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[Hulksmash]

Aluminum or steel box - your choice! My machine is all steel box section, welded, including the gantry (which is relatively uncommon). I also used a fair bit of 20mm aluminum plate for brackets, mounting plates, etc. I wrote it up - have a look at "AVOR". However, many excellent machines have been built from aluminum extrusion. My choice was influenced by having a MIG welder and small angle grinder. The thing that would have helped was a decent saw for accurate cutting; a hand-held angle grinder is not really good enough. Same goes for using extrusion, which arguably needs even more accurate cutting - an angle grinder and welder can create and recover from a surprising number of small errors (don't ask me how I know...)

Thanks Neale,

That has definitely convinced me to use steel as I too weld.

Your design is great too, do you have the measurements or the cad file for the final design, its just I would like to know what the distance was from tool tip / bottom of z Axis to work piece. Also the sizes of the Z and various other sizes on your design.

I could always make a list of questions :0)

I have limited space, I have to have the gantry 1200mm and both rails or Y axis 800mm. This is due to the location in my garage.

any help appreciated

Many thanks

Mike