[watsonstudios]

It all started in January when I first started looking into buying a mini mill (Sherline, Taig type) to play around with machining. Well, one thing led to another and I came across this site and the ideas have been flowing ever since.
After initially buying the Solsylva plans, I was looking through these threads and realized I could design my own machine. I started cruising Ebay for parts and started designing my machine based on the parts that came available. I would search for the axis' first. I started with the X axis and found some 1 inch Thompson supported rails (48") with double pillow blocks for a smokin' deal. Then, the search was on for the Y axis. I found a slide assembly with 16mm supported rails and carriage. The Z axis went through two design changes, I wanted to be sure of simplicity and rigidity. The first version had too many variables that would compromise rail parallelism and squareness so I opted for another all-in-one slide assembly. I think I now have a very rigid design and just need to incorporate the leadscrews & steppers.

My main line of work is 3d computer graphics & animation. To help with the design process, I was able to download CAD files for almost all of the parts I used for my design - then assembling the machine in 3d to work out any issues and explore ideas as I went along. I would see parts on Ebay that looked promising - download the CAD files & incorporate them into the design. The only problem is that if I liked the design, I really had to win the auction to get the parts I wanted.

Critiques appreciated - let me know if you see any potential issues.

Enough rambling, here's some pics - 3d rendering first.