One ring to rule them all?

[Rufe0]

Just a little update, been a bit busy at the moment unfortunately however it maybe fortunate I didn't get too far as there are a lot of changes afoot, potentially moving house, as a result I can't guarantee I will have a nice big garage to put my machine in anymore. Possibly have to set it up in a bedroom, so it's going to have to be a lot smaller. I'm thinking 500x1000 working area is about the smallest I would want togo. Needs to disassemble into small parts. No pieces larger than about 1900x70 in order to fit through doors, and ideally all parts would be as small and light as possible so it's easy to carry them upstairs etc.

Still need decent Z travel, tall items, primarily for steel/aluminium.

Probably my best bet would be a bridgeport mill but that would be a bit of a challenge to carry upstairs...

[dodgygeeza]

it would also be a challenge for the floor boards.

[Rufe0]

Indeed indeed, so just brainstorming what my options are now. Thinking the height adjustment on the bed is abit of a hassle I could do without. But I still want to be able to work on tall items. So that leaves me with a very tall machine, would have to use waste boards or something to space the work up, maybe a hassle maybe not. Something like this.


I'm wondering if there would be a better way though. I had an idea... it's basically a fixed gantry except the bed is fixed and the gantry moves(not shown but bed would sit on supports at both ends). I think it would look really cool, like some sort of scanner out of a sci-fi movie. Would offer better access aswell and I think I could make it significantly lighter. * not a proper drawing just an artists interpretation * shown with spindle hanging out the front for ease of drawing, obviously it would be a dual gantry with centralized spindle.


I think both would suffer from strength issues, especially as there is no diagonal support to stop skewing.

Any thoughts?

[njhussey]

Why don't you put the Z axis between the gantry uprights? It would put the C of G much closer to the center of the gantry bearings and you'd lose much less cutting area at the back end of the bed.

[Rufe0]

Why don't you put the Z axis between the gantry uprights? It would put the C of G much closer to the center of the gantry bearings and you'd lose much less cutting area at the back end of the bed.

Thanks which one are you referring to? Can you do a drawing?

[Rufe0]

Why don't you put the Z axis between the gantry uprights? It would put the C of G much closer to the center of the gantry bearings and you'd lose much less cutting area at the back end of the bed.

Ah I think I get you, in the real design the spindle would be centralized to the gantry, not hanging out the front.

[njhussey]

Yes, that's what I meant

[Rufe0]

Just easier to draw it hanging out the front so you can see where it is