Gantry Aluminium thickness guidance

[MikeyC38]

So it was a busy Christmass

Went with 20mm thick

What do you think?

Hi Nick
You have been busy! so have I, finally got my machine cutting. Anyway the 20mm plate on the gantry sides will give stiffness in the Y/Z plane. BTW I noticed on your Z-axis plate the bolts are raised. You should counter bore these so that the trucks for your Z axis will have some where to be located. Remember Jazz's comments about mounting the rails on the back of the plate which holds the spindle and the trucks and ballscrew get fitted to the plate as shown in your photo.

All the best and have a successfull 2017!

Regards
Mike

[dachopper]

Hi Nick
You have been busy! so have I, finally got my machine cutting. Anyway the 20mm plate on the gantry sides will give stiffness in the Y/Z plane. BTW I noticed on your Z-axis plate the bolts are raised. You should counter bore these so that the trucks for your Z axis will have some where to be located. Remember Jazz's comments about mounting the rails on the back of the plate which holds the spindle and the trucks and ballscrew get fitted to the plate as shown in your photo.

All the best and have a successfull 2017!

Regards
Mike

Yeah, thanks for that, I realized this as I was staring at it yesterday, will have to counter bore to even get cart to slide past the bolt head I think.

I've decided to go the other route and mount the rail on the sides of the plate pictured, and just have the cart on the back of the spindle.

[JAZZCNC]

I've decided to go the other route and mount the rail on the sides of the plate pictured, and just have the cart on the back of the spindle.

If you don't have need for tall material or long tools then wouldn't go that route as your losing stiffness for no reason. It's not more difficult building it the other way around.

Also have you realised that you'll need to space the rails off the plate or machine channel down centre to allow clearence for the ballscrew/bearings.?
Best if you take little from each plate depending on the ball nut mount the total need machining off is the distance from bearing face to ballscrew flat which is 45mm. Profiled rail and bearings total aprox 30mm depending on make, (Hi-Win HGH-20CA are 30mm) so I'll let you do the math.?
How you devide it upto you, I just split it in half.