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

[Zeeflyboy]

Topper on aliexpress... I was dealing with a guy that goes by the name of John (I would assume a western friendly name!) - very helpful chap. Just emailed him asking for a quote for all parts with details of what I needed and then they can create a special order for you on aliexpress so you still get the buyer protection afforded by them.

I was one HD16 short (can't really complain since they threw those in for free) and I've sent an email to enquire about that so we'll see what they say. They do both TBI, HIWIN and they do their own factory Chinese made stuff too which would work out quite a bit cheaper. For this machine I went with the HIWIN rails and C3 TBI screws, for my other project I went with some of their own factory manufactured ground screws and nuts which were significantly less than the TBI equivalent (C5 ground 1204 screws are very expensive it seems!). On first impressions those factory own screws look well made too, and while they don't have any discernible play on the nut they aren't quite as smooth to spin by hand as the 16mm TBI ones for El Beast.

Was very happy to see the end machining has been done to a very high standard - bearings are a snug fit and the machining is concentric. All the other parts like rails, carriages, MBA-12C mounts, FK and FF bearing sets seem high quality - So far so good.

As mentioned I want to check the screws against the glass scales just to check lead error and consistency more out of interest than anything else, but having had a good look at them I would be surprised if they were anything other than excellent.