Hi to all who have Practical CNC tables. I am looking to upgrade my table to linear rails. Has anyone else done this?
The cost from Practical is ~$2000. That is with sending them my bridge & top rails, then they will send me the new bridge, & linear rails installed on the top rails. I think I can do this for less money and I do not think I should have to give them back the parts I already paid for.
Could someone who has a recent Practical table post some Pix or maybe a Dynacnc table post some Pix so I can figure out what we as Practical owners can do to improve our tables?
Any help greatly appreciated.
Cutmore

i have a practical table with linear rails purchased 3 month's ago i could send ya all the pics you need if that would help you and yes i think $2000 is a little much for the conversion not to mention giving up parts you already paid for .let me know exactly what parts you need pi's of and i would be happy to help if i can.

loopy

Loopy,
Thanks for the reply, I will take all the pix you are wiling to take. I am especially interested in the y axis carriage, the z axis,and lead screw, the x axis carriage set up and how the x axis is driven. If I am asking too much just say so, But seeing what practical is doing with our machine will help immensely to improve what I have. I have a line on some linear rails but before I start converting I want to feel like I am heading in the right direction.
Loopy if you have any questions I can help with let me know, I have been running mine Plasma & Routing for a little over a year.
Thanks,
Cutmore

hey cut more let me know if these are what your after and if you need more let me know.

Loopy,
Wow! That looks so much better than mine.
Thank you sooooo much for the pix. I was thinking pretty much the same as what I see there. On the Z axis, are the rails mounted to a very thick piece of alum. or is it my imagination?
:banana:
Looks like your having wood fun! Time for a dust collector!
Thank you,
Cutmore

Loopy where did you purchase your linear slides

Ya cut there is two 1"x1" x11" solid aluminum bars mounted to a 6" x 11" x 1/2" aluminum plate. and sorry TMT the linear slides came with the table so i cant help ya there.
cut let me know if ya need anything else more pic's or measuements or whatever glad to help.

My table had linear rails also when I got it so if you need any other input or pics, let me know.
I'm curious as to what they had on there before the linear rails... if you get a chance, snap a pic for me.

Loopy, or Scratch,
Thanks for your help, Do your tables only have 1 car on each rail on the y axis?
How long is the thick end plate on the end of the y that the x axis bearing blocks mount to?
Scratch, Here is a picture of a practical table between mine and loopy's(yours?)
I have a crappy video of my table plasma cutting if you guys are interested, it is in mpg format & I was not sure if I can load it on here.
I will take any measurements you guys will take.
When I do the conversion I will need to have it ready to rock as I make parts with it for my small business. So no Table = no business.
I will take some pix of my table tonight and post them tomorrow.
If I can offer anything as a thank you let me know, Cad, G-code, etc. I have Bobcad, bobart, solidworks.Lots of converted clipart.
Thank you, Cutmore

Here are a couple of dxf's for you guys. I will post some pix of the table monday, the batteries were dead last night.
Cutmore

Loopy, or Scratch,
Do your tables only have 1 car on each rail on the y axis?

How long is the thick end plate on the end of the y that the x axis bearing blocks mount to?



Not sure exactly what you mean by "car" If you're talking about the bearing that rides on the rails, there's 2 on each end of the bridge that rides on the rails.

Also not sure what the "end plate" is?

Thanks for posting the DXF's!

Sorry about not posting the pix last week, i had a couple of rush jobs. Here are the pix of the old and a pic of the soon to be completed new z axis.
cutmore

Guys,
Thanks for the pix & info on the newer practical tables. I finished my new z axis last night. I was able to increase my z axis speed up to 300 ipm. with no lost steps. WOW! I can't wait to cut something tonight.
Cutmore