Steel/Aluminium design/build, sorta smallish, cuts ali hopefully

[mart154]

That looks to me that it will be difficult to load the media, especially if full size and heavy. G.

The work envelope is pretty small, so I can't see doing any heavy lifting :)
Front diagonals should be designed just so a "full size" 600mm wide sheet fits in between them.

Basically, the heaviest "full size" I can see myself working on, would be maybe a 25mm-ish aluminium plate. 800x600mm of that weighs in just over 32kg, so wouldn't be much of a problem to wiggle in even if the front diagonals would be in the way...

[Boyan Silyavski]

The work envelope is pretty small, so I can't see doing any heavy lifting :)
Front diagonals should be designed just so a "full size" 600mm wide sheet fits in between them.

Basically, the heaviest "full size" I can see myself working on, would be maybe a 25mm-ish aluminium plate. 800x600mm of that weighs in just over 32kg, so wouldn't be much of a problem to wiggle in even if the front diagonals would be in the way...

If you have so many steel, why don't you move the supporting braces outside or think of something else.

Correct me if i am wrong, but when you design a thing from scratch there shouldn't be any compromises. Thats the whole point, yes?

[mart154]

You are correct. There shouldn't be any compromises and I can't see the front supports being an issue with the work I plan to do.

I will have a crack designing outside supports but it seems to complicate frame I planned to bolt the machine on to have it higher.

[mart154]

Been busy with other things recently and finally decided to have another crack on the design.

The work area has increased a bit and gone a bit beefier.

The work area is now 890x1000
The cutting area should be about 670x780 now.

Main frame is now 50x50x3 box. The rails bolt on to 60x60x5 (blue)
The green bits are 30x30x2 box to support the baseplate.
The gantry is still 120x120x5 ali box.

So any feedback is greatly appreciated before I start cutting the steel :)

[JAZZCNC]

Looks ok to me but I'd change the way the bed is constructed to help keep side frames from being pushed while welding and cut down on steel.

You won't need mesh that tight so I'd drop 2 of the long rails and flip other around and take rail across machine from each side in centre, this will hold sides together better and lessen chance of welds pushing/bending side rails. I'd then run the others up the machine and space outer ones so they land on the edge of the planned cutting area, they will support whole cutting area better. You will probably have a lower bed that goes right up to the sides but you'll also have a spoil board that is the size of your cutting area so ideally you want the edges of this to land on the supports and not rely on the bed underneath which isn't supported.
This also means you could drop the green bits because the bed will be supported where it matters, in the cutting area, and the small overhang which is a cantilever won't matter has it has no forces acting on it.

Other than that then fire up the saw. .

[JAZZCNC]

Oh forgot to spot this but was more looking at the frame than the gantry.! . . . . Mentioned this before many times .!! Wouldn't have the Y axis like that with a rear piece so basicly creating a box with no sides. It's just adding weight and costing money it gives very little strength. Get your self a card box and cut sides out and see what it does.?? . . .Same principle.

It also adds other complications in the build because if the edges are not machined perfectly 90deg it skews the box making it parallelogram which will cause bearings to bind and stick when bolted together.

[mart154]

Thanks! Got it on the frame. Makes absolute sense! :) I was already designing some jigs in my head to keep weld distortion under control. Now I can probably ditch those.

But with the Y. I basically just copied some designs I found here and there and I don't really have any more ideas. :(