The descriptions says that the new 60mm rails are twice at stiff as the outgoing 50mm rails. Just curious why not make both x and y on the new 60mm rails? Also, the z axis has changed, but has it been beefed up at all or were the “wings” just removed for more travel?
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I don’t know if 1F beefed up the Z axis but I did read in a response from them at launch that removing the wings (which I understand were for mounting dust boots?) allowed them to gain the extra travel.
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Hard to say, but probably because of overall cost and there is far more torque on the z axis while cutting, necessitating the upgrade for better rigidity.
-Tom
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I guess thinking about it out loud, the Y axis runs on four 50mm rails and driven by 2 ball screws and steppers, vs the X only having 2 rails and one ball screw/motor. Cross sectional area of Y rails is about 7850 sq/mm vs 5652 sq/mm for the new X. Old 50mm rails would have been 3925 sq/mm. Looking at an increase of about 44 percent more cross sectional area without “stiffy”. Old gantry with “stiffy” actually gives more cross sectional area but only by 235ish sq/mm. If they come out with a “stiffy” for the new X, cross sectional area well surpasses the old X with “stiffy” by a lot, and even surpasses Y at a whopping 8478 sq/mm. I know the 80mm Z spindle mount has been beefed up a bunch looking at the launch video…hard to see, but to my eye, it does seem like the rest of the Z has added thickness in certain areas as well. WHY ARE THERE NOT MORE VIDEOS OF THE NEW MACHINES IN ACTION! I’m a batch 2 and have to wait until Feb…I need something @Onefinity to keep me busy until then:) Current nerd-out session over.
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Another thought for you in regards to the differences in total rigidity between the Elite Gen 1 Machines and the new machines is that the Y rails on Gen 1 were 35mm. In Summary:
Gen 1:
Y Rail - 35mm (4 total, 2 each on the left and right)
X Rail - 50mm (2 or 3 total depending on if you have the option stiffy upgrade)
Gen 2:
Y Rail - 50mm (4 total, 2 each on left and right)
X Rail - 60mm (2 total, as 1F isn’t offering and doesn’t seem to need to offer a stiffy upgrade)
In my mind, even though I stuck with the Gen 1 machine when I had a chance to cancel my Batch 2 Redline for the possibility of something newer, the Gen 2 machine should be substantially more rigid than Gen 1 for less total cost (at least apparently, outside of launch and black Friday deals), and complexity. I’m still happy with/my decision to stick with the Batch 2, but I think 1F is doing a great job of increasing the state of the art of their machines while doing everything they can to hold costs down.
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Ah, I assumed that gen1 at some point got updated to 50mm rails on all axis? So even anything x50 still ran 35mm on Y?
Thanks and interesting!
No, I don’t think his information is correct. I have a buildbotics X50 with stiffy and all of the rails are the same size 50mm.
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I just received my Journeyman Elite Redline Batch 2 and the rail sizes are as I stated. Which made me wonder, are the 50mm rails only on the Y axis on the Foreman (48” x 48”) size machines? And that is indeed the case according to the Gen 1 product spec sheet where 1F explicitly enumerates the rail sizes for the Journeyman and the Elite, though it didn’t appear to mention the Woodworker.
I did not find a explicit reference to Y rail sizes based on machine size on the Gen 2 spec sheet, so I can’t at this time say with confidence what the Y rail size will be across the Gen 2 series.
Apologies if I gave anyone misinformation previously, as they say never attribute to malice that which can be explained by stupidity. 
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Gen 1 Elite:
FM: x50 y50
JM: x50 yx35
WW: x50 yx35
Gen 2 Elite:
FM: x60 y50
JM: x60 y50
WW: x60 y50
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Thanks, want to add any info about the new Z? Does it have anymore beefiness over the older gen1 z20? Any insight on why not 60mm all the way around? 