I’m in Louisiana. I painted them.
Has been fine in my garage for over a year. Routinely over 80% humidity or 100+ degrees… sometimes at the same time…
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This was also the only material the YZ plates were available for purchase in the V1 shop
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I did the same, florida.
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I’m 45 min - 1 hr from you in Cantonment, FL and zero problems with MDF YZ plates. I just upgraded to acrylic for the fancy lights lol. Very soon I will have an acrylic set that I won’t need anymore if you are still wanting to stick with the LR3 and want something other than MDF
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Used 2 coats of exterior satin enamel paint primer, plus 2 sprayed coats of zinsser shellac. That paint’s been useful for misc projects. 2yrs later plates still look great ignoring a few unsealed nicks. Unconditioned garage in PNW, so not as crazy humid as some places. Honestly expecting the plates will outlast my use of the machine, and we can always make more.
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You are just amazing, sending your LR3s around America to make other people happy. 
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Seems better than just throwing parts away if they will help someone else. I wish I hadn’t of thrown away the first set when I took apart my little one for the beta.
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I plan to offer my LR3 parts to anyone in the local community that has a need. No sense for the parts to go to waste, and LR3s are still great machines.
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I have a spare set of the metal xz plates from V1E. They’ve been rattling around in a drawer since they were superfluous. My ex-wife was able to send my original LR3 shipment from Ryan on a bit of a field trip that delayed their arrival for a few weeks. In the interim I had taken time off from work to build it, so I arranged a second shipment from Ryan and he was great about it.
A few weeks later I ended up with a few duplicate parts. Extra bearings always seem to find their way into projects, but I truly didn’t ever do anything with the xz plates.
If anyone is interested, send me a personal message. I’ll have you send me a shipping sticker and I’ll drop it at a pickup spot. I have a digital scale to give you an accurate weight.
I was always thinking I’d donate it to a high school robotics club or something, but never ran across any interested parties.
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If nothing else, maybe it can go in the garage sale at next RMRRF.
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I also will end up having an unused set of laser cut steel XZ plates for LR3.
I’d be willing to sell them to someone if interested.
Another something to bear in mind: while I plan to update my router-based LR3 to LR4, because the added stiffness will be a major increase in capability and speed, there are other uses for LR3 frame that don’t need added rigidity, such as my plasma-based LR3. There is no need to update it. It also occurs that a diode-laser-based LR3 would also not need the additional stiffness.
So, someone could still have great use for LR3 XZ plates, even once the LR4 is out.
and laser!
Yep, I mentioned that too:
I’m in the process of doing this.
You really only need conduit, linear rails, some small wood screws for the linear rails, z-screws, one more coupler, one more endstop and probably a lot of belt (depending on your size). Everything else the primo has.
The primo steppers are 70oz-in vs 84 oz-in but I’ve read in other threads this shouldn’t be an issue. If it is I suppose I will swap them out later on, probably when I upgrade to an LR4 anyway.
I 3D printed one YZ plate with low infill to use as a router template and cut them out of MDF. Double sided tape to keep the template in place. Worked a charm. XZ plates are printed and feel super solid.
Not entirely finished, so take this with a grain of salt. But hope that helps.
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If it ends up still sitting by then, I’d absolutely haul it to RMRRF.
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I had an oversized primo and then made an undersized lr, I had EXACTLY enough belt to carry over. I ended up being able to trim about 1cm off the Y belt. I don’t need full sheets but I like the gantry style a lot more then the square layout of the primo.
I’m planning on needing more when I re-do for the 4 unless they keep the belt/axis ends the same between the 2 machines.
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The belts are a tad longer, at least for Y as far as I remember.
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