I've been a bit busy with work for the last couple of months hence the lack of posts but the build has moved forward a bit. I've now got the steppers, drivers, screws, nuts, bob, nut brackets, spindle, VFD and a few other bits and bobs as well.

I met up with Neil the other night to swap parts from a joint buy and he kindly gave me a bit of 10mm plate to have a practice with. When I first saw it my heart sank - it looked distinctly too thin to build a machine from. I thought I'd give it a crack anyway and build one of the 8 brackets that I plan on using to support the X-axis and here's the results:
Click image for larger version.  Name: Bracket1.jpg  Views: 1188  Size: 62.8 KB  ID: 10571Click image for larger version.  Name: Bracket2.jpg  Views: 1161  Size: 80.5 KB  ID: 10572Click image for larger version.  Name: Bracket3.jpg  Views: 1174  Size: 73.5 KB  ID: 10573

The angle from the base to the back is 89.7 deg which I'm fairly pleased with considering this is my first attempt at metal work. It's surprisingly strong but is it strong enough? The the parts we first roughly jigsawed (or hand sawn once the jigsaw blade gave up) and then cut to exact size on the mitre saw. The accuracy is ok but not exactly the perfection I had envisioned. I'll have to decide now whether to get some kind soul to mill the parts for me or to press on with trying to cut the pieces myself.