New CNC router 8x4 For Cutting Multiple Materials

[D.C.]

Hello cisco, I'm not one of the resident experts but as everyone seems to have sodded off I'll give it a shot.

Try this thread for photos and video of a z-axis

http://www.mycncuk.com/forums/items-...ma-23-3nm.html

You want the rails mounted to the plate that the spindle is attached to as it will add stiffness to the plate and if you are using hiwin type rails you really want to use ecocast aly for the plate as it is a lot dimensionally accurate than the cheaper stuff and hiwin rails need very accurate alignment to work properly.

Watch the round vs square rail video here to see what I mean:

http://www.thomsonlinear.com/website...and_guides.php

That big hunk of material that is your gantry, is that steel box section? If you intend to mount the rails directly to it you might want to consider finding a local machine shop with a surface grinder that can grind it reasonably flat for you.