Black Diamond gantry upgrade

[NewAgent45]

I was delighted to see this post. This explains the variation issue I have been observing for some time now. I’m seeing this on a Black Diamond that I purchased new in January 2014. You would think NWA would have shown some integrity and posted this as a known issue. Thanks for the work you guys did to document both the issue and the fix.

I plan to call NWA tomorrow and get the upgrade plate ordered.

Have a great Day!
…………. Rod

[cbhelms]

Ordered my aluminum plate yesterday. It might get shipped out today or on Monday. Can't wait to get it. Thanks to all you fine people who have already gotten yours and showing us that it works better with this upgrade.

Colin Helms

[Cory Newman]

Interesting, this might explain the issues I have been having. All this time I thought it was the table.

[gordread]

I have the original Shark Pro Plus HD. Do you think this plate would fit? (I saw the HD2, etc mentioned, but not the original).

Thanks.

Gordon

[4DThinker]

I have the original Shark Pro Plus HD. Do you think this plate would fit? (I saw the HD2, etc mentioned, but not the original).

Thanks.

Gordon

The best thing to do is call up NextWave Automation with your question.

[Rando]

I just ordered my aluminum plate. I guess this replaces the HDPE original but:
thoughts on using both for extra beef??
Jim

Well, the old one is a nice thick piece of plastic...surely SOMETHING can be made out of it .

[NewAgent45]

I have mine ordered now and plan to install it as soon as it is delivered. I will re-run my surface planning program as soon as it is installed.

Rando! Doubling-up and keeping the original HDPE was discussed in and earlier post. I plan to keep it simple and replace the original HDPE. We are told the Aluminum adds the stiffness and stability needed. Remember our primary concern is the vertical (Z) flex and sag You can see that the 7 1/2 inch Width of the Aluminum plate would add a great amount of strength. The Aluminum plate would also be much stiffer in the other direction (y) to. This is a "strength of materials exercise". I'm Sure NWA did the math. The original HDPE plate also has two Aluminum channels that I would bet was a Band-Aid to stiffen the plate.

I'm not sure you would want to add additional weight to the gantry by doubling-up.

I'm pleased the guys here shared there test results.

Have a great day!

........ Rod

[Rando]

I have mine ordered now and plan to install it as soon as it is delivered. I will re-run my surface planning program as soon as it is installed.

Rando! Doubling-up and keeping the original HDPE was discussed in and earlier post. I plan to keep it simple and replace the original HDPE. We are told the Aluminum adds the stiffness and stability needed. Remember our primary concern is the vertical (Z) flex and sag You can see that the 7 1/2 inch Width of the Aluminum plate would add a great amount of strength. The Aluminum plate would also be much stiffer in the other direction (y) to. This is a "strength of materials exercise". I'm Sure NWA did the math. The original HDPE plate also has two Aluminum channels that I would bet was a Band-Aid to stiffen the plate.

I'm not sure you would want to add additional weight to the gantry by doubling-up.

I'm pleased the guys here shared there test results.

Have a great day!

........ Rod

Yes, I know that...my comment was just that when the HDPE one is removed, it's still a nice piece of material stock, that's all. I wasn't commenting on whether it could or should be used in addition to the new aluminum one.

[NewAgent45]

The replacement Aluminum gantry cross member plate was delivered today and we wasted no time completing the upgrade. We haven’t run the machine yet. As expected the gantry is much stiffer in the y and z axis. We plan to surface plane our spoilboard first thing tomorrow before doing any other work.

I ran into one issue when dissembling and removing the HDPE gantry cross plate. The bolt heads on the factory bolts are way to soft. On one of the 4 bolts which mount the plate to the vertical gantry arm the socket rounded off when trying to break it loose from the nylock nuts used in the vertical arms. It was so bad I was forced to grind the head off in order to remove the plate.

I was being careful as I have had previous issues with this type of bolt and I’m using the correct tool. I have have made it standard practice to replace any of these bolts with higher quality bolts whenever I’m doing other work on the machine. I don’t know if Next Wave uses these bolts on all CNC Shark’s or not.

One other detail I noticed the new plate does not have any fasteners to mount the cable. The original mounts are fastened to the HDPE using two sheet metal screws. I drilled and taped 2 - 8-32 holes in the top edge of the plate and mounted the cable much like the original mounting using 2 machine screws. You can see this in the pictures attached below.

I attached some before and after pictures for your review.

Before

After Back

After Front

Have a great day!

………. Rod

[EdThorne]

Looks terrific Rod. I see Bob's 4th axis, too. How is that working for you?
Ed