Bench-top or welded frame

[Doddy]

Well I'm surprised at that.? Thought you'd been around long enough to know better than that.! . . . . Design first then buy later is golden rule.

I seriously need to commit or I'll end up chasing squirrels. It's not big, not clever, but it works for me. Also, this is entirely hobby work for me which gives me a slightly different outlook than some others.

Steel is cheap (although my time is precious - to me at least)

Yes that's the idea thou wouldn't fasten between those two gantry uprights as it will make setting up difficult with little room for error.
Fasten rails on front, ballscrews on side and put brace between gantry uprights at top. Connect two ballscrews with belt and single motor running along top of brace.
Put rails on front of gantry and ballscrew on top.

Yeah, was already thinking about the top brace. Wasn't worried about two steppers, slaved, but I suppose rotate the screws 180 and belt across the top - yeah, that'd work and save some complication later on.

Ballscrews on (in)side - I lose a lot of Y travel - struck me during this the depth of the pillar blocks is pretty significant. I'll draw something up and have a ponder. Rails on the front sounds a lot easier.

Cheers - I appreciate the input.