[Nikolaguca]

I've got a couple of questions for you guys. Hope everyone is doing good in these tough times.

I finally started the build. I bought 200kg/400lbs of steel today.

My Y axis beams are connected on 2 points to the rest of the frame. I'll bolt them down directly to the main legs of the frame (I'll weld the end caps to the top of the legs for threaded holes). Since I can't machine the whole frame once welded, I'll just machine the Y beams (the red part where the linear rail will be attached) before assembly and then I'll try to make them flat and parallel by having some wiggle room to shim this bolted connection.

This evening I was re-reading the famous MadVac CNC build (Machine frame - MadVac CNC) and in the build he used epoxy as a sandwich between the parts he'll bolt together to make that connection flat and to avoid the bolts pulling the connection out of square. He used epoxy putty but also mentioned that for critical joints you could pour the epoxy into the joint after alignment.

That gave me an idea. For each joint I could add 2 more bolts that could act as a screw jack and use them to level the Y beams, after that close the whole joint with some tape and pour epoxy into the cavity and hand tighten the bolts until epoxy cures. If I weld the frame as precisely as I can I don;t think the cavity between the mating parts will be more than 1mm/3/64" maximum.

EDIT: lol, I had a brain fart. It wasn't my idea. I've read it on that MadVac page I've linked above but somehow I forgot about it and rediscovered it later as "my idea".

"On the more critical alignment joints, some sections were tapped with 10-32 threads and the fine adjustment/alignment between sections took place with 10-32 thumb screws to get the <0.0001" movement on the master precision level or dial indicator. Some sections were aligned, dammed with clear packing tape and the epoxy slurry was injected later into the joints with air escaping through pin holes punched in the corners of the "dam""

Or just forget about epoxy, and use shims instead?