Got my updated rollers last night
I had to take my son to and from swimming last night as my wife and daughter were out and about, and then there was a hockey game which I almost never miss. I didn't have as much time as I would have liked to work on this; so I burned a little midnight oil to get the rollers installed.

First off packaging was up to the typical Platboyz standards that we have all come to love and appreciate. Unless I missed something ( which is entirely possible) there were no instructions or video for this swap out. No problems as it all basically fell together just like the original build. The only question I had were the 2 large washers that fit the roller shafts perfectly went. I just slipped them on the end with out the pulleys.
I didn't have to take apart the entire front of the cabinet. I just un-did the screws closest to the opening where the material travels. The MDF was flexible enough to slip out the old parts, and slip in the new ones. At no time did it ever fell like I was flexing the front panel too much; just be careful at this step not to snap the front panel.
I did have a slight problem getting the old roller keepers off as I had painted mine before assembly, and the paint really stuck the pieces to the side supports for the rollers. A little persuading and they popped free.

As I didn't want to remove my driver board to get to the X wires to free the motor, I cut the wires in a convenient place and then soldered on some .1" headers/pins I use to make multi-servo wing connections. This way I can unplug the stepper and plug in very easily. I can post a pic later tonight if there is interest.

The new grip tape is a bit wider than the original so I had to trim a little along the length of the roller. I don't remember having this problem when installing the tape on the MKI, but after a bout 3 passes my utility knife blade was visibly very warn down, and was no longer cutting; and I had barley broke the surface of the tape. Not wanting to go through a case of blades, I folded up the extra flap, and used the sharp part of the blade further up the blade and whittled (best word I can think of to explain it) away the excess grip tape. This made a perfectly blended seam. Zero bumps. I rolled the rollers across a smooth even surface, and couldn't feel a bump anywhere.

Installing the rollers, and aligning to the steppers was a painless affair.

After I got it all buttoned back up, I ran a quick calibration on the X with some blue FFF. IT was spot on when using a tape measure. I'll run a more through calibration tonight with calipers. I also noted no skewing with blue FFF, but before the mods blue FFF would only skew very slightly if at all.

I then ran a sheet of pink FFF back and forth a few times. Zero skew as eyeballed. This is a huge improvement over the old rollers. With the original rollers pink would skew quite a bit.

Next up was some 1/16" and 1/8" ply. With the old rollers the pieces would move diagonally across the rollers, and not even be close to where they started after even one trip back and forth . With the new rollers, I ran each back and forth a few times. They ended up where they started with zero skew (as eyeballed) That is a HUGE improvement

I hope to do some more test/calibration checking tonight, run some balsa through the machine and really hope to be able to cut some ply so I can make the hot-wire templates for my Skyvan wing/tail.

First impression is this mod ROCKS!

 

rcav8r, good to hear man.....if you decide you want to give the ply a go......make sure you generate a multi-pass tool path. i have cut thru 1/4in. birch ply using a .010 step down. it takes alot longer, but its still quicker and better than hand cutting. just set it up, and go do some other things for a wile. randy.

 

Yep, I used the multi-pass ( even on 1/16" ply) with my MK1. I can crank up the speed so it really didn't take that much longer as one slow pass.

More recently, the file I tried to cut with the old rollers on the PP was set up for multi-pass. I used blue FFF as a backer as it skewed the least (and sometimes not at all). Even though the skewing was slight it REALLY showed up with the multi-pass.

 

Good deal Dave!
I have noticed that the smaller piece (width wise) of foam you run the more chance there is for a skew to show up. I cut a lot of 3mm 13.5 wide sheets and after the cut notice a slight skew. I have found with these smaller sheets if you find the center of the rollers and the center of the foam you can get rid of the skew. I can adjust the foam side to side to find this sweet spot for that size foam and put a mark on the cutting surface so that every time I cut that size I place the sheet there. This has worked out great. For smaller wood parts without a foam carrier we may have to add some guilds in the future. There's plenty of room back there to do it
Thanks again for posting your good news and for the kind words!
Mark and Trish
P.S. Sorry about the instructions they were supposed to be email via a link here on the Phlatforum.
Sounds like you figured it out no problems though. Just in case here is the new Step 11 video that will be added to the disc
viewtopic.php?f=264&t=2591&start=0