Oh and I have a new set of aluminum plates coming in. If they are good, I will ditch the steel and hopefully drop the price a couple bucks.
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Not just because I’ll buy a set of aluminium plates -
FWIW I know you have a lot of (all?) budget driven customers, but I don’t think you should compromise on overall quality to save a few bucks - ie - if the steel is going to be a problem for even a small percentage of customers - perhaps you are better off without it in your inventory.
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Oh for sure. I am always looking at different vendors and different ways to accomplish the same thing.
I found a better deal and aluminum is the better choice. I would not want to receive parts with rust on them so even if I did not find a less expensive vendor I would have switched back to aluminum.
Always learning, always trying to make the V1 machines a better value.
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Speaking of…aluminum YZ plates? Press fit nuts add about $1 each. I would love to do it but it would require different hardware so the M5’s didn’t stick out so far.
It has me thinking, though. Pro versions are starting to sound feasible.
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Hmmmm… sounds like a reason to procrastinate further!
Might just hold off my order for a bit…
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Peter, no! 
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Don’t you dare use me as an excuse! Nope. 
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It’s REASON if you don’t mind!
I don’t need excuses… 
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So I need to buy another set? 
Or maybe make another LR3…
I am very happy with my steel plates. Cleaned, primed and painted, so I doubt thet Ill ever need to worry about rust. Also, super low humidity here means that even the extra steel that I have lying around unprotected, not even tool wax doesn’t have any rust.
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For a YZ if they were aluminium you could tap the holes (or leave them in a size users can decide to either tap or drill to spec) so that some hardware can be avoided (threadlock is already in the bom so yeah)
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Tapping costs more than press fit nuts. I can’t find a good solution for anything half inch and anything less would have some hardware issues so I think I will leave this for redesign time.
I don’t want to get too far away from easy sourcing and basic tools.
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I somehow feel that people often ask what they need for a complete LR etc. Couldn’t the shop have something like a check? Like: For a complete LR, you should also order XY. or Are you sure you don’t need ZX?.
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Getting there. I changed a few things last week.
There is a limit on how the shop can be set up though so I am kinda up against technical issues as well as getting the point across. The full list is on the LR item page, as well as the parts instruction page.
LowRider v3 Hardware kit – V1 Engineering Inc, for the 9 item list, I can narrow it down a bit more soon, zip ties, and endstops. Currently, there is no way to dynamically update that list for what each person selects above. So I just need a better way to present that info. (there is also no easy way to rearrange the options).
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One question about this, if you were to make them out of aluminum, what would be the best thickness? I’m guessing 12mm would be totally overkill but would 6mm be fine?
I’m planning on re-making the yz plates (16mm ply is not rigid enough it seems) and aluminium sounds like a great option.
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6 is fine, a lot of us have got that.
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Is there not a problem with the way the plastic pieces rest on such a thin piece of material? for example I feel like the wheel assemblies rest on the plates and, by making them thinner, they could bend outwards at an angle since there’s no support that stops that from happening.
In any case maybe this specific conversation should be a topic of its own.
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Oh, sorry. I mixed up the YZ and XZ. I use 12mm plywood for YZ and don’t have any problems.
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I used 12mm plywood and had zero problems with it.
I just switched over to 12mm acylic, but still re-connecting stuff and havent run it yet. I don’t anticipate any problems with the acrylid. Many people used 12mm MDF for the YZ plates. Those caused zero problems in the beta test group.
The printed XZ plates caused some issues. mine caused my machine to be slightly out of square, which I will attribute to my print. Most people had no problems with these either, and mine were fine with the screws to the rails tightened down a bit more. I have steel plates now, but see no difference as compared to the re-tightened printed plastic.
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Keep the MPCNC budget oriented, but then have a more value-add section to your menu, not pre-assembly so people have to pay to package the crap out of it and then pay to ship 80% air in a crate, but something like full electronics kits, programming done and well documented. Lead screw drive for the lowrider on all 3 axis. Time= money for you and for customers, some customers will have more money than time to learn all the details and would rather plug and play.
That is something I am starting to understand. I never would have believed that a year or two back.
Can’t ship 9 foot leadscrews.
That is my first goal for sure! and I do not think I am far off from this.
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