Oh crumbs. Here we go!

[hoppo]

Cheers Motoxy and Tenson,

Not sure what I'm going to do with it once I've built it but yep I'm sure it'll be a challenge, but hey that's half the fun..

I had thought about two ball screws to move the gantry along the long axis, but sure I read on here somewhere that anything with a gantry over 750mm would require two and I could probably get away with only 1 if my gantry wasn't that wide. Accuracy isn't 100% for me at the moment as it's my first machine, but am willing to consider it, especially as the chinese ball screws are relatively cheap.

Incidentally can anyone clarify the axis's? I've seen so many different ways of representaion of X Y and Z. The Z is obvious, but does the Z connect to the X or Y axis? I assume that from the front of the machine the X axis moves the Z along the gantry from left to right as you look at it, and the Y axis moves the gantry closer or further away from you as you look at it. (Thought this should be a fundamental that I need to get right at the start ;) )

I've finished an initial design of my Z axis which seems to look ok to me, but being new to this thought I'd best load it up and let you guys have a look. Please offer up any improvements that you think I need to do.

Oh and if anyone needs any easy to use design software and uses a mac, I recommend Inventor Fusion which is what I created this in and it's free! Last week I had no experience of CAD packages and I've already managed to create something useful, and it animates! Now if I can figure out how to upload it....

Tenson, I'm in Camberwell, good to know I have a CNC neighbour. :)