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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

[loopy251]

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

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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

[loopy251]

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

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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

[TMT89523]

Loopy where did you purchase your linear slides

[loopy251]

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.

[Scratch]

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.

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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

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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

[Scratch]

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!

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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

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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