Quote Originally Posted by tankproof2 View Post
Ok, my foot is off the buy pedal.

i have looked though this forum and see 2 ways of doing it. 1 steel welded frame, 2 Epoxy Granite my question whould be, which is the best/ most cost effective? for a 1.2 x .75m machine.

i will start a build thread now and get cracking on the cad.

thanks for all the help, Tank.
Ok, that's easy, Steel is the better and cheaper choice for a machine this size. Why.?

Epoxy granite would be the stronger machine but would cost far more money by the time you have built a substantial mold for it and bought the materials, then you have the weight of the thing, it would be VERY heavy.
Then you have to consider the machine design.! Moving gantry or Fixed.? Epoxy granite would require you to build a fixed gantry otherwise you'll be into BIG and expensive motors to shift all that heavy mass around on a moving gantry machine.
Then you have the size, Fixed gantry would require roughly 2x the area for one of the given sizes.

The best combination is a steel frame with the rail surfaces epoxy leveled to give you better accuracy with the least hassle.

When you are looking at builds pay attention to those that put the rails on high sided frames with the gantry sat directly onto the carriages. This is the stronger design for your needs with cutting aluminum.
If you want a good example of what can be done with basic tools then check out Joe's build. There is many other's similar as well which use this style of the frame design and very well made.