Plastic Support bar on Alpha

[waltie]

I was giving a demo this morning to a perspective new client, and the plastic support bar broke that holds the dust collection tube and wirung for th "y" gantry broke. This machine has less than 80 hours on it. Is there anything out there you can replace this with, that will last ?

Any info will be appreciated
Thanks

[paco]

Ouch! That must have hurt the ego!?
My suggestion (http://www.talkshopbot.com/forum/cgi-bin/discus/show.cgi?tpc=312&post=17213#POST17213)... Contact me your intersted; I could provide informations for you to build it...

[fleinbach]

I use E-chain and like it better particularly if you have limited head room.

[tim_in_mn]

Ray,
I replaced mine with a flexible cable chain. Helped with my clearance problem and allowed overhead computer cabinet. Found it on Ebay for about $30

8520

[waltie]

Tim,
What size and length do you need for a Alph ?
I like the look
How does it hold the dust collection hose ?

[fleinbach]

This is how I did it to work under my steps

8521

I purchased it direct from Ingus who makes it. cost new $79.00 Luckely in my case there was enough head room at an angle to the stairs to just hang my vacuum hose.

[johnnie53]

Frank, Do you have a link for Ingus? My Plastic support bar is now broke in two places, unloading it a helper pushed down on it to get it out of the trailer and snap. The Cable Chain would be a good uprgradable part for Shopbot to stock inhouse. I thought I had a tight spot for my Shopbot,great setup.

[dingwall]

As a temporary fix - or permanent YMMV, you can bolt a strap hinge on the broken end. Now that you have two broken ends, it would still likely work, but be pretty floppy.

Igus energy chain is pretty sexy though.

[dirk]

I went to Home Depot and bought a vinyl extrusion for putting Screen on porches. It comes 4" wide and I snapped the male and female portions together. It was very rigid yet flexable, worked great

[ron brown]

John,

http://www.igus.com/ is the Igus website. A search on e-bay for "Cable carrier" will find some there.

Be sure and calculate how much you need. If I remember correctly it took about 42" of the material to do a 60" travel. If you buy on e-bay the "ends" are nice to have but you can butcher a link on each end to achieve a similar result.

Ron

[tim_in_mn]

Ray

My strip was 5' long, but it can be shorter, as you can run just cable from the middle to the backside of the table as shown in Frank Leinback's Picture. I cut 1x1x8" pcs of hardwood and with a 1/2" deep crosscut groove to fit the bottom of the Y channel and used Gorilla glue to hold the wood supports in place, no drilling.

I did not run my vacuum line in the channel but suspended it from above. The shorter the vacuum hose, the more suction. You could lay your vacuum hose on the cable and use plastic ties to hold it on the inside of the loop.

I am upgrading to PRTalpha and will have a route for the vacuum hose similar to Franks.

[waltie]

Thanks to everyone for their help

Ray