Luthier CNC

[bluesking]

Looking good. Just a thought - is MDF the best, most appropriate worktop for something that could end up working with water (if only a failure-case for the spindle coolant, for example). My point - I have a sacrificial MDF layer on my "electronics" bench - and that's suffered some small water damage from an ultrasonic bath - and the surface is now perpetually feathering and impossible to flatten. My personal preference atm is ply, but most of the shops are stocking cheap eastern boards with large filled voids. The bench I've used for the mill is steel framed with ply top, sheathed in 1.2mm steel sheet (I had a bit lying around) - that's tough as boots.

I'm assuming that the bench is entirely separate from the machine? (it doesn't form part of the machine build?)

Yes it is a separate bench - not connected to the machine - though I will probably mount the X cable chain directly to it. I will mount the electronics to the lower shelf for now and see if this causes any problems.

I'm using an aircooled spindle so hopefully no issues with moisture.