Shrink my ShopBot?

[fredtoo]

What to do, my 96-60-6 PRS Alpha purchased new in November of 2009 won't fit well in my garage with all the rest of my shop. My thought is to modify it so it's a 60-60-6... Any thoughts on that?

[coryatjohn]

Fifteen minutes with an assortment of dangerous and noisy tools would do it if you have the middle leg. Otherwise, it's going to take longer.

[Kyle Stapleton]

I would see if anyone would like to trade rails (and add some cash), seems like a shame to cut them up.

[EricSchimel]

You can shorten them if you want, you have to cut down the long X rails.

I'd recommend against dangerous and noisy tools though. Using a hack saw or a cut off wheel will technically work but it will create a horrible edge that'll be sharp and look bad. Find a machine shop with a cold saw. If you haven't seen one it's essentially a chop saw that's liquid cooled and spins at a very low RPM with high torque. When cutting metal it will leave a near mirror finish on the end cut that will need almost no post cleanup.

You will have to fully disassemble that machine though as you'll need to bring the rails to a shop. When you do cut them down really measure it out carefully to make sure the gantry will have enough room to reach wherever you want on the table.

The legs and cross braces are easy to deal with because they all bolt into that rail with sliding T nuts. Essentially that means that you can move them around anywhere you want. You already have enough parts on hand to make a nice base. You could even gather up the cross braces and put them closer together under your spoilboard for a little extra support.

Another reason to spend a few bucks and do a really nice cut is you might be able to sell your rails to someone here. I've seen people do mods where they've wanted to extend machines, or swap the rails out for various reasons.

Since you're essentially going to be stripping this machine down (save for leaving the gantry as one piece) this might be a good time to do some tuning up.. New pinions, etc. That's all to say that this is far more than a 15 minute job!