I've been busy all this week so not had time to work on this. However, I've sneakily booked Monday off so I can get some more time on it! Instead of constantly asking questions, I've tried to think of all the main concerns I have at the moment. I would be very greatful if anyone can answer a few!


1. I need to work out how I am going to attach the extrusion (bed) to the aluminium tooling plate. I think I have two options: a) Either drill the tooling plate and insert bolts from the underside which screw into t-nuts in the extrusion. b) Or use aluminium corner brackets on the inside of the extrusion?


2. I think I need to assess how I am connecting the extruded pieces to eachother (for the bed frame). The X axis extrusion is actually comprised of a 45x45 piece and a 45x90 piece ontop of eachother. Unfortunately I cant seem to find a single 45x135 piece? At the moment they are only attached together by the steel end plates. Do I also need some internal corner brackets? I was also wondering if to add some plates bolted to the side of the 2 extrusion pieces?


3. How should I re-inforce the steel end plates? Would it be a case of simply increasing the plate thickness from 5mm? The end plates don't hold the ballscrew bearing houses (these are attached to the extrusion). The plates at the back of the machine do, however, hold the stepper motors.


4. Is it possible/recommended to add a vaccum to the z axis for swarf? Is this only to be used for wood? I am also going to add brackets for a coolant hose.


5. I need to consider draining the coolant. Could this simply be a hole cut into the tooling plate with a pipe which goes through the table beneath into a bucket? My only concern is I don't have a "fall" for the water.




Hopefully those all make sense!


Thanks again,


Dave