Well I've made some more progress, however I ran out of welding wire so I have decided to get some gas instead of the flux cored wire that I've been using. Pricey stuff gas is, but it should cut down on the messy spatter that this flux cored has been giving me.

I started welding the supports for the table surface in place and ran out half way through that. Here's some photos of them:


I'm thinking I'll add a leg under the middle support to really give it some extra rigidity and hopefully cut down potential vibration buildup in that area. Also, as mentioned above, welding with gas should eliminate that spatter. What's left there is just what I couldn't get off easily, and that's the cleanest one.


This is the part of the Z axis that doesn't move up and down. I drilled the holes for mounting the Y axis carriages, then soon realised they didn't fit to the gantry. A mistake on my part for not updating the hole locations in the CAD model and not checking them before printing out the drawing of the part. I had to flip this piece around and re-drill the holes in the correct locations, I hate having unnecessary holes in my creations, I hate knowing there's a messy error like that but money constraints are making me overlook it. Luckily the Z rails will cover them up quite nicely anyway. As you may be able to see here:


More photos:



After getting those holes re-drilled she looks all nice a pretty on the gantry there. It almost feels like I won't need to weld gussets in those pieces of angle, but I will anyway, a CNC machine can never be too rigid.

That's it for now. I'm waiting on that welding gas for now, I've already got a bunch of end plates to cap the ends of many of the pieces of hollow section, also I need the gas to weld all the 50mm x 5mm flat bar that makes the mounting surface for all the linear rails in the machine so there's not a whole lot to do until that gas arrives. I do have a question for what may be my next update - I want to fill all four corner pieces of hollow section as well as a couple other pieces with a vibration dampening medium, I'm thinking sand. I've read through all the speculative forums about dampening and what medium to use, it seems to me like sand is the best option that won't break the bank for my machine. Anyone more informed than me who could share there opinions? Thank you.