Tiddy CNC.

[TonyD]

Different question. Into the much loved world of mechanical and forces. :)

I'm planning on using a Y axis gantry thats made out of a 4 pieces of 15mm Ali plate, the front part has a slot as per previous discussions to allow the moving Z Axis to connect to the Y Axis screw.

Key question on my mind right now is the length of the block which will support the gantry onto the rails relative to the center point of the spindle.
As shown below, it feels right to me that the gantry support block should at least extend to the spindle center point, no maths to back this up but without this dimension it feels to me like the gantry would be out of balance relative to the forces acting on the spindle. Any comments? Only concern is that the block is 260mm in length right now and thats a fair amount of X Axis travel I'm eating up. Naturally the klunky design of my Z Axis, which was made with a press drill only is not very compact and thus adds to the problem. I'm comfortable with the design as is as job #1 when Im competent with the machine will be to make a new better Z Axis but thats for the future. Comments welcome. Tony.
PS. I know there's going to be a side plate etc, I'm just looking at this one component now, happy to take feedback an anything else though.