My new 6040 improvement plan.

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Originally Posted by PaisleyPCdoctor

15mm x500mm square rails with 2x carriages was £37 off eBay. They were posted from uk but still surprisingly quick for Christmas time.

I ordered a second today, it'll arrive before I have time to build anything anyway.

I'm quite worried about getting the mounting holes correct. I think I'll mock it up in acrylic or something first. Once it's correct, I might pay someone to machine it in aluminium. Might be able to do it myself- we'll see. Lol.

I plan to buy two 20mm rails , 750mm long to replace the y axis bearings. Looks like a pretty easy job. That's gonna cost me £124 (china). After that, there's not much left and I'll just have to get on with actually milling stuff.

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I used 9045 Tslot extrusion with made it super easy to mount the rails but AFAIK they don't do M3 T nuts so would not be useful to you.

Although maybe not so useful to you KJN can can drill holes in extrusion at a reasonable price.

Okay, Long term- I will probably rebuild the Z axis and most of the gantry. Problem is, I cant really mill aluminium at the moment. too much flex in x-axis. Heres what im thinking of doing to get it a bit more rigid.

Add two 15mm linear rails (4 carriages), to a 120x530x20mm aluminium flatbar backing plate (fixed to gantry). A 2020 extrusion top and bottom to aid fitting.

Here is the before and proposed after...

Attachment 23522

I'm worried about the flex in the 2020 extrusion. Anyone got a better idea?

Thanks.

Just an idea but you could replace the gantry completely with new aluminium plates and 9045 extrusion, if you take it real slow you'll be able to make them on your machine.

I'll almost certainly end up doing something like that in future.
I want to try this first though. If it makes enough difference, I can mill my own parts out of aluminium to rebuild the way I want.

Just now i cant even trust drilling operations on the machine- far too much deflection on contact with material- even going really slow.

I have another coupla plans I'll post. I need the feedback.

or this...

10mm plate attached to back of z axis assembly, linear rails on another 10-20mm plate attached to gantry.

Attachment 23523