I recently cramped my already small shop with a new metal lathe and mill, so I’m thinking about converting my PRO4896 to a PRO4848. I plan to use the extra extrusions to beef up the frame (see the drawing below). From what I see from the assembly instructions, I should have all the same parts…just longer cables and extra parts. Am I missing anything to get the job done?
1 Like
I think you should be fine just cutting everything down… Measure… a few times and cut once? 
You’ll have a bunch of extra cable but you can just coil that up pretty easily.
The holder for the cable track on the Y axis might need to be cut down. I know on a 5x10 we put two of those together, not sure how it is on a 4896.
You’ll want to make sure you maintain the “elec bar” (that’s the bar you hang the control boxes off of, looks like you already have that in your drawing.
When mathing out your cuts you might check the 4848 travel limits, on some models we sandbag a little. I believe a 4848 actually has 50 or more in each direction of travel.
That’s not at all a complete set of things to follow, but hopefully it’s helpful!
I originally built a 48x48 then bumped up to 96, now I am adding other equipment to shop and will reverse…the changes to go from 48 to 96 were minimal … wiring was extended and drive rails were extended with a ‘scab’ piece, which I always had issues with…so your drive rail might be a problem…the rest is aluminum, so buy a aluminum blade for your chop box …just an additional note, where you ever able to attain accuracy on your 96 ? I always had issues with y axis on the 96, and one thing hobbyists don’t know they need is a big vacuum system to keep ply / mdf etc. flat…without that give it up…good luck
Oh man, I guess I didn’t think there would be any cutting. I figured these were modular and I’d just have to drop the back half of the machine. I’m not sure if I want to cut anything…I’m pretty indecisive so I might want to go back to 4896 some day!
I haven’t used my machine for anything more than a half sheet of ply or MDF, and I haven’t had any trouble with accuracy as of yet. I’m a weekend warrior with too many hobbies, so I don’t really use my machine as much as a normal person would\should. I have a bad habit of buying too many toys at once. 
I’ve done the same, it is just reversing the conversion if you went from 48 to 96. I don’t know wheat rail lengths they ship with 96, so they might need to be cut. You will also have a pile of cables. I seldom used the 96, truth is if you don’t have a vacuum to hold down a 4X8 piece of plywood accuracy sucks and broken bits become common. Needed a place for a laser in my shop.
I don’t want to be disagreeable, but I disagree with your vacuum assessment, I have a 4x10 and 4x8 with no vac, there are many ways to skin cats.
please let me know of other solutions to vacuum, I am never disagreeable with better ideas…