I am excited to start building my LR4. I have a few questions and I hope I am following the appropriate protocol by posting them here. I will post them individually with the hope that fellow readers will not have as much to dig through as they search for answers to similar questions.
The question: I am very interested in cutting full sheet (4’ x 8’) - mostly plywood, MDF, and coroplastic. I would prefer to have a table that fits a 4’ x 2’ or 3’ LR4 to save space in my garage. I will then tile the cuts, etc.
Based on the general guidelines (Width (X axis or “Beam”) should always be the shorter axis.) is it unadvisable to create a machine that has a 4’ X working area without a corresponding 4’+ Y? Thanks.
You can post all your questions here in this thread, where the community will try to answer them.
It depends.
If you ever intend to put your machine onto a full 4’x8’ table, then having a 4’ X would be necessary (or you’d need to build multiple LR4s). That said, the overall beam rigidity is lessened the longer you make the beam. 4’ is an acceptable trade and folks have made larger.
In your use case, tiling a 4x8 sheet, it would be pretty difficult feeding the work through if the table is too narrow, and you really can’t feed work through the Y axis of an LR4 because of the rail and belts.
You’ll likely get a variety of answers, but a 4’ X axis is workable.
That is very helpful. Thanks. I could possibly make room for a 4x4 table, especially if I can convert it from time to time to serve other purposes, such as an assembly table or an outfeed table for my table saw. It sounds like this is possible, as many describe it as “portable.” I wouldn’t want to go through a lot of setup every time I want to use the LR4, but having access to a large portion of the table would justify it for me.
I find it pretty easy to disconnect the non-rail side belt (X-MIN) and use the table as a work area for other projects. The X-MIN side and Y-MAX end provide plenty of workspace on my 5’ X 9.5’ table. I don’t have to loosen the tension on the Y belts to disconnect them. When I hook the belt up again the tension is still accepable. Hope that helps you make your decision. Welcome aboard!