Sturdy and Fast all Steel CNC , my first build

[Boyan Silyavski]

Well, the laser cut parts came. So, i finished soldering the parts to the frame. That includes the ball screw mounts. What i did was mount the ballscrews to the supports/in the middle so there is place left for adjustmennt/ and that greatly helped the correct placing. Carefully made some tacks with the Mig and waited all to cool, so checked again if the screws move smoothly. Have to note that the machine was welded with precision <1mm greatly helped.







Now its epoxy time. Several mistakes here. Just to fulfill my worries.

I used some aluminum angles, hot glue from outside, instant glue below, silicone at the angle inside.

the mistakes:

-the channels connecting both sides should be wider, say at least 3cm, not like mine-8mm :-). Epoxy has difficulty to flow in so narrow channels
-i am epoxy greedy, calculated the just amount. had to mix second time to fill the channels
-scratched the base below the epoxy, with the idea of better contact. Now i can see the scratches. nevertheless i would paint the machine, but is good to know that the epoxy is quite transparent yellowish color

The clever stuff:
-the epoxy sides will be 40mm wide, works great for leveling.
-it seems the way i fixed the channels holds pretty well , cust came from the garage, no pour for now, one hour later we will see.
-used bolts on the legs to level the machine perfectly
-as i wanted 5mm epoxy thickness, i found some magnets which together made 4.5mm and put then at the corners. This was extremely clever as right from the beginning i could see how much epoxy and where to pour. In fact i believe i poured it perfectly and did not need the channels, as there was a moment when the epoxy just covered the magnets.
-used small torch to help leveling and take away the bubbles.








Other clever stuff was that i welded 2 wheels at the back and fixed 2 handles at the front. That helps me greatly maneuver the 100kg around.