Thor, or should that be Zeus?

[JAZZCNC]

All very true. The smallest Datrons cost £35K. Ill be happy to get anywhere near the performance as Ill not be spending near this kinda money.

Out of interest, with the components that I have thus far, what would you do with them?

I'd Carry on and use them but I'd make sure the whole machined was matched and balanaced. This was my point really.! The Spindle will be woe fully pathetic in comparison to rest of machine.

The other point i'd like to make because I see it happening more and more is that BIGGER isn't always better.? Often it makes for poorer performing machine.!
The WHOLE machine must use balanced components otherwise it's wasted.!

In your case you have Rails and Ballscrews that you'd likely see on VMC's 4 times the size of what you have planned. Those same machines would be using Servos's matched to the screws etc and running spindles in the 15-20HP area. Theses machines would be built like this because they are intended to cut steels or Hard allloys with high MRR.
While they will equaly cut soft materials there main advantage would be they can use much larger tooling for higher MRR when roughing etc.
For 3D and general machining of softer alloys you wouldn't buy that machine because you'd be paying lot of money for Strength and componets which are not required for aluminium.

Machines like Datrons which are designed cut soft alloys while still using quality componets and matched components wouldn't use the size of linear rails and ballscrews you have bought because it would be harder or much more expensive to make them reach the accelrations and feeds required. For there intended purpose they will also more than likely beat a large VMC in cycle times.

[Chaz]

I'd Carry on and use them but I'd make sure the whole machined was matched and balanaced. This was my point really.! The Spindle will be woe fully pathetic in comparison to rest of machine.

The other point i'd like to make because I see it happening more and more is that BIGGER isn't always better.? Often it makes for poorer performing machine.!
The WHOLE machine must use balanced components otherwise it's wasted.!

In your case you have Rails and Ballscrews that you'd likely see on VMC's 4 times the size of what you have planned. Those same machines would be using Servos's matched to the screws etc and running spindles in the 15-20HP area. Theses machines would be built like this because they are intended to cut steels or Hard allloys with high MRR.
While they will equaly cut soft materials there main advantage would be they can use much larger tooling for higher MRR when roughing etc.
For 3D and general machining of softer alloys you wouldn't buy that machine because you'd be paying lot of money for Strength and componets which are not required for aluminium.

Machines like Datrons which are designed cut soft alloys while still using quality componets and matched components wouldn't use the size of linear rails and ballscrews you have bought because it would be harder or much more expensive to make them reach the accelrations and feeds required. For there intended purpose they will also more than likely beat a large VMC in cycle times.

Thanks. So in effect I need to potentially ditch the Chinese spindle idea and get something 'decent'?