Hi,
I shall be starting a new build soon, I had a project, and I bought a CNC machine to do some light machining in acrylic to make parts for it. It didn't help. I just got the bug.

So this week I had the steel delivered to make a new machine frame (7 metres of 50x50x3 hollow section) plus some other bits.
I have the leadscrews (2 x 600 1605's, 1x500 1605, 1x300 1204), ballnuts and supported rails from Chai.

Next week Amadeal are delivering :-
AMA290VFF Metric Bench Lathe 2 axis DRO
Stand for AMA290VF Bench Lathe
Face plate for the AMA290VF Lathe
160mm/4jaw/Independent Chuck
Backplate for AMA290VF Lathe
Fixed Steady for AMA290VF
Travelling Steady for the AMA290VF
Quick Change Tool Post - Piston Type 200
9 piece Indexable lathe cutting tools 12mm
ER32/MT4/Metric Collet set 12 piece

I have already made a milling table for the lathe from the short bed of a Clarke CMD10 and I have fitted that machine with a long bed. I have already got a MIG welder and a 14" Evolution cut-off saw. For the smaller ali parts, I have the MD A4 crapezoidal machine I bought 2 years ago.

The design will be similar to Jonathans new build for Sasha, but with a fixed table, and probably nowhere near as robust.

Now all I need is the time, patience, skill and health to get on with the build.

But I have one starter question :- How do I ensure that the frame is square ? I intend to set up individual corners of the box section so they are clamped to the CMD10 bed, but overhang for welding. With a bit of careful tacking and strategic sequence and placement of welds, I hope to keep it square. The top and bottom frames should be (relatively) OK doing it this way and then I was thinking about drilling the corners and clamping the uprights with threaded rod through the middle.

I would welcome any ideas to help ensure that I don't end up with a twisted mess of scrap for the frame as I feel that this has to be the foundation of the whole machine.

Cheers,

Rob

BTW my original project is still ongoing, but in a hold state