Hybrid gantry

[JAZZCNC]

I've seen others mention they don't like the raised sides because of restricted access and I dont understand what the problem is or the concern they have.??

I've built several machines large and small with raised sides and it's just not a problem loading and removing material like your probably imagining. The advantages are very very much worth the slight and I do mean slight restriction and unless you have servere restrictions like ONLY being able to load from side then there really isn't an issue at all in my 4yrs experinece using my machine.

[Jonathan]

I've seen others mention they don't like the raised sides because of restricted access and I dont understand what the problem is or the concern they have.??

Same here... wouldn't have been able to put this 100kg sheet of 20mm thick aluminium on my router ready to cut if loading was difficult! As I see it the main advantage of having a raised bed is in addition to the rigidity gain from not having flexible gantry sides, you gain rigidity by using a raised bed and as a result minimising the Z-axis extension. With your design as soon as you raise the bed the easy access is lost.