Hello guys,
So I’m about to build my LR3 and I happen to have a plasma cutter. I think I’ll go for some metal XZ or YZ plates and I just wanted to know if anyone done this prior? What about the Strut also?
I wonder if the build will be too heavy on the bearings/nema. But at the same time think it would be a great idea for the overall strenght of the machine.
Lemme know and oh! I choose to build the LR3 cause the community. Y’all awesome. Stand tall Kings! 
There are a couple of alu XY plates around. And at least one set of acrylic plates (with edge lighting, no less!). If you’re going for steel, it probably doesn’t need to be very thick, and I’d worry about the weight as well. Unless you’re handy with a welder as well, and make it from really thin sheet and weld on some structural braces for rigidity… Or get crazy creative and bend some supports into the metal itself.
But I’m a keyboard craftsman, so I defer to @DougJoseph, who is the one I can think of off-hand who has a plasma torch on his LR3…
Thanks for the inputs Cummins!
Acrylic Plates:
Corian Plates:
And I ran out of time looking through the LowRider → Your Builds forum. And a reminder that there are hundreds of users that have MDF plates with little to no problems. Heck, there is probably a not insignificant number of users who 3D printed “temporary” plates, and never got around to milling out “permanent” plates…
Aluminum Struts as well…
Doesn’t seem to make much difference in machine speeds, the router is still most of the moving mass.
What thickness is this Dan, thanks for the reply!
Quarter inch.
As noted by @Jonathjon are a few have metal struts - I may make some out of 3mm aluminium eventually, but my plan currently is to use ACM.
I don’t think there’s any evidence to suggest that metal plates or struts produce a more rigid build, but they look the part!
Sorry about the finger prints in the pic … if you want to go nuts. 6mm aluminium. These were laser cut and while the holes are accurately placed, they did have some anomalies in shape and direction (particularly the 3mm ones)
Full build thread here, but it’s a very long and distracted read and it’s not finished yet!
Thats some great looking lowrider plate rider right there 
Thanks for sharing and good job man, awesome!
I don’t want to create a lot of topics so I’ll ask all my build question here:
I’ve been battling with the tension of this belt but now it’s fine. That being said, now I have this extra lenght that gets in the way of the Z axis. Shall I leave it there and if not, how did you kept the belt tension?
Thanks
Leaving a loop that size is difficult, because then you cannot home the Z axis.
Instead of a loop, I used a short section (4 ribs) and cut it off. You could cut that loop flush with the edge (or at least inside the YZ plate) and it would still hold just as well. The alternatice would be to cut a notch in the YZ plate, which I think is a bad idsa from a structure point of view, or else give up on the last 12mm of Z clearance.
Will do.
Thanks Dan!
