My second router design

[Joe]

Right I have now changed the design quite a bit

The gantry is now much smaller and I have lifted the sides of the machine up to compensate. The main of the frame will be from box section steel, either 100 x 50 or 50 x 50 with the thickest wall I can get. I will try to weld it using clamps to keep it square and flat the best I can but it will then be fly cut to make sure that the top face is accurate and then the machine can face its base plate to ensure that is flat.

My plan is to have a second false floor that can be bolted into the frame which will be around 100 mm thick for machining parts which require less z travel, this should then make the machine much stiffer as the z axis will not be as far out.

As for driving the ballscrews with belts I am going to stay with direct drive at the moment to save some cost, but I am sure for what I am doing the slower rapid rates will not be to much of a problem.

If anyone else has any suggestions please let me know

[Ross77]

If anyone else has any suggestions please let me know

Well you could move......and then also......and put that over there..

Looks good. I know its a welded steel frame but you might want to look at the junction between the side walls and the bed, you might get flex there. Also can you add any bracing the ends or will that hinder your access? maybe look at at a removable end braces?

To help with the resonance it might be worth unequally spacing the bed supports or at least move the central leg off centre, if that makes sense? vibrations have harmonics at multiples and divisions of the base frequency so by having equally spaced connections you can unknowingly increase the vibration.

What is the bearing spacing on the y axis?