Quote Originally Posted by PAULRO View Post
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.