Thanks for replying CarveOne, your input is greatly appreciated!
Visualizing the changes you stated seem to be inline with what Arbo did with his 24x80 machine. Short gantry with a deep bed, great rigidity without sacrificing the Z travel depth. I will take that into consideration as I finish up the design this week. The great thing about building with extruded aluminum is that it is easily worked and can be rescaled quickly if need, so changes aren't difficult to make on the fly.
I still haven't settled on the gantry height, something that I figured I would commit to after the Z axis is completed. That way I would know how much travel I would have to work with.
I found a guy in my city on the CL who was selling the Aluminum for a buck a foot but its all metric 4080 and 4040. It will be a challenge to build this beast using mixed standards, since all the parts from CNCrouterparts are milled for 1530. So the frame will end up in metric and the Z axis in standard..... fun fun.
The gantry uprights are a mix of steel plate and aluminum extrusion with lots' o bolts to insure maximum stiffness.
I really liked your placement of the R&P on the side rails by running the bearings vertically as opposed to horizontally, I think that design gives the unit more strength and less tendency to rack.
Also I plan for a wood shelf underneath the bed to further stiff the frame and have a place for extra material storage.
Thanks for the pointers as I can't wait to start the construction!
Keep up the good work!  |