Joe's 1000x600x200 steel and aluminium router started

[JAZZCNC]

I have drilled and tapped the bed and frame, and bolted to the locations where I had fixed and milled the aluminium strip. Reads within +/- 0.01mm everywhere in this region and there is a 0.02mm droop towards the as yet unsupported rear end. I think rather than try and shim the unsupported bits with shim material I'm just going to squirt some structural 2 component polyester resin in there, it is close enough and I will just make it worse trying to shim normally.

In the picture you still have the protective coating on the plate so you can't trust those measurements if you did it with that still on.?

Regards the Epoxy and bridge etc then I've probably done more pours than anyone here, I've lost count of how many but it ranges from Medium and V-large, my experience is between both you and Clive. I agree the moats are better outside the frame but you need them both ends of the machine. Also, make the moats lower than rail surface as this seems to help the flow. However the most important I find is the temperature, keep the temp on the low side of what's recommended as it slows the curing process and gives it more time to level. The only tricky bit is it's a fine line between just right and too cold and it not setting correctly.

[devmonkey]

In the picture you still have the protective coating on the plate so you can't trust those measurements if you did it with that still on.?

The covering is tight and uniform so I think I can trust them enough, I DTI'd the milled shims first which was zero everywhere, happy that my +/- 0.01mm on the top is a mixture of error from the covering and the plate itself. Anyway doesn't need to be perfect as the spoil board will take up any error, if I need a very flat part for bolting a vice to I will skim the aluminium bed, I left the bolt heads low enough to do this.

[devmonkey]

Bed is now fully fixed. I reckon it is within 0.02mm total error, not that I really trust this digital DTI.

The rear cross member and the outer edges of the other cross members that did not have the milled shim were done as follows. I laid some narrow strips of closed cell self-adhesive glazing rubber either side of each bolt hole. Then I re-placed the bed and tightened the central set of bolts down hard onto their milled shims. I then indicated the entire bed adjusting the outer bolts to zero, the glazing rubber provided a bit of resistance to bias the bed plate high so the bolts had something to tension against. Finally I got under the machine and injected some construction resin into the gap, this set hard in a few minutes as it is so hot today, it is basically bondo in a cartridge.

The bed plate had a very thin film of WD40 on it to act as a release so hopefully it will be possible to get it off again should I ever need to., not sure the resin sticks well to the shiny aluminium plate anyway.



This is the very last time that bed will look so nice!