Hi guys,

Well been making a nuisance of myself on here for a week or so and I think it's time to make a thread 1 to get some ideas from you lot and 2 so I can put all my ideas in one place for my own reference :)

The plan is a 2' x 4' fixed bed made from aluminium extrusion and then a moving gantry style for the movement. I have sourced a trim router from an old router table and am looking at using the skate bearing style linear movement. This will run on a sheet of cold rolled steel bolted onto the outside of the ali extrusion. This should give me smooth rolling and a nice straight edge to run along. It will also allow me to get the gantry rock solid by tensioning the top and bottom runners.

I am still undecided on my drives at the moment might go with timing belt anchored at each end of the bed and then the stepper mounted on the gantry with a pulley and idler roller. I will be driving both sides of the gantry to avoid racking and hopefully give me enough rigidity to allow me to cut lightweight metals. I have looked into leadscrews and ballscrews and allsorts but I think the cost is prohibitive for a hobby machine.

Primarily I will be using it to cut Balsa and other sandwich materials as a core for my carbon stuff which will then be vac bagged with epoxy. The length will hopefully allow me to make rc planes and eventually a new kiteboard. I would like to be able to machine aluminium blocks but I doubt I will get it anything like for doing that.

So that's the overview. I will bulk the thread up with many ideas and pictures. Also need to get cracking in Sketchup and make a plan :)