Greetings all. Prospective MR-1 owner here, trying to decide if I have enough room in my shop for an MR-1 with enclosure cabinet. The only option I have is to put it in a corner, so the back and the left side of the cabinet would both be against walls.
Question for those of you who have units with enclosure cabinets, and have lived with them against walls or in corners for some time now: If you had to do it all over again, would you give yourself more clearance than you did originally? If so, how much?
Fwiw, I am an engineer/tinkerer, and fully plan on customizing/upgrading this machine if interesting options arise down the road. So I really don’t want to end up in a situation where later on I really want to do some upgrade/mod but can’t because I didn’t leave enough clearance behind or beside the cabinet to do it effectively.
(And yeah, I’ve read the threads about ways to move the cabinet after install, but for the sake of discussion let’s say I want to avoid that completely.)
The back of the machine will need to be 12" off the back wall for the control wiring coming off the back of the control box. You could relocate the box to get it closer to the wall.
As for the corner, the only problem would be accessing your limit switches. I guess you could always climb inside if you’re flexible. Just follow the directions. Take your time and think out some of these upgrades. Drains are first thought. The machine works perfectly, just the way it is. Just my two cents. I can get an exact measurement of the back clearance required in the morning.
Thanks for the insight. Ah yes, forgot to mention I’d already planned on relocating the control box to ease the rear clearance requirements. If I did that, how much space do you think I could I save?
I would consider it if I had a smooth floor, but my shop is an old converted garage from the 1950’s and the slab is cracked, pitted, etc. My <200lb machines on casters have a hard time rolling around on it.
Take out the side Windows. You could climb inside also. Building a roller frame so you could roll it away would be a good idea. Like @237amStudios said.
Would love to have it mobile, but don’t own a forklift and casters aren’t going to work on my floor. Wherever I build this thing is where it’s going to sit until I hire someone to come move it for me.
So if I move the control box forward from its original location, could I get away with 6" clearance on both the back and the left side? (assuming I’m okay with only being able to access the limit switches from the inside) No other maintenance tasks will be hindered by that?
Mine is a few inches from the wall on the back and right side. I just climb inside the enclosure i when I need to clean or tweak anything. Since it has no top it is bad at all.
i have mine up against the wall but not in a corner. I would say if you put some real limit switches in it, being in a corner should be fine. those things are the only thing thats required me to open the sides to deal with.
Mine is about 6 inches from the wall with the box relocated to the back right leg. I think that is about the minimum distance that I’d want, because it allows me to reach behind the machine to re-run cables. Any closer and my arm wouldn’t fit.
Climbing inside the machine is an interesting solution, but I do have a top on my enclosure for better sound dampening. It is made of pink foam and mass loaded vinyl.
