Hello from sunny NW England

Hello, 21 and new to the CNC game. Not too far from finishing my first build mainly using an old startrite pillar drill and an ML7-r. It was initially designed to cut wood and small amounts of aluminium for large scale model aircraft but hoping to move into a small market and producing parts. 1000mm x 600mm base. Housed in it's own air tight containment (not finished yet) to stop airborne dust from escaping as I don't want my lathe and other fine tools being coated in the stuff.

Gantry is made from 10mm steel (bad idea) and the base from welded 80mm box section which was due to be scrapped before I grabbed it. Hindsight is a wonderful thing as I would of used much thicker aluminium for the gantry If I had known but being a scratch design that's the learning curve for you.

2.2kw watercooled spindle still yet to be mounted but awaiting the ballscrews so I can tram it in correctly before I drill and tap the mounting holes.

Would be nice to hear from some other members from the Northwest.

Attachment 22116Attachment 22117

Ho RobC Welcome to the forum what part of Manchester are you from I think there are several people from around the northwest. Good choice on the spindle looking forward to see it making chips

I'm glad I did purchase the water cooled version as it is so quiet, barely any vibrations at all when at maximum rpm. I'm from right on the borders of Wigan and Salford.

You could always put additional braces at the back of the gantry and the sides, if not happy. That will make it considerably stiffer with next to none investment and time spend.

Hi, welcome to the forums spent a lot of time in Liverpool when I was younger never remember any sun lol. Only that the Sun was actually banned everywhere lol.

Liverpuddlians smarter then they look or sound ;)

I was going to use supported rail and mount it just like you so nice to see it would have worked ;)

Well it's pretty rigid it's just the shear weight and how much harder steel is to manually work with but today I had the first movement out of it via a PC input. Quite noisy but that's because I need to tune the motors. Now needing to install a 30amp circuit to my workshop as it's overloading the current circuit so that's another set back in the build.