How much deflection to expect...

[Wal]

Thanks routercnc, helpful info. I guess I could also hang 5kg's worth of weights off it..?

Anyway, today's progress:



All coming together reasonably well. I must say that I'm blown away by the minute measuring capabilities of some of these gauges. My dad's a retired engineer whose specialism was in measurement, he hasn't seen the machine and is pretty much bemused by what I'm building, heh - I guess you would be if you're used to measuring hydraulic gear to MOD tolerances... He's retired now and has given me a load of his old gauges, one of which is a Mahr with increments of .002mm - it's mad to see those otherwise imperceptible forces at work!

Anyway, one thing I will say at this stage is that the gantries move fairly smoothly without much effort when turning the screws by hand, although pushing the gantries around (back-feeding the screw) takes a fair bit of effort with a bit of binding towards the ends of the screw. I'm not entirely convinced on the quality/consistency of the screws from China. Pretty sure that the z-screw is slightly bent and I've noticed that the x ball-nut is a bit 'clicky'... Not going to get too anxious about it just yet, I'm keen to see how it all runs under power...

I think I overdid it on the thickness of the rubber aprons I'm hoping to fit to shield the running gear. 4mm is WAY too thick. I think 2mm should do it, even then it might run under the gantry, I'll have to experiment. If anyone has a spare bit of 2mm rubber sheet lying about...



More updates as the week progresses...

Wal.