Max Z Travel & Max Density Tool Racks

[Aiph5u ((not affiliated with Onefinity))]

Hey Adam,

@adamfenn28

I think the slider design is a series of trade-offs. I have considered replacing mine as well. In my case it wasn’t to reduce deflection. I’m not noticing that deflection is a problem for me. With wood, my guess is that most people won’t notice problems with deflection on this machine.

At least not when they clamp the spindle at the height that you do, I would assume.

@adamfenn28

I was prepping to replacing the Z-slider to get more travel. With the rotary mounted on top of the table, it’s a close call with one of the tools I need to use with the rotary.

this could also be solved with a u-shaped base instead of a table top. That’s what I plan to weld, with the capability to mount workplates or wasteboards at different heights. And a rotary axis with workplates removed.

But the Z travel needs to be increased anyway.

Have you seen that on some gantry-type CNC machines, there is an additional axis in Z direction that moves the entire gantry up and down? This is a concept that I’d like.

@Aiph5u

– Source: Kief, Hans B., Roschiwal, Helmut A., and Schwarz, Karsten: CNC-Handbuch, 31., überarbeitete Auflage 2020, Carl Hanser Verlag, München
Image: The description of a gantry-type CNC machine in a German textbook on CNC machinery (please don’t be confused by the fact they use X for Y and vice-versa, and that they have an additional W axis with which you can lower and higher the entire X axis to accomodate different workpiece heights.)