Desktop with 9.5 inch Z modification

[Max Girouard]

Long story short, last year I was reluctantly getting ready to sell my desktop, and purchase another machine from another company that had approximately the same footprint, but more Z travel. Having really enjoyed the excellent customer service I have received during the ownership of my machine, as well as being very comfortable with the operating software, it was a decision that I did not want to make, but had to in order to be able to machine the parts I was needing to help the business grow. A local builder came down to check out my machine with the intention of purchasing one and wanted to see how mine ran. He asked me if there were any issues with the machine in general before he bought one. I told him I loved it in every way, except for the short Z travel. He then said that he may have a way to get more Z travel. He ended up purchasing a machine and sent the X and Z plates to his father who among being an incredible inventor is an excellent machinist as well. He re-designed the X and Z plates to allow for the extended travel. The bearings and rail were reversed so that the rail was now on the X plate and the bearings are on the Z plate. The X plate was also made thicker than the stock plate, and there was an addition of a tensioner spring to take the weight off the Z plate and router. I was able to get the mod swapped out in about 45 minutes total. I'm now happy to say that I no longer have to sell my machine as it will do anything I want it to after the mod. Here is a lousy video I made of the machine doing a little Z travel. WARNING, I am a terrible producer and camera operator and I talk too much, so be warned!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hT3CaGdBVk4

[Max Girouard]

As seen in these photos, I'm now able to run my experimental neck out of 12/4 sugar maple being held by a couple machinist vices on top of a 3/4 base. Then I can switch it out and run delicate parts like our F5 peg head overlay. I've seen absolutely no loss of accuracy after the mod. Just for size reference, the tendril coming of the G in our inlay script is 0.015 wide.

[scottp55]

Nice Max!
Should be Great for luthiers:)
Are you happy with accuracy?
You should include info if Marty's Dad is interested in doing any more of them and show it with the long bit doing the "Foot?" of the neck.
Doing my Shopbot Z-kit Saturday hopefully(it's enough for us at the moment and we had 2 machines to do and money is tight).
Looks like you're all set now:)
scott

[scottp55]

Oops, missed pics. Love your inlay work!

[Max Girouard]

Still prototyping the fixture that will hold the neck you see in the photo upside down to do the heel. The heel is about 2.3 inches deep and I'll be using a 2.5 end mill followed by a 2.5 ball mill. So even with these longer bits and a vacuum fixture I've got Z to spare which includes a safe Z pull up of 2 inches!!!!!! I ran several tests before and after of my most intricate part and I saw absolutely no difference in accuracy. If anything, the slight warble I was getting in the tendril of the G is now gone, so that would make me believe it was more accurate after the mod. But that could be due to the router being not completely true prior to the mod.

[JimmyD]

You do awesome work. I am jealous........................

[Max Girouard]

Thanks Jim! Due to my new capabilities, I plan on doing some really exciting stuff early next year!