Things are starting to look like a machine. After a couple half-days of workin' on it this weekend, I have the base, table, and gantry pretty close to ready. Below are pics of the base/table and gantry as they were last night. Today I finished up some of the gantry glue-up. I also painted the table and the underside of the base (hammered black on most, silver/grey for the working table surface) and started drilling parts for the X axis carriage. That work's about 75% ready for glue.
Also bought the ready-rod and pipe this afternoon, Will have the gantry on the base rails as soon as I machine the angle-iron to hold the skate bearings. I'm using steel for the bearing supports instead of Aluminum. This is partly for strength and rigidity. The other reason is laziness, I can cut steel easier with my chop saw and I can always weld the excess into some other project! |