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08-09-2013 #18
Accuracy is just one advantage of linear guides though - the other important parameter is their high stiffness. On a lot of 'diy' builds you'll find linear guides not mounted to the specified manufacturers tolerances, however so long as the surface is reasonably accurate they will still make the machine more rigid and last a long time.
Thank you for the comments about my friend's machine. We will post a video showing what it can really do in a few weeks, i.e. cutting aluminium over 10x faster than that.
I feel I should clarify a few of the points you have highlighted.
We did spend a long time getting a suitably accurate surface for the rails to mount on, however this was only due to trying so many different methods. In future I would just go straight to using epoxy, as it's quick and easy and as you can see from the reading I took it's plenty accurate enough.
Perhaps I wasn't clear, 4-5k was my estimate for a finished machine. The cost of all the parts (metals, rails, spindle, motors, control box etc) was just under £2500. The biggest purchase was about £950 in aluminium, which could perhaps be improved upon in a future build.
I agree that was an oversight on my part - I should have got the bed stress relieved before pouring the epoxy. On the plus side I can check it again in a year with my surface plate and pour the resin again if it's twisted substantially. The frame did have about 6 months left outside after powder coating, so the thermal cycling there will have stress relieved it a bit, in the old fashioned way!
If you're referring to my experience when making the 'sufficiently strong' machine, then I'm certain it was not a hardware issue - otherwise I wouldn't have posted it. The only change I made which affected the problem was changing the software from Mach3 to linuxCNC, which I've stuck with since as it seems to be more reliable. That said, I don't think this is the place to discuss the virtues of mach vs linuxcnc.
Similarly if you've got any more comment on my build log, then I'd be interested in hearing them so feel free to post in the thread.
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