Mongrel cnc from Shopbot & MechMate parents - Olympia, USA
 

Gerald,
you have a new hybrid child. Starting with a Shopbot PRT upgraded with the 4G controller, I've just upgraded my Shopbot x gantry and y car to mechmate-ness. I retained the z axis, x rails, stepper motors and electronics from shopbot land. Hope you are not offended by this hybrid and you find some parental pride even with this mongrel. Your forum has made it possible and the machine is rock solid and cuts very well.

Dusty in Olympia Washington USA

congrats on your upgrade. The new gantry should prove marked improvement over the original bot. I have recently recommend to 2 other sb owners do the same thing on the sbforum. Congrats and happy cutting. Sean

Looking good Dusty. Gerald's got a heck of a design doesn't he?

Dusty,
after studying the photos - do you have the hold down roller in place on the y car? You may not notice the cut yet, but if you plunge, and that car isn't anchored to the y-rail...it will lift up...thus cause poor cut/plunge issues. That bearing has proved priceless in less than one week with my machine.
Sean

Hi Dusty - welcome!

What you have there is exactly how this whole "MechMate" thing started. That is what we did to our ShopBot Sept/Oct 2005. See this thread on the ShopBot forum.

That hold-down roller is critical, it improves the shakes and the cut quality by a big factor. The pressure of the hold-down seats the V-rollers on that side of the y-car down firmly.