Originally Posted by
handlewanker
Hi.....you have a garage .....and a mill......and a lathe.......you are truly blessed.
BTW, that photo with the saddle mounted on the X axis really gives the impression of how solid the whole build is going to be.......is that made from aluminium?...... looks bright and shiny enough.
One question, and it's only as a matter of interest.........with a build as massive as this and the expectation to mill whatever you can throw at it.......what is the advantage of building to this design......a gantry or bridge type as opposed to a conventional column mill with the same work envelope?
There are advantage s with a column mill design that a bridge type would fall short on, and one is the travel for the Z axis, which on a column mill is fully supported entity alt the way to the bottom etc.
This would allow a more massive motor and separate belt driven spindle with a power draw bar design.
Given the capacity to indulge your ideas as you have, would a column mill have been in the frame as a consideration too or were there other underlying factors that slanted you to the bridge design?
I've always considered the bridge or router design as inferior in layout to a column mill from the pure rigidity aspect, apart from the router type having a larger work envelope in the X axis direction, which on a column mill has always been a limitation due to the stick out of the head from the column and the torsional twisting effect on the column the further you go up the column.
Just had a browse in the link you provided for the CNC parts.......pretty comprehensive stuff.
Ian.