New member with a new 8020 design

[routercnc]

Hi Greg,

Ah, that clarifies a few things. So taking the dwgs as top, middle, and bottom, you will be standing facing the middle dwg when it is operating, with the support tables off to your far left, and far right.

Sounds like you have thought through what you want to do. Still, looking at the gantry section size vs the drop down to the cutting area I'm a bit concerned. Wood might just make it if you are gentle, but hardwood or a bit of ali might chatter and resonate. Do you need all this clearance? How about removable bolt in sections to raise and lower the gantry sides for different jobs? Or, maybe an extra gantry section a short distance above the current to give you more support. You need a bit more stiffness than the plasma you are using currently when routing.

OK, the out tables are fine as far as I can tell, and a method used widely in wood working anyway. Your only issue as such will be when you want to do a bit of cnc in one area, which needs to be continued, or be at a specific distance away from another section. If you are only cutting out small bits, and using it as a means to use up big sheets then I see no problem myself. Or, am I being silly and you intend to motorise the indexing with a stepper some how?

Anyway, if this is your first router based m/c, you will probably build it prod it and poke it, and find that some part of it could be better, then be forever tweaking!

[cncgreg]

Thanks for the comments. With the plasma cnc I currentlly operate I can continue a cut longer than the table by indexing the sheet through the machine. the sheet is cut the size of the table and then indexed through the table to a known point to continue the other half of the sheet.