[EricH]

Originally Posted by Steve Kaneb

Why do you have the plates extending past the sides of the CIM casings? You would have to change the pocketing, but if you lop off those spare centimeters, you'll save some weight, space, and raw material.

It makes it easier to tighten the screws that hold the gearbox together. If you're going to do it this way, you have to be able to keep the plates together, and with the gear/motor setup, I don't think you can just assemble the box and put in the motor afterwards; you have to put the motor on the plate first. I'm not sure you can remove much sideplate length without reducing the ability to remove the screws in a hurry (say, in case of complete failure of a sideplate, requiring a complete teardown).