Are T-slot tables necessary and is it worth paying more for steel?

[Goemon]

I found a good affordable option I think. Little machine shop sells the t-slot table sections for their mini mills as separate replacement parts. They are considerably less expensive than other steel t-slot tables I have seen and a lot lighter.

Two of their 15" x 7" t-slot tables embedded in my epoxy granite base would hold my mold blanks nicely.

That place looks to have a few little gems for the diy builder. For example, two of their mini mill central steel columns would probably make good risers for a fixed gantry system. They look to be more robust than any other comparably priced diy CNC gantry risers I have seen anyway. If one of them is solid enough to mill steel on it's own, a pair would be fairly heavy duty.

[jahnj0584]

You could try 1" PVC

Same benefits as MDF but water tight for flood coolant.

[skrubol]

Which table of theirs is 15x7"?

[Goemon]

Which table of theirs is 15x7"?

Sorry it should have read 15" x 6". It was a typo.

This is one of their tables I was looking at. They have a few different options though:

https://littlemachineshop.com/produc...2642&category=

[Goemon]

You could try 1" PVC

Same benefits as MDF but water tight for flood coolant.

PVC and MDF don't have the strength and rigidity for my needs. I want something at least as strong and stiff as what I will be milling. if I didn't need to bolt work to it, I would just use my epoxy granite machine base as the table.

- - - Updated - - -

You could try 1" PVC

Same benefits as MDF but water tight for flood coolant.

PVC and MDF don't have the strength and rigidity for my needs. I want something at least as strong and stiff as what I will be milling. if I didn't need to bolt work to it, I would just use my epoxy granite machine base as the table.

[skrubol]

Didn't see that one. Not a bad option for the price. You probably saw this, but you can save $5 by not getting it with the screw.
https://littlemachineshop.com/produc...ory=-166688942

It's odd that the micro mill table is bigger in the Y dimension than the mini-mill table.

[wizard]

Chinese imports never occurred to me, this actually looks like a bargain. Further with the dovetail and other features you likely won't need to do much processing when it arrives. The dovetails should give you a solid lock into the epoxy granite. Frankly this looks like a good option for many machine designs as it is hard to beat that price.


By the way Grizzly is also known to sell machine parts but may not stock an upgrade option like this.

Sorry it should have read 15" x 6". It was a typo.

This is one of their tables I was looking at. They have a few different options though:

https://littlemachineshop.com/produc...2642&category=