X-Carve Upgrade: Stiffening X and Y Axis 

it was very kind of you to show the Inventables how to make their product better)

This is the best stiffening mod that I have seen so far! I was going to try this a while ago and even bought the 40x4 aluminium but I stopped because I didn't want to drill through my rails, this DIY I beam is a great idea! Also I like the homemade T slot nuts, they are quite expensive to buy on the internet for some reason. Thanks for the great video!

love that table saw. Your knowledge and thought process are beyond your years. Good Job! love your videos

I purchased an x-carve 2 days ago (will arrive soon) and I am definitely doing this to the CNC. Thank you very much for your video. Awesome idea!

Thank you Marius, we appreciate you taking the time and effort to produce and post this. Happy making!

i was really waiting for your take on stiffening the machine. I've seen people use flat stock steel and thought that must be hell to work with and add a lot of excess weight for the motors. very awesome, thank you

This is an excellent tutorial format. You do a great job of carefully noting each step and giving detailed video related to the commentary. Nice work!

Marius thanks for sharing this and providing a great upgrade that many can do. Appreciate the time filming it realizing it added a lot more work.

Really amazing amount of effort and consistency, you are far more patient than I ever was at that age (Or now, for that matter). Great work!

Really great upgrades. Nice job keeping them nondestructive, yet still providing a great amount of strength.

Great upgrades. A stiffer rail system is a good feature especially for precision work. Thanks for sharing.

This should become an accessory avaiable in the Inventables store :)

I like your style of working!

Talk about bad-asses, Marius, you are one bad-assed woodworker. Nice build. Thanks for sharing.

This video above the others I've watched makes me want to pick up an X-Carve. Terrific upgrade. Thank you.

That sound at 4:57 :D Much satisfied!

You make great videos Marius,informative,clever and funny 😁😂 Great work from a talented young man,keep it going 👍👏👏

Good job Marius. Your modification is so neat & tidy that it looks like an original part of the machine. And it appears to have removed a great deal of the flex.

A great piece of Engineering on your part! Great video and solution. Thanks for sharing

Nice work! Eagerly awaiting 'pretty soon'

Thank you for this excellent video!!!! I have the smaller version of the x-carve and have debated enlarging it, but was worried about the flex others have talked about.

Very nice video Marius. Well explained and the edit of the videos was also on point! Keep it up :)

Looks like you make a lot of improvement! Great work!

yup those are all great upgrades thats for sharing

I like how you make their stuff even better :) A point though, the vertical section in an I beam doesn't do much except hold the flanges apart. The flanges make most of the bending resistance and torsion resistance.

Great video Buddy, amazing precision and and ideas, thanks a bunch for sharing.

very nice work Marius! Another thing you might look to do as well is to use a shorter cutter. This will help reduce chatter and increase accuracy even more. I am not sure it is used in woodworking, but in metalworking we use fairly sophisticated endmills with varying helixes. Great job!

That is a great up grade .

Excellent vid! lots of work to stiffen up an expensive machine. I decided to go with the Shapeoko XXL. It's arriving tomorrow! I'm like a kid that's about to go to Disneyland I can't wait! Using Fusion 360 to do CAD and CAM. It's beautiful software!

Nice job Marius!

You are going to be an awesome engineer!

A few drops of paraffin (usually applied with an old toothbrush) helps keep cutting surfaces clean when cutting Aluminium. It does tend to clog cutting surfaces, so this protects your tools for woodwork.

very nice. smart upgrade, good job

Superb makes that machine worth looking at now.

I didn't realise how weak the X-Carve is compared to the OpenBuilds OX!. My X axis has three 60x20 sections and I suspect I could almost stand on it with no deflection! Good video, Cheers.

You're a genius!! Congratulations.

Nice upgrade!!

Really good working, congratulations ^^

Bravo Kid! i like the precision you work with! and the ideas..:)

Nice modifications. Hope that Inventables takes notice and maybe incorporates some of these things.

Great video and ideas Marius! I need to do all of those to mine.

Great Upgrade!!!

Good job 👍, Nice upgrade 😎🛠️.. I will upgrade mine too 🏃🏻‍♂️🏃🏻‍♂️

Awesome ideas! well... except for making your own T-nuts :P But this is becoming less of an x-carve by the minute. You should swap out that x-carve label for one that says "Marius-carve" or something. It's your own machine now :)

Very well done Marius, thank you, cheers.

similar mods are my own bucket list, I think the dust nozzle is first though! :-)

Great vid!

Great video!

Hey Marius tolles Video macht immer Spaß deine Videos zu schauen :) Kleiner Tipp von mir: wenn du dass nächste mal Aluminium bohrst oder Gewinde schneidest benutz Spiritus zum schmieren da Schneidöl oder andere Öle für Aluminium nicht besonders geeignet sind. Top Video 👍

So young and so smart!

GREAT video Marius. I think Inventables should send you their beta machines for your testing and review. The upgrades to the machine cost very little (especially if you use their buying power) but the end results would far exceed the cost factor. Good job on your videos.

i need a CNC machine for my jobs . i envy about yours man !

This upgrades should be standard on the x-carve. Also the wooden sideboards are a nice idea. Prevents the rails from collecting dust and metal chips (which can be really bad)

Great job

Bravo !!! Great video thanks

A big thumbs up good job.

Your concept of making the rail stiffer is good, but you would have much better results gluing the reinforcements in using epoxy besides using the screws. Good job with replacing the spindle!

