Aluminium Framed Router

[lucan07]

First chance to do any work on build today half a day off so made a start, first job decide what to do about the steel and cast iron base I intended on using, top has been ground flat and its ready to go but Base weighs in above 3Cwt and Top just over 4Cwt all to be carried upstairs.

For time being I am going to put base into my lock up and try a different base to as all work in flat is likely to be lightweight, I will be selling my flat and buying a property with a workshop so the base will either be used then with this machine I originally designed for it or with version 2.0 which I have no doubt will be built.

So alternate base? As welding out of question in flat I have gone for simplicity, two sheets of 25mm MDF to make my base, bed laminated 75mm MDF whole base sealed glued and screwed, it's solid, time will tell if its solid enough, I cannot see any problems with type of work it will do whilst in the flat.

As base was drying I decided to drill and tap side rails which are 6"x4"x1/4" Ali box I used M6 with 30mm washers to attach rails to bed, M4 to mount external supporting ribs 300mm 38x38x6mm T section, M4 again to mount 20mm supported rails quite happy with the afternoons work, rails have a little adjustment available and I intend on locking them down with either loc-tite or epoxy when final adjustments made, currently as close as I can measure having just dropped them on and pinched up they are within 0.5mm over 1000mmm on the parallel.

Couple of pics below showing latest design and progress.