combination machine.

[Popp Ann]

thanks for the information, i took a look and the site has some good information my machine is having a moving gantry not a moving table due to if you have a moving table you end up with a machine with twice the foot print compared to a moving gantry machine and as i have said i do not have the room to spare so that was the reason i choose the moving gantry and the reason for using the aluminium profile is due to not having any welding equipment if i had started doing this back when i was still working then i would have built a welded frame and also most likely built a much larger one, in the past i use to go to extremes and either go as large as possible or as small as possible, this machine is as large as i can build with the room i have i think it will end up with a working size of 340X300X150 as the rails i have are 420x420x250 and as i will lose at least 80mm for the bearings plus whatever space i leave between them so on the x axis the bearings are touching so i only lose 80 mm as the bearings are 40x40, on the y axis i am thinking of leaving around 40 mm between them so i will get a 300 mm working length and on the z axis i think i will end up with around 150 mm i accept that using the 20 mm profile that the machine will not be that strong but i only want to play around with some softwood and foam board, as long as i have some fun with it it will have been worth the money.
at the start the machine was only going to be used as a 3D printer but then i thought that i could add a laser cutter/engraver to it and when i came across the low cost spindle i decided to add that to it as well.

again many thanks to everyone who has given me some feedback,
regards Poppy Ann.

[pierantoine]

i was thinking of this yesterday :-)
if i had to do this i will make it with 2 gantry on the same bed when one works the other is totally parked at one end.
the Milling one would be strong, with ballnut.
the laser + printer head would be fast with belt and pulleys.
don't see too much interest with a laser diode for cutting, but will work for wood marking.
cutting PMMA etc needs CO2 with a invisible infrared pathway made with dedicated head, mirrors etc available on ebay

it sounds interesting...

[Popp Ann]

i was thinking of this yesterday :-)
if i had to do this i will make it with 2 gantry on the same bed when one works the other is totally parked at one end.
the Milling one would be strong, with ballnut.
the laser + printer head would be fast with belt and pulleys.
don't see too much interest with a laser diode for cutting, but will work for wood marking.
cutting PMMA etc needs CO2 with a invisible infrared pathway made with dedicated head, mirrors etc available on ebay

it sounds interesting...

Hi there,

Since my last message I ended up changing my machine from a moving gantry to a moving table but that is as far as I got at the moment it is sat not used just waiting for two micro switches to be fitted to the table for the end points but it has been buried under lots of junk as I an in the process of moving everything to my shed I recently had built for my hobbies but after moving around 1/2 of them out it is full so I need to think of something else to get room for everything.
thanks for your input,
Regards Poppy Ann.