I just got that from one of the threads here, where someone posted an image of a big one and they call it a portal milling machine - I mean I can find them via that with google.
I assumed that would be the difference between a gantry (legs/columns connected with the beam, rolling on the floor) and this design with the high walls (beam moving alone, no legs).. probably wrong then?



I checked wikipedia and came across this (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gantry_crane):
"They are also called portal cranes, the "portal" being the empty space straddled by the gantry. The terms gantry crane and overhead crane (or bridge crane) are often used interchangeably, as both types of crane straddle their workload. The usual distinction drawn between the two is that with gantry cranes, the entire structure (including gantry) is usually wheeled (often on rails). By contrast, the supporting structure of an overhead crane is fixed in location, often in the form of the walls or ceiling of a building, to which is attached a movable hoist running overhead along a rail or beam (which may itself move)."
Not the kind of distinction I'm after really, but it conveys the thoughts I had about gantry/portal mills before I read the article about cranes.
I don't think one would want to call this design an overhead mill/router or even a bridge mill/router - the last one already being taken by 'bridge mills' from what I have learned so far?

As for 'my monstrosity', what's wrong with it?
From my experience the flat pieces for the walls and bed can be welded without skew (SHS) and should come out pretty flat, just being bolted together to get the box. I've done stuff like this before, just not that 'fat' or for such an application.
Don't you guys usually suggest that bigger, heavier and stiffer is better when people rock up with those router designs that sport thin uprights for the gantry / thin cross sections /etc.?
And I kinda want to have the dirt contained from the get go if possible. Some sheet metal on the walls from the 'inside' and a door at the front and it's closed for the worst of it, not messing up the shop.


@mactec45
Loading/unloading shouldn't be worse than for one of those vertical machining centers then I guess? I somehow expected a more 'sinister' reason that I didn't recognize.. cool. Thanks.