Building My First CNC Router, Looking for Advice & Other Info

[Desertboy]

Ahh man what a nightmare not sure im going to be able to get this to work then, spoke to someone at KJN who said that they tap M12 on the ends all the time? Must be doing it on a mill surely?

Alex

They have a machine for tapping the ends with clamps it's done horizontally (They can tap 6m lengths), you could ring round some engineering places local to you shouldn't cost you much to have them tapped it's not a hard job with the right setup.

Or put a request up in the jobs section on here someone on here will have the right kit.

I think tapping machines spin very slow but with very high torque so you can't do it with a stand drill press or dewalt. Impact gun might work BUT you'll probably just break even the biggest and strongest taps. I've seen decent impact guns by Snap on break seized wheel nuts in 1/2 lol.

My dad's company repairs lorries so I have access to some beefy and expensive kit.

How I did though was plough the bolt in the first few mm to centre the extrusion then I bolted 90° corners with T nuts to keep the extrusion straight whilst I drove the bolts in tight. Then unbolted the corner and T nuts and moved to the next one.

This won't work for the gantry but because mine was recessed it wasn't a problem as the aluminium couldn't twist when driving the bolt in. So I think the gantry will need to tapped or you will need to recess the extrusion into the gantry mounting plate.

Maybe you make a jig to keep the extrusion straight whilst you bolt it in. I wouldn't stress too much this is a solvable problem a PITA maybe but every first router build has to have it's drama it's traditional.

I learnt my lesson on the next build I'm going to go round either Zeeflyboy's, Routercnc or Clive S's house and steal their router, Chaz is safe with Thor I don't have a crane and I think my pickup would snap in 1/2 lol.