El Beast - Initial design phase, comments and critique welcomed!

[njhussey]

Well I think that compared to my machine, which is welded steel frame with a bit of epoxy for levelling the rails and some 20mm tooling plate for the gantry, this is far more of an engineered and well thought out solution. Thought has gone into how to assemble the machine and the OP is very realistic with respect to the area they want and what they want the machine to do.

I think gents that everyone is getting a little too nit picky (which, don't get me wrong, can be a good thing) and getting a little bit too bogged down in ultra precision engineering and forgetting that this is a hobby machine..............there is nothing here in this design of machine which couldn't be sorted with the help from a few beers an assortment of shims and a bloody big hammer

[1Jumper10]

Absolutely agree. There may be some minor adjustment needed at the end but there would be with ANY machine (except possibly a Datron). It looks more well planned than most other DIY machines that have turned out just fine.
ZeeFlyBoy your skills with Fusion 360 are incredible.

[Zeeflyboy]

Thank you chaps! Neil I think you summed up my thoughts quite eloquently - especially the beer and hammer part lol.

I am of course after critique, it was the main purpose of sharing this design before starting to build it rather than vice versa - and I am extremely glad I did.

The complete change to the Z-Axis for example is not something I would have thought of but I can definitely see the benefits... but ultimately yes, one needs to keep sight of the fact that this is a hobby machine to go in the Man Cave, not an industrial interferometer calibrated machine.

I am confident that the design as it now stands will fall within the alignment error ability of the linear rail carriages, and with some tweaking I think I can get probably get it to within my ability to accurately measure.

Jumper - Thanks but I'm still just an amateur with Fusion, but I do find it refreshingly easy to use for the most part!