Has anyone else attempted to relocate the control box?
I was hoping to relocate it for several reasons but the main issue is that the electrical cables are too short.
I’ve seen some people leave the control box at the back and then just break out the e-stop button which I am considering as well. I can’t really believe they put an e-stop button at the back in an inaccessible place 
Has anyone made extension cables at all?
I have mine inside the leg at the front. I did extend the E stop to the machine front along with making power switch for both the control box and spindle. I did an above drag chain and the wiring was just long enough.
Others I have seen extend the cabling would just caution to make sure to extend shielding if it has it. Other option is to source the matching bales and make extension. For the steeper, limits and touch sensor those cables can be sourced has extension on Amazon. Search for gx12 connectors than just match the PIN numbers.
Lots of people have moved the control box. Personally I preferred to keep it as is in the back, and add an E-stop to a pendant at the front of the machine. I felt that I’d rather not block access under the machine by having the whole control box up front.
Simple as splicing a single wire between the original estop and the control box power supply.
Your cables were long enough to reach the box mounted that way? Mine don’t look like they’ll reach but I’ll take a closer look. I have a fully assembled unit so perhaps the cable lengths they provided were shorter…
I bent a new plate and put it where a normal human might find it accessible. I did have to relocate the switches but all cables were long enough
Like a few others, since I built a mobile base, the box simple sits under the tub next to the coolant tank - and I put in a emergency estop on the front left leg that triggers a relay so the spindle power and stepper power is totally disconnected. This seemed safer than relying on the disconnect that runs to the power supply. I also use it as a main power switch so never have to reach to the back of the control box. The cabling does not have a lot of slack for sure.
Interesting…seems like maybe the cable lengths aren’t very consistent, or they are shorter on the fully assembled units. I definitely cannot reach the cables if the control box is anywhere but at the back or under the machine.
I may have to just leave it under the machine and break out the e-stop button like many others have done. Finding that I’m having to do quite a lot of mods even to get up and running on my fully assembled one, but I have an incredibly small workspace so that’s part of the reason (200 sq foot garage).
Here’s the estop I used that comes with an enclosure:
What else did you wire in that switch box, only the e-stop? I was thinking to probably also wire the spindle and control box in there as well?
Right now, only some enclosure lights. Eventually I’ll wire in the pump and hose sprayer control, but that needs a separate relay rather than sending the power wire up.
i moved my box to the front, but yea the cables are short, the ones that didnt reach for me were the x axis. i ended up drilling two holes right at the back and passed the wires in that way and it was long enough.
For now I just left the enclosure sitting on the floor. I can always kick the e-stop button if I have to for now 
The fully assembled versions come with forklift brackets and I left the rear one on for added support between legs. This is taking up even more of the cable slack. I might remove it temporarily and see if it will buy me more room.
I have mine on the right-rear leg of the machine, turned sideways. You don’t need to do any drilling for this mod. This allows the enclosure to be about 6" inches closer to the wall and provides easy access to the cables. I moved the e-stop to the right-front leg of the machine where it is easy to access at any point during an operation.
I’m running LinuxCNC which is why the software looks different, but these changes don’t care what software you run.
I have my PC and monitor mounted to that rolling cart so that I can roll it out of the way when I need to access that corner.
I really need to clean up my wiring mess!
Looks good thanks for the pictures.
We put our machine right up against the wall and there’s also some concrete lower down that sticks out a bit…so we wouldn’t be able to this easily without moving the machine again, which I’d rather not do. Also because our space is so small a handful of inches in our shop makes a big difference, hence why we put it right up against the wall in the first place 
I think for now we’ll just leave it on the floor under the machine and possibly do something more later. Itching to actually cut chips at some point in the near future rather than falling into mod hell haha
I moved mine to the front leg but regret doing so. Im going to move it back because I ran out of cable length while using cable chains for wire management . Moving it back to the rear leg and then going to build and mount a remote panel to mirror the buttons needed. I think. not sure yet but probably
