I looked and couldn’t find anything on this idea… what about making the z hight of the mpcnc fixed and using an adjustable table for z hight (think like some 3d printers, where the bed moves down away from the hotend)? Has anyone considered this? Do people with far more experience then me think its plausible?
What would the benefits be? The Z would be slower. You would need to be able to attach the workpiece to the bed. The bed would get heavy quickly with size. The chips and dust would be getting down into the mechanisms, which would especially be troublesome for lm8uu type bearings and rods. It would be more expensive, and btw, we have a system that works and has thousands of users already.
Not saying it would or should be a standard, just looking for a custom way of adding a bit more Z hight (for those that want to put an extruder on their mpcnc) without sacrificing rigidity for the cnc. So the advantages would be a solid mounting for the router. And a z hight that could be measured in feet rather than inches. A sealed box around the rods would act as an effective barrier to chips and heavy dust. Upgraded steppers could take care of the speed issues…
Measured in feet? Whoof!
What kind of projects do you have in mind? A typical bit is only about 3/4" long.
Lol like I said, I’m thinking of the ability to use it as a large format 3d printer as well… so maybe I want to print a chair XD
Check out @forcerouge’s newest build log!
(I think the idea of “one machine that does all” is quite common - I had it myself, and was about to go for a snapmaker kickstarter deal. But now I wonder HOW MANY v1 machines I would need in the end… sigh…)
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Lol I did go for the SM2 kickstarter deal… now I’m looking for a better option.
This issue is actually what made me back out of the SM2 campaign. I read and was told many places that a one-for-all machine would not be good at any of it’s different capabilities. It was certainly tempting, but I’m glad I fell down the MPCN rabbit hole instead. It certainly didn’t save me any time, since I’ve spent countless hours figuring stuff out - but oh my have I had fun!
My issue isn’t with its capabilities, but rather with the design, quality, and support… linear rails have been failing left and right… my warranty has about 5 months left and after that it will cost 150$ each to replace them… pluss my SM2 has been down for the last month while I wait for support to respond to me about a defective rail 
I’ve been thinking about how to do something like this, while keeping the top square … for carving thick stuff like mantles and bar tops without a super tall Z gantry …
I’ve been using 16" actuators to build stand up desks and started thinking a crazy idea like this might work with a 8" or 12"… I wasn’t really thinking of controlling the table with code, just adjusting before the cut.
Yeah like a electric drop table. I’m sure that would work well.
You would need at least 3 or 4 synconised Z spindles.
Look at my build. Changing Z height is manually. I would not recommend to build it CNC controlled.
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