The components were done, it was time for mock up.
The base was started first. The rails were aligned as noted before. In this pic you can see the legs with vibration dampening mounts along with the plastic "soft stops" at the ends of travel.
After the rails were on the Y risers were next to go on. There were risers for all three axis, they provided clearance for the ballscrews. They were aligned with parallels.
The Y end plate, saddle and ballscrew were next to go on. The saddle was tricky, Some JB weld had to be added and sanded in the middle to get it flat on the rail mounting side. There was simply too much material to remove if sanding alone was used. The other side was made parallel to this through indicating and shimming underneath in the middle section (where the risers would contact) until the top was reading flat. Then the shims were glued on and the JB weld trick was used as before. Success.
The X rails went on next.
Here we see the finished X-Y assembly. X end plate, ballscrew, X risers, table and stepper spacers have been added.
The Z rails were screwed on. Then the Z bottom and top plates went on as well. the column was then lifted into position and screwed down with 10 5/16-18 cap screws.
The rest of the head was mocked up.
From the side...
Couplers were bored out on the lathe to fit (Oldham style from sdp-si) and the stepper motors were installed. I then did a bit of testing, just jogging everything around, it went well.
