Revamping My Z Drive

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1

So I have had nothing but troubles with my MakerMade since I’ve owned it. I’ve only been able to accurately cut out or engrave a few things… the others were failures.

Now, I am not an engineer, but I am kinda savvy with machines and such (maintenance manager for years) and I made a goal to rectify my issues by rebuilding a more stable platform for the Z-drive.

Here are the things I am addressing.

  1. The area around your workpiece must be the same height so that if the sled gets too close to the edge, it tilts causing miss-cuts and damaged bits, material, etc.
  2. More accurate depth control of the z.
  3. More depth of cut.

I have the layouts for the new sled (won’t share until I get it built) and the Z-drive / router assembly. I have the drive assembly built and have attached some photos. https://photos.app.goo.gl/ew1tXYuTZvm2a4QX6

Once I get everything built and tried, I’ll put out drawings and a BOM.

Love some feedback.

D

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Looks like the beefy z or the metal maslow c channel z. Should work awesome.

3

Several people have used the C beams with the small default 80x80mm plate, but the internal wheels are only about 35mm apart which causes the router to deflect when cutting too deep. you are better off with a larger plate that has the wheels about 100mm apart like this: https://bulkman3d.com/product/cs-xl-1/

image
image800×800 147 KB

you will also want to get a 60mm gear for the motor and a 20 teeth gear for the 8mm lead screw, thus increasing the z motor speed 3x faster.
https://www.amazon.com/2GT-Timing-Belt-Pulley-Closed-loop/dp/B01M2DL73S/ref=sr_1_5?dchild=1&keywords=Timing+Belt+Pulley+set&qid=1594736249&sr=8-5
You’ll have to drill out the smaller one to 8mm ID.
one can use spacers to get the two pulleys tight
Or you can get a metal plate laser cut so you can adjust the motor distance by sliding it in the tracks. see attached
z motor c beam mount.DXF (5.5 KB)

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4

Thanks! It feels solid and am thinking that as well!

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Good stuff! I’ll look into that.