Well done

You're a genius.

thank you. Marius

While you had the waste board out, you could have trimmed a bit off the top too, to regain access to the board zero.

You could use the higher settings for hogging out large sections if need be, although this would work best if you can change the feedrate in during the operation in the code. I know CNC Mills use this concept however I don't know if your CNC will have it. Also what kind of end mills are you using? are they meant for wood or maching of non ferrous metals? Also something that may greatly improve the precision and speed of these projects may be to invest in higher end, end mills. I'm not sure for wood, but 2 flutes is usually perfect for even aluminum and 4 flutes is better for steel. Just a little tip from someone who has done work in a machining shop.

Great job, and it seems to be much better. Have a nice week. But 40 small pices :)

Good idea :)

cool umgesetzt die Optimierungen :-)

You should have use your bandsaw for cutting the t-nuts. Great video! Thumbs up!

I hope X-carve gives you something for a great modification.

It's worth mentioning that Aluminium is one of those metals that can and will flash off / explode when it's in a fine dust or powder, should you frequently use your table saw for it... unless it would need an oxidising agent so otherwise you should be safe, hah. Aluminium powder in fireworks though is cool and exiting.

Very good and practical upgrade. I haven't received my x carve yet but one question... in the aluminium extrusion of the x axis is the void down it's length square or maybe rectangular. Could a suitable length of square/rectangle section have been used instead of creating an I beam... just a thought.

Very interesting ideas! so the aluminum I profile you created actually preloads both gantry profiles or just sits there tight waiting for the force to appear?

Thanks for the nice video. Here is my subscription.

How thick are the aluminum peaces for the X axis support? Also, is there a template or design file anywhere of theses modification parts?

I have a 2017 xcarve and purchased the upgrade kit. Do you think your upgrades to your gantry would hold a 2.2 spindle

nice video thanks

Wow, and only 1 outtake! :p

If I send you more Spectraply can you do another video on it?

I saw your initial review video on the X-carve and one of the biggest issues you seemed to have with it was shipping from the US. Now you can get it from the UK so importing isn't an issue, would you say it was a good purchase (if you do pay for it)?

You are a very talented young man. Is there any problem with the waste board being MDF? Should this be replaced with say marine ply?

Marius, do you tink it is worth it to fix everything thats wrong with the X-carve vs bilding a custum sns?

Thanks for the video! I may do the same type of structural improvements to hold steady my new water cooled spindle, I just recently aquired. ;{)------

Love the new sides, those made a big difference. I'm curious about the bit, feed speed, and RPMs you have settled on for plywood.

Hello ... you could tell me where you bought the lathe scanner .. (x-Carve )

What thickness plates did u use for y rail supports....my calculation seems to be about 4.5 mm space pervside which would be about 3/16 stock....i have 1/8'stock qnd ill juat use a washer to make up the 1/16 difference....i dont want to buy new material

Gutes arbeit.

Where do you get these Kess spindles? Can't find them here in Canada

Good upgrades. Have you checked your waste-board flatness with an engineers straight edge? Mine was horrible before I rebuilt the machine.

perfect 👍

May I ask where did you buy the machine? The only official distributor of X-Carve for Europe I found is RoboSavvy from UK, but they don't even answer questions to their sales email.

Hi Marius. I have asked Jeremy this exact same question, but if you were to get another X-Carve, which one would you choose? I would love the 1x1 meter model, but it's large and bulky and I would have nowhere to store it. Do you think the 75x75 cm version is large enough for most uses and would it suffice without strenghtening? Would it be better to just get the largest model if you get it for free?

Guten morgen Marius! Eine frage ich bin aus Schweden und es ist sehr schwer gut pits zu kaufen. Wo kauft du deine ??

Nice

good work,,, By the way ,, why you didn`t use the CNC to mark and drill the holes ? i believe that process took you very long time !

OK, @8:35 you should be able to see that a lot of your 'play' is because of the single mount on the spindle. Why not design a second mount to hold the spindle body from higher up?

Hi Marius erstmal cooles video DAUMEN HOCH!! Mal ne Frage warum hast du die Eisenteile für die t nur nicht mit der tks geschnitten weil du doch so ein Metalschneide blatt hast?

Would this Machine cut aluminum now ?

I noticed you have a Record Power grinder. A machine shop in my area sells some Record Power tools (mostly lathes, some dust extraction), but I am not familiar with their reputation. What kind of quality are they?

hey marius ich hab da mal ne frage zur steuerung (Hardware) der CNC fräse. ich bin mir eine änliche anlage am selbstbauen, ich schrittmotor treiber (Leistungsstufen) werden über breakoutboard von mach 3 aus angesteuert, soweit komm ich klar. die leistungsstufen haben nen input für die motoren zwischen 24 und 80 Volt. jetzt hab ich mir mal die daten der verfügbaren motoren angesehen und muß feststellen das diese selten mehr als 4 Volt (bei 7 Ampere) haben wollen. hast du die möglichkeit an deiner steuerung im betrieb mal nachzumessen wieviel Volt deine Steuerungen zum motor schicken (ne info wieviel volt reingehen wäre auch nicht schlecht) . ich weiß du hast wenig zeit, würdest mir aber nen RIESIGEN gefallen damit tun . ich hoffe ich hör von dir

Anyone know if this is still an issue with the latest version they recently released?

Gutes Video und noch bessere Optimierung! Mich wundert es nur, dass die CNC so viel spiel hat. Ist das bei allen X-Carve so?

which spindle motor you are using