[DroopyPawn]

I have a Taig 2019 CNC mill. Does anyone have a suggestion for getting more x-axis travel out of this machine? I'd like to go up to 2 feet. Right now, I have about 12" of x-axis travel. I realize that I would have to build a new table for the mill. Has anyone done this before?

[cartertool]

It really wouldn't work well, you don't have enough bearing surface to support a cantilevered slide that long.

[DroopyPawn]

I wouldn't be loading it down with 300 lb chunks of steel.

[CROSSHATCH]

I don't really see this, anything is possible, but I'm not sure if it's worth getting the extra 12 inches of travel, and that is really pushing it.

-Jason

[DonFrambach]

I have a Sherline not a Taig but I think this is relevant. I bought the extended X axis from A2ZCNC some time ago. While it is well made and works well, it does bind at the extremes of right and left travel. I would imagine that binding would be a big problem if a Taig was extended 12 inches.

[cartertool]

Here's the thing. Say you have a 30" table, which allows you to have it fully engaged by the gibs at the extreme of 24" travel. If the table at the furthest extent is pulling down with one lb of force, it's exerting a 5 lb upforce on the gib. So if the stepper weighs one pound, and the table weighs a couple of pounds (it gets more complex because the load is distributed along the beam, but let's keep everything simple), you would have lots of force pushing the slide against the gibs. Add vises, the weight of the workpiece, etc and it really causes a lot of force on the slide. The fulcrom is the edge of the x axis where the slide enters the carriage.
F1D1 = F2D2 is the equation you need to use in figuring this out.