AndyUK's Build - 1.2x1.0m Gantry

[AndyUK]

And, just to prove I haven't been completely slacking off since last year - some progress photos!



Large steel delivery (about three hundred quid for the base frame and adjustable bed + some sizable offcuts). Lots of cutting... then lots of cleaning up the pieces to make them nice and shiny and easy to weld. At this point, also, you know, learnt to weld a bit :)



Marking up - discovering what marking up fluid is, and then having to find my own tub! At this point I couldn't wait to layout the steel in approximate locations to give me a better idea of size (wife redacted!)



Worth also mentioning that part of the reason I've been so slow with this project to date is that I started it a couple of months after buying our first home. My workshop needed a little attention due to a steel lintel which rusted and pushed up the top few brick layers, and the window had rotted out - so here's a couple of pictures illustrating what we did with it. We followed this up with a complete rewire. Notice large pile of steel under bench...



LOTS of drilling, and LOTS of tapping. I said in my first post I'd never tapped a hole before this. Well, Now... lets just say there were evenings I wore blisters! Should probably have got myself a power-tap, but hey, all good experience.



By this point the milling machine had made it into storage (for various reasons...), and I wanted to get on with my steel plates for the bed. The shape is cosmetic anyhows, so I went ahead and used the solution to hand, which was a jigsaw with a metal blade. Was quite exciting to do a quick visualisation - although a bit of a tight fit before clearing the space for it! Note that one of the key changes I've made is bolting the frame together initially - I still plan to weld it, but I liked the idea that I could assemble then tack weld once I'm happy with the structure and basic alignment. Whilst I doubt it will help much with distortion, it has prevented me from making any big cockups with the basic dimensions of the base frame - and that steel is expensive!



Time to sort out the angle iron - needed quite a few of these since I started bolting together. Took the opportunity to borrow the bandsaw whilst at the in-laws and get them nicely cut to size. Marking them was a bit of an onerous task, so as my wife had recently taken up 3D printing as a hobby, printed out a jig to prevent me needing to measure! Worked surprisingly well, as our off-the-shelf middle-of-the-range printer is astonishingly accurate on its dimensions.



Now that I had the angle pieces, I could start bolting the base together. This is pretty much how it stands today - I've added the other two cross bars, and tightened it all down. I was gobsmacked when I went around measuring the dimensions against the CAD model, to find everything was smack on what I designed it to be - although I don't have a meter long pair of calipers so I'm calling close enough!

Next stage is to start assembing the adjustable height bed - this time I'll be welding straight out of the gate, then I need to tack weld the base frame together and design some height adjustable feet. I'm considering drilling into the concrete base of the workshop and attaching it down - thoughts? Otherwise, as I mentioned in my last post, I want to get the linear motion components on order, and order the aluminium profiles for the gantry to begin assembling those.

Thanks for reading this far - its quite fun sharing this now I've eventually gotten around to it! :) I certainly wouldn't be able to get any of this done without the help and guidance I've found on this forum already.