Onefinity XL - 48" x 32.25" Cutting Area

Feature Requests
1

Very impressed with the machine, so much thought and consideration of home/small business users and first time users is evident in the design and approach. I wanted to share something that I’ve learned over the last nine months with my existing 30x30 from another (also good) vendor. If Onefinity is headed in this direction I may just sell my current machine and upgrade.

HOW DO YOU GET STOCK HOME?

One item I wanted to share is that those same users often don’t have easy access to large vehicles to carry stock home to work with. As a result we are often dependent on the home center having a panel saw (ideally) or table saw to cut the sheet goods down for us so we can load them in our cars or SUVs.

OPTIMIZING CUTS

For my current setup with a nice machine from another vendor, I’ve settled on the very convenient and cost effective (if you have to pay per cut) approach of generally getting the 4x8 sheet cut down with two equal cuts at 32" and 64". This leaves you with 3 x 32" x 48" pieces per standard sheet (or 49" with MDF).

The 32"x48" size is both manageable for most people to carry and move around on their own, but it also fits in most back seats even down to hatchbacks if the rear seats fold. This makes it an ideal size for hobbyists and it accomodates a wide range of projects.

MINIMIZING STEPS FOR THE END USER - WE WANT TO MAKE THINGS

If an XL version of the Onefinity was available and allowed that full cutting size it would mean a minimum number of steps and cuts for a user to acquire stock, transport it home, load it on the machine and maxmimize yield. If I’m picking up the vibes correctly from the creators of the machine, I think this would really fit well with the approach to making it easy and smooth to use a CNC at home.

LESS TIME CORNER FINDING AND NO LOST XY TRAVEL

With the built in homing you always know where your zero is, so if you build a fence that ensures consistent location of the workpiece under that zero point, you only need to set Z height to start working, XY won’t be necessary with the workpiece being full size and aligned correctly. This means you don’t need to lose any X or Y travel to run a cornering block and you can fully ultilize the whole table and virtually all of the stock you carried home. More time savings and efficiency.

CABINET ENVELOPE

32" x 48" also gives an envelope that encompasses a fairly broad range of cabinet building for bases and uppers, extending the appeal of the machine without requiring indexing or complexity on the part of the end user. You can kind of squeeze things in on the existing envelope but once you allow an outer edge for screwing work pieces down and you do any zeroing you can quickly fall below an ideal base size. The larger work area would make that much less likely.

Thoughts?

-Jeff

12 Likes
2

32 in Y and 48(or even better 49”) in X would allow for tiling of 48” wide, whether cut, or not to that length. 32” at a go in the Y would be fine for most. This would be only a X gantry upgrade, and would cost less I think than both Y’s. The open ended architecture of no built in spoil board would really open up to anything that width at any length that an in/out feed table could work with. 32x32 is great, but 49”(for mdf) would be a straight up next level game changer to more pro-Sumer level machine.

2 Likes
3

I would be very interested in an upgrade kit for this as well.

3 Likes
4

An upgrade path would be ideal, but I have to imagine getting high quality tubes that long that are perfectly straight and true would be very difficult and very expensive. Given the construction of the machine, a ball screw that long would also be very pricey. I remember watching a video on YouTube a while back on long balls screws and the unavoidable physics involved making them essentially unless for precision work, thus the use of rack and pinion systems for larger units. Not sure what Avid uses for their 4x8 and larger machines.

0.02

-Tom

2 Likes
5

I think an extended X axis (you’d definitely need the “stiffy”) would be an awesome idea for a future upgrade, and as long as the software supports it, would be an easy upgrade to swap out with an existing machine.

The current X axis is ~43" wide, and the cutting area ends up at 32" or so, so for a 49" wide cutting area, the rails would only need to be ~17" wider (to an overall width of 60"). assuming the current structure would physically support over that extended distance, it’d be a cool upgrade.

… Also, based on the fact that all of the gantries are exactly the same (and interchangeable) once that gantry exists, you could also feasibly have a machine with 49" x 49" cutting capacity as long as you bought 3 of the gantries, and updated to a Y cable that was a bit longer (the current one does not have enough width to get to the other side of a 49" cut area.

I’d call that size machine “The Professional” :slight_smile:

4 Likes
6

OpenBuilds just announced a 1500mm lead screw…just saying @OnefinityCNC :wink:

2 Likes
7

Misumi sells precision linear rails up to 1500mm. Not sure what these would yield in terms of usable area and whether or not you could maintain tolerances, but definitely interesting.

https://us.misumi-ec.com/vona2/detail/110302634310/?curSearch={"field"%3A"%40search"%2C"seriesCode"%3A"110302634310"%2C"innerCode"%3A""%2C"sort"%3A1%2C"specSortFlag"%3A0%2C"allSpecFlag"%3A0%2C"page"%3A1%2C"pageSize"%3A"60"%2C"00000028938"%3A"00000028938.b!00005"%2C"00000028941"%3A"mig00000001498588"%2C"00000028943"%3A"1500"%2C"fixedInfo"%3A"MDM00000543751110302634310-15184186477907183117113148713|12"}&Tab=wysiwyg_area_0

1 Like
8

Trapezoidal lead screws are different than ball screws. They “run” differently.

