[Bucka]

Hi, i'm planning to make a basic setup. It wouldnt really be right to call it a cnc but more of a router sled with x and y axis which I would move manually, however it would be build in a cnc style system.

I've chosen to use round shafts for my rails but I can't find what thickness would be most suitable. I intuitionally decided 20mm would be suitable, however I do wish to keep friction and costs to a minimum so I would imagine if I can get away with lighter rails this would reduce weight for the x axis which would ride along the bottom y axis.

The router I will use weighs 13.lb. If any flexing in the beam did occur I think I could probably tolerate perhaps 0.4mm. I would be using hardwoods, the working area im thinking about is 80x60cm.

Can anyone offer advice? I've tried searching myself but I couldnt find much out there.


Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[DonFrambach]

Perhaps someone with an engineering background could do real calculations for you. But I would think that if you used supported rails you could get away with something a lot smaller than 20mm. I used 20mm supported rails on one axis of my small router where the rails were bolted to 3/8" cold rolled steel which was bolted to a 3" x 1.5" 8020 aluminum extrusion. This is plenty rigid for my purposes.

I'm not trying to spend your money but the 20mm isn't that expensive so you could overkill to be sure.