lighter than the shorter SS tube. If I use thicker walls I should be able to pull off a stiffer tube than the SS although probably not as rigid as the short SS tube.

That’s about right. I would just point out that the X is fine for most things at 5’ total (48" cutting width). So don’t stress about it so much. I do think starting with smaller pipes is a good idea, and they will be cheaper now, which will help you when/if you upgrade. A 2’x4’ machine is still very large amd capable of a lot of builds.

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Thanks again! I ordered the tubes from Amazon for $95 and I should have them by Tuesday. You are right that 2’x4’ is quite large. I have been using a 20" x 12" laser cutter which has been an issue a few times, but now I will have over 4x the workable area. Having the ability to expand my footprint to 4’x 8’+ later is one of the many awesome selling points of the Low Rider.

I’m buying one also. Gotta save up some more money. Keep me up to date so I can follow the progress. It’ll help my build in a few months. Awesome and congrats!

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I do not have a lowrider, but I do prefer to have my X-axis the long way (landscape instead of Portrait) & I am wondering why the layout in the attached image would not work which would give the x-axis the long way. This makes the gantry still the short side.

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That’s actually how I have my LR set up, but mine is close to square (4’ rails with a 5’ wheeled sides). I think the point Heffe was making is that there will be less deflection of the gantry if the gantry rails are the shortest side. So, 4’ rails with a 2’ travel on the wheeled sides is not as stiff as 2’ rails with a 4’ travel on the wheeled sides.

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The way I have it laid out in the image makes the gantry the short side, but makes it the Y-axis instead of the X-axis. This gives 4’ rails & 8’ travel. Am I missing something here?

It’s confusing (to me) because X and Y can be applied to either direction. I also like to have X going from left to right when I’m standing at the machine. The assumption I made is that Henage was talking about the pipe axis, and we used X as shorthand.

The layout you drew is how I would set it up if I were to do it again.

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Ok, another question. If you have it wired with X-axis on the rails & your electronics and connections are not too tied to the opposite side of the board, wouldn’t it be possible to just swap the X & Y motor wires on the electronics? You would also have to turn around the now Y motor wiring connection on the electronics so the positive direction is going opposite of what it was before. On my MPCNC, I initially had it wired with the short side as my X & did this method to turn it around.

Yes, but the question was really all about which side to make the pipes and which to make the belt. The conclusions is thay you’ll get a lowrider++ if you use the short side for the pipes, but you’ll have to buy new, longer pipes to increase the size to 4’x8’. Alternatively, you can use full sized pipe axis, and a shorter belt, and end up with similar performance to the full sized low rider, and be able to expand it to 4x8 by just rebuilding the table.

The actual X and Y don’t matter, and can be changed by rewiring. The only thing that matters is Z is up and you follow the right hand rule.

As jeffeb3 already mentioned, it was my confusing choice of words. What you are explaining here is what is recommended for a 2’x4’ build and is what I am building now.

Ok, sorry I made a mountain out of a mole hill. I missed that part about going from 4’x2’ to 4’x8’ later on.