Thor, or should that be Zeus?

[Boyan Silyavski]

Just a quick question - Why so much mass in this design? Looking at the likes of production mills like Tormach etc, there is nowhere near as much mass in them and they are proven designs.

I like the ideas but over designing is surely as bad as under designing something ??

More mass=Less vibration=Perfect finish /while using perfect tools, perfect toolpaths, etc./




The big traps here being:

more mass=more mistakes during design=more money spend=same result or better with less mass

or

all perfect, but cheap tools, not adequately changing tools where needed, bad programming, so result is mediocre




Clearly if not for the sake of perfection itself, perfect finish, hard materials mostly or a production machine, there is no point going this way. I can not speak for him, but i made mine machine as it is OTT for 3 reasons:
-will machine mainly aluminum
-will machine long pieces like gantries of smaller machines, etc.
-the extra effort was not so expensive looking at the total of it and will pay off on first big job

[Davek0974]

More mass=Less vibration=Perfect finish /while using perfect tools, perfect toolpaths, etc./

The big traps here being:

more mass=more mistakes during design=more money spend=same result or better with less mass

or

all perfect, but cheap tools, not adequately changing tools where needed, bad programming, so result is mediocre




Clearly if not for the sake of perfection itself, perfect finish, hard materials mostly or a production machine, there is no point going this way. I can not speak for him, but i made mine machine as it is OTT for 3 reasons:
-will machine mainly aluminum
-will machine long pieces like gantries of smaller machines, etc.
-the extra effort was not so expensive looking at the total of it and will pay off on first big job

Yes, I can grasp the mass effect but surely there is a slope of diminishing gains here - it may work perfectly with a mass of say 1000kg but work no better with a mass of say 5000kg??

The sweet spot is getting the balance right;)

[Chaz]

Yes, I can grasp the mass effect but surely there is a slope of diminishing gains here - it may work perfectly with a mass of say 1000kg but work no better with a mass of say 5000kg??

The sweet spot is getting the balance right;)

Agreed. The 'aim' here was for a machine of total weight of somewhere between 1 and 2 ton. I can move 1 ton with engine hoist but once assembled, its going to be more tricky so looking at options for wheels or some form of lift / move system.