Large Format Epoxy Granite Gantry CNC - Looking For Feedback

[Max Maker]

Hi All,

I built a CNC router with elevated rails in 2012 out of aluminium profiles. I still use it today and it works ok. I can cut wood and aluminium, but it is not stiff enough for aluminium and not fast enough for wood. Back then I made it 1.5mx2.2m which is just an unpractical form factor. My workshop is to small for that. So I made it half as wide. The raised rails are a very convenient way to make the gantry stiffer and to keep the rails clean. They also make it harder to access the cutting surface.

So now I learned a bit about the good and bad things of CNCs, and I plan to build a new one. My plan is to make it 2.5m long and 1.2m wide. That way it can be positioned nicely along a wall of my workshop. The gantry will be very long, so it won´t be in the way very much and I can still use the CNC as a work bench. The work space will be a little over 2 x 1m. The weight of the base will be 590kg.

I plan to add a few styrofoam (xps) cores into the base. That way I can use less epoxy and reduce the overall weight. In the front and the back, those styrofoam boxes will form little shelfs to store the electrics and tools. So they don´t always lie around on the cutting table.

Let me know what you think about this! One concern is if I should use Epoxy Granite or Concrete since 100kg of Epoxy cost about €1000 alone.


This is a tour of my workshop including my current CNC at around 13:00min.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1CnfRxpGjA