Hi guys, thought i would share my project. After researching for days on the internet i decided to put a kit together for a fixed gantry CNC machine. Just thought i would share it with you guys as a work in progress. Overall size is 550mm long by 350mm wide

I started with the frame, and although I love working with wood, I wanted to work with something a little more durable. I decided on aluminium channel as the machines I had seen on the internet made from the same medium appealled to me. I made the linear rail from the 25x25mm square tube and screwed a length of 10x10mm U channel on top. Then placed 16mm stainless rod on top. This worked well with the bearings and gave me the height to have the table move over the motor at the front to gain a bit more cutting area.

The gantry are connected with plastic corner connecters. ( I will later countersink small screws in to each side into the connectors but i can tell you, once they are together, they are a bugger to get apart ) I found some aluminium square that also had a profile that had a rib running along it ( as seen in the photo below) i used these pieces to line up the U channel for the linear bearings, and the sides of the gantry. A tucked in a piece of 18mm MDF board that sits perfecty flush, but now thinking of turning them around so that the rib can be seen from the outside of the gantry to make it look a little more tidy and paint the mdf. I am still working on cost effect z-axis design which I am coming close to putting together so hopefully in a week or two (in between other projects) I can post them up.