Hey nlancaster, nice looking design.
On the question of the gantry tilting back; it does look nice, it moves the center of gravity to the center of the uprights, and increases the reach of the router to the rear of the table. One thing that it prevents though is being able to clamp vertical boards to the front of the machine and route on their edges. This may not be a concern, but it does allow some interesting designs. I guess you would have to move your long screw and motor slightly off to one side to allow wider boards (?), and maybe mount the motor at the rear of the machine. Allowing 8 inch boards would probably be sufficient to dovetail drawers etc. (I would recommend dual screws anyway.)
How are you going to get preload on your linear bearings? I don’t see any adjustment ability, at least on the long axis. One method that I used recently is to split the rails and be able to spread them apart, rather than trying to press a cantilevered truck against them.
Steve |