All steel, no welding, 2000x1300x250mm

[eurikain]

It's certainly impressive I can see a lot of work has gone into this.

Hi Clive !
Thanks ! Yes, you are right, probably more than 30 hours of modeling so far, because I went through several designs, and had never used SW before, so I had to learn everything from zero ! But now I've got most of it figured out :D Great program to work with, though sometimes a bit frustrating.

I do worry about the straightness of the steel to get an accurate machine.

I understand, I am not sure myself as it is an experiment. In the project I linked in my original post, they got a .1 play on joints, 0 play on holes (that's what I've got), and they cut the plates on a .001 accuracy machine, so plays were correct when cut. The machine that will cut my parts has more than .001mm so I'm not really worried about cut straightness. if all edges, joints, teeth and pockets are cut straight I wouldn't see how there could be any straightness error :/ Where would they come from ? Are you talking about the steel straightness itself ? May be I can ask them to surface the sheets from which they cut the parts on both sides ? Would that be a fix ?

May I ask why you have not gone with square profile rails?

Price :) ! The goal was to make things cheapER. 12 SBR20UU blocks cost me $60. Stainless steel shifts will be less than $50 for all axis. Shaft supports are integrated to parts and don't add any cost to the machine but a few seconds of cutting.

I look forward to watching this develop. ..Clive

Thanks ! I am very excited to get the model ready and working so I can send the parts to the cutter :) !