Game on!

[Voicecoil]

I've found time to do a bit more on this in the last few days, firstly got the gantry extrusion fully end drilled and tapped..... it just fitted under the pillar drill with 15mm to spare

talking of tapping I soon realised that there were going to be A LOT of holes to tap and if I wanted to save a lot of time (and avoid w*****s cramp!) machine tapping was the way to go. Tapping machines looked a tad expensive for the moment, thought about changing the motor of the pillar drill to give a quick reverse function, but some bits were on a couple of weeks lead time.... then I tried one of the Europa tool interrupted-thread spiral point taps:

These seem to require a lot less tapping force than anything I've tried before and seemed hence offer up the option of tapping with a cordless drill (which convieniently has a torque limter to stop breaking taps, and a reverse to extract them). In order to keep things straight I added a circular level to the back of an old drill, using the pillar drill and a length of tool steel rod to get it properly level whilst the glue dried.

With this and a known flat surface I seem to be able to tap holes pretty straight and all for the outlay of a £1.80 level off the Bay of fleas; and you can do it in large pieces that wouldn't fit under a normal pillar drill.