1.7*0.74*0.4m Mill / Router building...

[Jonathan]

I had a request for some more photos, so here they are in no particular order:

[WandrinAndy]

Jonathan,

A quick question about your "box" type Y-carriage in this pic please... Particularly about the position in which the horizontal plates are bolted to the vertical plates....

The top plate is bolted slightly above the top of the vertical plates and the bottom plate is bolted slightly below the bottom of the vertical plates... If that makes sense.

Did you do this for a specific reason such as making the initial DIY build/squaring easier?

Cheers,
Andy

[Jonathan]

Did you do this for a specific reason such as making the initial DIY build/squaring easier?

Yeah I ordered the wrong size aluminium plate!

To make it easier to square you should mill a shallow slot into the back of the Y-carriage plate which holds the Z-axis bearings. This can then align to one of the smaller plates on the Y-axis to get Z perpendicular to Y. You can just about see what I mean in this picture, circled in red:



Which reminds me I never posted the pictures from when I changed the Z round rails to linear guides:

Using the indicator made aligning the rails properly and getting it to run smoothly trivial. Fitting everything in the small available space was less trivial. Hard to say how much difference it made to the performance of the machine, since at the time the MDF bed was the limiting factor and I think my spindle might be on it's last elbows...