I’m wondering if the full 8’ height (actually 8’ 3") is required to route a full sheet.
Is the vertical clearance somehow different than the horizontal since the vertical only has 1’ on either side while the vertical has 2’ 1.5"?
I have somewhat limited space where I’m building my frame and will have to flip it end over end to attach the back plates, so I’m wondering if a bit of that length could be lopped off the vertical dimension and if so how much?
It’s a great question and a tough question to answer because there isn’t really a hard limit at which you can’t cut anymore, the quality just gets worse so depending on if that’s OK for you then a smaller frame might work.
Ideally two feet on each side is better, we just shrunk it to one foot on the left and right size since most people are going to be more constrained in the horizontal direction than the vertical direction. Generally the rule of thumb should be to build it as big as possible in the space that you have available.
Ok, good to know. I may just have to drag the whole thing outside to finish once I have the first set of plates attached.
the reason for this spacing is that as the angle between the belts gets wider,
you get less force to pull the sled towards that edge.
If you are using the frame in the near-vertical orientation, you also have to
fight gravity, so you need some extra force there.
you can get away with less space at the bottom (although watch out for your
dust collextion hitting the ground and preventing the sled from moving
correctly)
David Lang
Thanks you! I’ve been trying to understand the need for that clearance, that was not one of the explanations that I came up with.
So with that in mind it would be beneficial, if the room exists to add horizontal arms on the corners that extend beyond the sides of the frame.
yes.
David Lang