I’m trying to upgrade my machine to a 12’ top beam. My question is how far above the workspace the bar needs to be. I’ve adjusted my machine so that it is up against the wall. I’ve moved over piece of steel angle iron for the top horizontal bar. The question I’ve found is about how far out the base needs to go out.
And how high up the bar needs to go up.
Distance above work peice shouldn’t matter too much because the calibration process will take care of that for you but, in personal hindsight the more distance between the top bar and the workpeice the better. Reason being is the more vertical the chains become (working towards the top of the workpeice) the more tension on the motors and more importantly a higher chance of chain slippage on the drive gears. Hope that answers your question personally I would suggest a good 20-30 inches especially with a 12 foot bar.
Edit: if you’re using the bolt together frame design like I am I actually moved my 4x8 spoiler board down to within a couple inches of my shop floor to compensate and switched to a counterweight over the top of the sprocket setup and the accuracy is outstanding even at the top of the workpeice.
Hey @SnowCrash , don’t suppose you could post a couple of pics of your setup? I need to do something with my chains and it sounds like you’ve done a great job!