Am I heading in the right direction?....

[Neale]

so I'm thinking I'll need approx 1600/950/550 rails (don't ask where I got those numbers from :) they're a guess loosely based on a rough guess of space between bearings)
Hi Lloyd, i'm about to start a first build similar to yours but i want a cutting footprint of half a standard sheet of wood, (1220 mm x 1200 mm ). i'm trying to minimize the footprint of the m/c and the spare travel of the Y AXIS. have you revised the dims above ? how much spare travel do have on the Y AXIS? I will use 80 x 80 x 5 mm box section for the frame and epoxy for the X AXIS plane. any info to get me up and running with a sketch would be greatly appreciated,
paulro

I think that you need to look at your rail sizes again. Very roughly, to be able to machine around the outside of a 1220x1220 board, you are going to need about 1250mm travel (as you must allow for cutter diameter). Then you need to add on bearing spacing - say, 200mm. That means that the rails need to be about 1450mm in X and Y (minimum) and when you start looking at the detail design, it will probably end up a bit bigger than that. That's starting to look like a fairly sizeable gantry width.

[Clive S]

Also you will have to add size for the limit and homing switches

A bit of info on Epoxy

post 20
http://www.mycncuk.com/threads/6952-...ng-area!/page6

post 6 http://www.mycncuk.com/threads/6403-...-A-fast-router ..Clive

[PAULRO]

ya , the m/c is starting to grow unexpectedly. originally i wanted a cutting area of 1000 mm x 1000 mm but then decided to try and go for a standard size width. i was hoping to m/c hardwoods, plastics, light and aluminum sheeting from time to time. is the gantry length a problem at this width? will i need bigger motors? am i being too ambitious with those dims? thanks for the info on epoxy by the way.
Paulro.