Smiler's Build

[Smiler]

Hi everyone,

Ok, here goes. This is what I've achieved in the last week of manic building. Originally it was going to be an all wood design as per the Solsylva plans but it was easy to substitute steel in its place which is handy since that is my area of expertise :)

The base frame is not quite finished yet as I still need to add supports for the work surface. I'm thinking this should be removable so I can add a fourth axis which could then rotate odd shaped items (Queen Anne legs etc.) below the normal bed height.

Any questions, criticisms, free beer, please feel free to send them my way.

Please excuse the mess in my shop ;)


By the way, Marchant Dice have let me down AGAIN, promised to email me with an explanation for why it's taken so long for the rack to appear but nothing in my inbox tonight. Looks like I'm going to have to get the CC company to get my money back.

[Smiler]

HI Kip,

The box sections are 50 x 50 x 3 steel box section, welded to 6mm thick endplates. The frame is bolted to the rigid PVC endplates. I can't detect any flex at all in that. My only concern is the rails (20mm) and the ballscrew(25mm) are in effect taking the torsional load but whether it will be a problem only time will tell. I've seen larger machines than mine where the rails are also the gantry frame (i.e. no box section )and they don't report problems with them.

On reflection, maybe I should have gone for a supported rail like on my X axis but it was an impulse buy from EBay so I'm stuck. Still there is nothing to stop me adding supports and open bearings later or even flat rails and trucks mounted face on to the box section.

Thanks for the input, any ideas for removing any flex?