[badhabit]

A little progress today! I got the crosstable, z-sled and spindlenose back from heat treating and today i filled them with epoxy granite:
Attachment 478632
... i've been very concerned with the parts "ringing" A LOT when i hit it with something, it is after all just plain steel. BUT after i filled them today, the ringing is almost completely gone! I hope the result is as good when the EG is cured, but even if it is not quite as good, i bet it is still a huuuge improvement...

I've used the opportunity to test if could degas the epoxy granite mix using vacuum... but no, i could not:-( I have a vacuum champer from my previous carbon-fiber endeavours and i tried pulling a vacuum on a small bucket of EG. The EG grew like 20-30%, so there is a lot of air inside, but the air wouldn't degas from the EG. It didn't buble as it do when i degas resin for carbonfiber infusion, it seems like the EG-mix isn't fluid enough to let the air out, so it's trapped in the mix, even at full vacuum.... So vacuum-degassing EG- is apparently a no-go... Just thought anyone passing by should know :-)

/Thomas

[badhabit]

...blasted and painted...off to machining!

[ardenum]

...blasted and painted...off to machining!

I thought you'd fill the saddle with more EG. how thick is the layer you poured?

[badhabit]

I thought you'd fill the saddle with more EG. how thick is the layer you poured?

Its tapered, but about 2cm in one end and 5cm in the other. It's all the space there is :/ I might fill one of the middle sections later when i see how much space i need for cables, tubes etc...but i've seen machines with no EG in the saddle and they perform fine, so i think it'll be fine...it took almost all of the ringing out of the part...

However, if i was to start over, i might change the design of the saddle and allow for more space to fill with EG. E.g. instead of using a single 20mm piece of steel for each of the sides of the saddle. I could have used e.g. 8mm on the sides of each of the rail supports and then filled the void between them with EG... or not used steel at all and made it exclusively of EG;-) but....yeah, you learn something along the way :-)