Same boat here. Love the LR4.
Though I’d call the next version something like LR4S+. If it were to even vaguely resemble LR4.
Not sure LR4 had even officially been announced.
Sort of the Google approach to releasing, except without the product abandonment.
tool changer. 
lol, a 400+ feature on a 600- cnc …
a version capable of using the smol closed loop 17 would be more intresting. (a little heavier z assembly i would prefer)
Consider seeding and guiding two efforts, the first being the priority for the masses MPCNC TNG, and, a more experimental to the moon, let’s see what’s possible, effort for the tinkerers here to collaboratively explore accomplishing features/speeds beyond a vanilla LR. Expecting successful useful experiments end up becoming more broadly adopted.
I would only release a new LR is if was better. I think better equals no XZ plates with no loss of abuilities and no gain in footprint.
I am really trying to minimize my list of projects to maintain. I think everything here could be substantially improved if I had time to focus on them more. Seems the easiest way is cull the list.
Mount modified end braces directly to YZ?
1/8" - 1/4" sheet metal end braces with folded tabs (e.g. fab via sendcutsend) to securely marry/connect linear rails to struts+printed brace, or, injection molded end braces to securely marry/connect linear rails to struts? Can still share 3D printed parts for Civic builds, but offer folded metal end braces, or injection molded option for Acura builds?
I could imagine an end brace combined with an intgrated stub, sill printable. Makes the YZ plates more of a “U” or boxy “O”. Maybe even makes it possible for some other interesting mods.
I’m not sure if the product changed, but that link is for an $85 1.5Kw water cooled spindle, which sounds like an insanely good deal to me lol. Surely the minimum spindle to cut 5mm plywood and softer materials would be dirt cheap?
On the topic of making things more accessible, some ideas I’d like to raise:
I love the idea of printing extrusions instead of buying and cutting metal stuff. Obviously it’s not as rigid, but if we’re talking a small machine focused on accessibility?
I saw a YouTube video where a guy showed off his home made CNC machine he built out of stuff from the hardware store, under $200 (4 years ago). I think this is the guy that used slides for a drawer in place of linear rails, which I thought was brilliant! He has a video where he builds his own steam deck, it’s honestly incredible and highly entertaining, it’s how I found this CNC video with only a few hundred views lol https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfqCHDz9TrE
@vicious1 I just forked the docs repo for LR4 and will be doing a major fix-up for ya 
I’m the guy at work who documents all the SOPs and programming workflows, and educate my clients on hard science stuff on the regular… not trying to flex, but trying to help make the case that you won’t have to worry about this part of your to do list! I hope to have a first round submitted by end of the weekend, let’s see how it goes.
One last point, not related to accessibility but for The Next Big Thing: Give me a Low Rider that can hold multiple routers, in a circular pattern like a waterwheel in a stream. I’d totally have 3 Makitas, each with a different bit, and just have it pause, raise up, rotate the wheel to the next tool, pop right back down back to work. To me it feels like a revolver, so I’d call it The Gun Slinger (s/o to fans of The Dark Tower books)…
That’s just the spindle. You also need a VFD and since that is water cooled, a pump.
ah dang, that first picture got me 
Interesting!!
Kinda like this?
I love everything about this! So cool… I love the feeling when you try and tackle a problem from every direction, and then you think outside the box because it’s the only thing left, and you come up with something awesome. I feel like that’s what happened there lol
spend eternity thinking up router tool change ideas
hit rock bottom and say ‘Screw it, I’ll change out the whole damn core!’
The answer to TNG was so obvious, we should make a MP3DScanner!!!
I just saw this kick ass 3D printed manual 3D scanner which blew my mind… and then I was looking at the instructions and my mind was like “Dude what if you motorized it…”
I’m imagining that you cover the part-to-be-scanned in a layer of foil, place it in the machine. The machine is simply a metal needle that detects touching the foil, records the coordinate, and then reverses direction, etc. until the object is scanned (Z probing)! The earlier suggested MP3DLathe would suddenly be a lot more useful too 
If you’re cool with the scan taking forever, the resolution could be as high as whatever the smallest step you can use is? Hell, if you have a phone with a LiDAR Scanner (iPhone 12 pro and up), you could use it to make a rough scan to give to the machine so it doesn’t have to waste a ton of time going to 1 large safe distance between movements.
idk this post started as “Hey this is cool” and turned into a brainstorm sesh lol. I love to start my projects with the mindset of “In a perfect world, this is what I want to happen:” and then shoot holes in it until it works somehow So feel free to be like “electricity doesn’t work like that” and I’ll be cool with it lol I’m a geologist, not an engineer after all 
