barrowj
05-16-2016, 08:05 AM
While I haven’t been as active posting here as most of you, my day job kept me much busier these last few years than ever before. To be honest, I bought my current Shopbot in August 2014 and it was a good but very used machine. The price was right so I had no issues with doing a few updates to it. I too had the communication issues and after months of dealing with it I was finally able to resolve them and have had no issues since.
I recently bought a modified Rikon lathe for my indexer, Brady Watson did an excellent job modifying this to work flawlessly as an indexer. I was able to do a few basic rotary items getting my feet wet and they were fairly easy, now looking forward to Jim’s Aspire Camp for the rotary presentations.
I also contacted Gary Campbell around the same time to inquire about his Reduction drives and “Z”. I was trying to purchase all of this prior to retiring in May. I received the Reduction drives and “Z” about a month ago and began the installation which was very simple and easy to do. The belt reduction units have cleaned up the rest of my issues and along with the new “Z” it is running real smooth.
The belt reduction units on the X and Y are a 4:1 ratio and use high torque (HTD) belts. The 3/8 aluminum components make for a more rigid assembly than the previous setup with a single plate. With the provided 24T pinion my resolution has almost doubled to over 2100 steps per inch with much more power. These combine to make my cuts very smooth, especially circles and angles.
My old Z unit was tired and I was not able to keep the V rollers tight enough to eliminate play when the bit was lowered to cutting height. This new ballscrew unit with linear rails and air counterbalance runs smooth as silk and will allow me to add a drill in the future. The improved power and resolution allows me to accomplish 3D cutting at higher speeds and still be very smooth.
I can’t thank Brady and Gary enough for their help and patience with me during the installations. I have also completed 2 3d carvings which turned out to be my best yet without doing any tweaking which will come later. I just recently retired (May 1st) and will be doing more with my woodworking now that I have the time.
I failed to take pictures of the installation of my upgrades but I do have post pics which are below, don’t hesitate to let me know if you have any questions.
I recently bought a modified Rikon lathe for my indexer, Brady Watson did an excellent job modifying this to work flawlessly as an indexer. I was able to do a few basic rotary items getting my feet wet and they were fairly easy, now looking forward to Jim’s Aspire Camp for the rotary presentations.
I also contacted Gary Campbell around the same time to inquire about his Reduction drives and “Z”. I was trying to purchase all of this prior to retiring in May. I received the Reduction drives and “Z” about a month ago and began the installation which was very simple and easy to do. The belt reduction units have cleaned up the rest of my issues and along with the new “Z” it is running real smooth.
The belt reduction units on the X and Y are a 4:1 ratio and use high torque (HTD) belts. The 3/8 aluminum components make for a more rigid assembly than the previous setup with a single plate. With the provided 24T pinion my resolution has almost doubled to over 2100 steps per inch with much more power. These combine to make my cuts very smooth, especially circles and angles.
My old Z unit was tired and I was not able to keep the V rollers tight enough to eliminate play when the bit was lowered to cutting height. This new ballscrew unit with linear rails and air counterbalance runs smooth as silk and will allow me to add a drill in the future. The improved power and resolution allows me to accomplish 3D cutting at higher speeds and still be very smooth.
I can’t thank Brady and Gary enough for their help and patience with me during the installations. I have also completed 2 3d carvings which turned out to be my best yet without doing any tweaking which will come later. I just recently retired (May 1st) and will be doing more with my woodworking now that I have the time.
I failed to take pictures of the installation of my upgrades but I do have post pics which are below, don’t hesitate to let me know if you have any questions.