Let The Fun Begain, New build on the Table.

[Ross77]

Mmmm! not sure what you mean here?

Ok better explain myself in case I'm wrong.

Just to make it clear thought that its only because open bearings and supported rail are being used with a small bearing centre to spindle nose distance ratio. Ideally the bearing centres (on plan) should be increased but given Mike has already redesigned it a few times I didn't want to offer any more changes without justifying them with calcs.

If you are making a box to encompass the supporting rail then you are actually increasing rigidity.

Yes but its not so much the bearing mounting but the bearings themselves, open bearings can have quite a large radial clearance (10 to 50 micron), with the current set up and using a conservative 10 micron clearance (could be to 50), 100mm bearing spacing and 200mm spindle distance that results in 39 micron of free movement at the spindle. moving the ball screw the other side increases this to 51 micron.

This is free movement just to take up play, if you add any deflection due to load then this will obviously increase further. for cutting Ali the open bearings can run close to the max load capacity and as rigidity is a function of imposed load and load capacity then deflection will be high.

On the face of it 10 micron is a very small amount but remember this is only One element and doesn't include deflection in the part. if you lose 10 micron at every junction then it all adds up to a considerable amount.

Any way that's my take on it!