This is pretty neat. From a product management perspective, I love to see upgrades rolling out to something I bought. You make a big investment in a machine, it's good to know that it has a future of possible new capabilities. I can't at this moment think of a project I need it for, but give me a day or two...

Also will be interested in seeing some best practice type videos for milling such deep materials... feed rates, good bits, experiences with varying materials, etc. Removing alot of material will always take a lot of time, but with a long, flexing bit it will be further slowed (ref the above mentioned carbonite bust...)

Overall, very cool upgrade and I'm excited to see what the community does with it.

 

Little known fact: Carbonite©®™℠ is actually a proprietary Imperial formulation of machinable foam. Designed for maximized cutting speeds with minimal tool flex, it was originally intended as insulation on TIE fighters, but has since shown promise in preserving fresh produce and meat products and "meat" "products", as demonstrated by Hutt "Meat" "Product" Transport Lines.


-Bats
(NOTE: Hutt "Meat" "Product" Transport Lines is probably not a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hutt Trucking, but may be a division of Hutt Machine Embroidery)

 

I ordered the mod. I also ordered 2 of the C Beam end mounts and screws just to cover the extra C Beam for a more finished look. I have a question on the build design. Is there a mechanical reason for having the motor on the top instead of the middle C Beam? It just seams aesthetically that having the drag chain that high just looks strange.

 

High Z Mod received and installed. Used it tonight for the first time to create my new spoil board. While I have no current intention to use the full height capacity it is nice to have it if I do. One of the drawbacks to the Lead 1010 is it's limited clearance height and use of a 1/2 inch spoil board. The Mod allows me to have a permanently mounted 3/4 inch MDF base with an additional 3/4 MDF spoil board with the T Nuts installed on top of the base. I also changed out my Dewalt router for a Makita. Having the high Z makes bit changes so mush easier since you can raise the axis considerable higher t see under the dust shoe. Of important note - this thing is strong as hell. Rigidity is phenomenal with two C Channels on the X Axis and two X axis gantries. I am extremely impressed so far and can't wait to put it though it's paces. I did mount my motor on the center channel instead of the top channel.

 

I am currently trying to decide on what to do with my Shark HD4, and want to replace it with a Lead 1010 with High Z Mod. Can this be used with a H-Y water cooled spindle? I prefer it for noise reasons, and the fact that I already own it and the VFD and water cooling systems. Thanks

 

I actually posted this question with an increased data version of this question. It's this spindle: https://amazon.com/gp/product/B077BZWG4L/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1 It says 9.5 pounds, and that feels roughly correct, but I haven't weighed it

 

About 9.5 pounds

 

I'm curious why you guys did not mount the spindle mount to the beam, and have the beam move for the z axis, that way you could use the additional clearance without having to manually adjust the beam for the material being used.

 

I finally got mine together. I had bought the Lead 1010 and the High Z Mod and just finished putting it all together for the first time. I went to do the homing cycle and the z went down instead of up. In the high z mod, there's a micro limit switch at the top, but in the regular 1010, it's at the bottom. How do I optimize settings to correct this? many thanks!

 

You need to change $23.

See https://github.com/gnea/grbl/wiki/Grbl-v1.1-Configuration&usg=AOvVaw0Qv75ELfQOjQy5zl0eMkkX

This is the relevant section;

$23 - Homing dir invert, mask
By default, Grbl assumes your homing limit switches are in the positive direction, first moving the z-axis positive, then the x-y axes positive before trying to precisely locate machine zero by going back and forth slowly around the switch. If your machine has a limit switch in the negative direction, the homing direction mask can invert the axes' direction. It works just like the step port invert and direction port invert masks, where all you have to do is send the value in the table to indicate what axes you want to invert and search for in the opposite direction.



You have probably inverted the homing direction for your Z when you originally set up your Lead with the limit switch at the bottom.

Alex.

PS positive direction means X right, Y back, Z up.

 

Thank you very much. I really appreciate it. Excellent resource.

 

Yes it is a good resource - well worth reading all of it (and bookmarking the link)
Alex.

 

If so, this might be a slightly more direct way to get there:

Code:

https://github.com/gnea/grbl/wiki/Grbl-v1.1-Configuration

-Bats
(for those who're a little embarrassed to let Google know exactly how many times they've needed to look up the same damned thing in the past two hours)

 

I'm old Bats - other people manage to quote links like that very concisely but I haven't worked out how they do it yet!
Alex.

 

Thanks @Peter Van Der Walt, I will have a go at that next time I post a link.
Alex.

 

Blame Google - I'm fairly certain they deliberately choose to give people that mess to copy. If not, it's awfully convenient that it then gives them data on exactly who you're sharing links with and how they're using them.

One trick to minimize the cruft (at least for the sort of link-mangling Google engages in) is, as Peter suggests, to copy & paste the URL from your address bar while you're looking at the actual site, rather than right-clicking a link on Google. Of course, if you do that with Amazon it'll still give a long messy string that lets everyone else see how you found the item while searching for "speedo + 50gal lard"... but then, on Amazon right-click copying does exactly the same thing anyhow.


-Bats
(I can't speak for all the other not-quite-old people, but I had time to puzzle out a lot of these details while I was waiting for those kids to quit goofing off in college & found Google so I could quit fighting with garbage like Altavista & Infoseek. or Gopher.)

 

Sorry for a stupid question here, but has to be asked. I have the Workbee 1010... will this Z-Mod work with that machine? If not, are there plans in the works to offer a Z-Mod for the Workbee 1010?

 

I am adding the Z Mod to my lead machine. I have run into a spindle mounting issue. I have one of Chris's great spindle mounts so it is machined to attach to the C beam and does not line up with the holes on the z axis mounting plate. One option i am considering is adding another z axis mounting plate, wheels, and anti backlash nut block. Then i would mount the Z axis C Beam just like it was mounted in the original setup. The Z Axis C Beam then would move instead of just the mounting plate. I guess my question is do you think this would negatively effect the rigidity of the z axis or any other issues this may cause?

 

Hi Guys,
I too have a LEAD machine recently converted to the high Z mod and just ran into an issue with the height of the Z beam in the standard OpenBuilds configuration.
I had to make a high piece which required the use of a 4" long end mill. I soon realised that the beam being solidly mounted the the top X beam would not allow for cutting taller structures without loosening all the angle brackets and manually lifting the beam for proper clearance with the stock.
It seems to me that this could have been easily addressed by adding one extra large plate and four wheels to the kit and have the spindle fixed to the beam and have the entire beam move up and down as required for stock clearance.
Has anyone else done that and what is the required parts list to accomplish this?