I’ve got 2 sets of SBR16 Rails, I was thinking about adapting an extra cnc gantry setup I have to use them. Would this be a decent upgrade, has anyone done it?
Not in a way that can be recommended.
Yes, though the original design is brilliant , I wanted the CNC to be a little more accurate and stable against bumps and knocks. I redesigned the rail feet to accept the SBR rails and because of the hight difference had to modify the belt tensioners as well. I also ran into another issue, the original design has a rail on one side but only rollers on the other, this meant that to have both sides even and level I needed to purchase another set of plates and simply mirror the right side.
I bought a 2m long SBR10 rail which I had intended to use with a LR3. I have instead done about 90% of the work to use it on a LR4 instead.
As per the original design, I intend using only the one rail. Using a second risks overconstrai jng the machine and gives little additional benefit. About the only one I can actually see is protection from lifting the gantry, which isn’t worth the additional risk of binding or overconstraint.
The SBR10 is low enough profile to easily fit below the height of the 32mm rail, meaning aside from feet that mount to the rail, no other change is needed, however, some allowance for the machine to pivot a few degrees is desirable, and a strain relief allowing it to come completely off of the rail before the YZ plate part fails in the event that one Y motor fails, or is jammed. Preferably without damage requiring a replacement part. (This is the part that I haven’t finished, and probably will follow the 90/10 rule closely where the last 10% of the work takes 90% of the time.)