1 Like
9

MDF size is 49 x 97 not 39 x 96

1 Like
10

This would be a no brainer if it had the 48" cutting width and tiling feature. I wonder if this is something you could upgrade yourself. A 16mm ball screw with 1400 mm (55") of travel is around $150 from Automation4less. A 30mm dia, 1500 mm hollow chrome plated, hardened steel shaft is $230 at MiSUMi. I agree that you would probably want the additional “stiffy” rail. Also in the controller axis setting looks like you can change the length of travel pretty easy. So for less than $1000 you could upgrade to a much more capable machine for less than half of what X-carve is selling a similar machine, X-Carve Pro. That is at the reduced initial offering price, when it goes to full retail of $10,000 you are saving so much more.

Please offer this cutting width.

3 Likes
11

@cyberreefguru I came from the Lead 1010… All I can say is that they better have upgraded their screws and screw blocks because I had all sorts of backlash with the screws they used… They’re also gonna need major upgrades for stiffness… Nothing compared to 1F…

1 Like
12

@trlwoodworks - all the more reason I’m happy with my purchase of the OF! :slight_smile:

2 Likes
13

Yay buddy 48” x axis would be sweet!

1 Like
14

i would love 48IN CUT

2 Likes
15

This is something I’ve mentioned a couple times on the FB forum as well. Onefinity commented that it might be possible in the future, which is better than a NO. I know longer ball screws run into issues with whip but there are workarounds for that. I do believe the design of the current X axis could be extended to accommodate it. I know it would be nice to be able to buy just the X assembly as an upgrade for current units too.

2 Likes
16

Let me preface this by saying that if I was totally new to CNC and just wanted to get up and running in the shortest amount of time - I would buy a OneFinity and will recommend it to anyone who fits that description.

However, I decided to bite off a rather large project and build my own CNC (the PrintNC) for this next one. It’s certainly not for everyone and it will take quite a bit of time and learning some new skills, but after spending two weeks researching the project and components I think it is within reach.

With the goals in mind that I outlined in the original post, plus some identical existing worktables I intend to combine to make my CNC table, I came up with a steel frame PrintNC CNC build that has a work area of X=1100mm (43.3") x Y=900 mm(37.4") . Not the 48" that I wanted, however the wasteboard area comes in at 53.1" x 49.2" which means I can get 48" between my Y axes without having to cut it down. I just can’t cut all of it at once.

I can, however, tile it left and right if I did need to reach most of the 48". I just couldn’t go larger as my garage/shop isn’t that big and I can’t envision needing to fully cut edge to edge on 48" very often. The 5" of wasteboard either side of center does mean I could tile side to side and reach it all though. More importantly, for material handling, I can tile in the Y axis and work on a full 4x8 sheet if I ever need to.

With 42" being the max width I can put in my SUV (and most SUVs I’ve looked at to replace it), the 43" X axis has me covered day to day with 1" for corner finding. Likewise the 37" minus 1" for corner finding gives me the 36" I was shooting for.

Overall machine footprint will be ~60" X by 49" Y. so it’s a big boy. As soon as you get above something in the cutting envelope range of the Onefinity the footprint really starts to make you look at whether you have the space for it. I hope I haven’t bitten off more than I have space for.

My performance goal is to be able to run 12mm DOC in plywood with a 1/4" compression bit at proper feedrates for 1/4" CC which is around 220ipm. Additionally, the machine will be able to do substantial aluminum work.

Anyway, just wanted to come back and close out the topic from my perspective, as I know there are others who commented and were lurking that expressed interest in a machine this size. I doubt OneFinity will be offering one this large as going over 4’ in parts complicates shipping and logistics. Also a span this large in the X requires large ballscrews and a very stiff X beam. The PrintNC recommendations are to go from 3"x2" rectangular steel for your X beam to 4"x2" steel and to move up to larger ball screws at that span.

If I get it all built and cutting I may pop back and give an update. In the mean time, enjoy your 1F machines, they look great!

-Jeff

17

Yes, please! I am on the fence of ordering one (my first cnc ever), but I’ll hit the ceiling right away with not having 48/49" on X (or Y). Having a fine machine like this and then still having to piece-meal it together kind of defeats the purpose. There are other machines I am looking at (larger ones included), but I really like the Onefinity design. ONEFINITY, please make it happen! And by the time I’ll (hopefully) be ready for a 4x8’ one, you’ll have that, too. Asking for the moon and stars and sun all at once. I promise I’ll also buy a t-shirt with it! :slight_smile:

2 Likes
18

I agree having an upgrade to handle half sheets would be a perfect next step. The OF gets you in the door, the OF XL gets your productive, than you upgrade to the Avid for full sheets.

1 Like
19

I love to see 48"X96" Cutting space. At least 48"X48" if not 48"X96"

1 Like
20

I would be interested in at least being able to have a work area of 48" x 48", I haven’t looked into the ball screws yet but i know i can source the shaft locally from a vendor.