[HereinCS]

I'm looking at the Doughty b/c drive. Looks cool and interesting, but I'm having a bit of second thought. I'll be cutting aluminum with my machine. Everything on my machine so far is super rigid and heavy. I'm thinking that this b/c drive may cause a bit of a loss in rigidity and could be the weak point in my machine. Any thoughts before I go through with the purchase?

[jsheerin]

Any additional axis you put on your machine will cause a loss of rigidity. Nothing is infinitely stiff, so anything you add will allow a bit more movement for a given force on the cutting tool. The question is really how much movement your particular mechanism will experience with the forces you will put on it and whether or not that movement is acceptable. I'd imagine the best people to ask about this would be the Doughty drive people. Tell them what you want to machine and see if they recommend their products for it.

[Phife]

Most definatly it will, HereinCS, Ive been watching your threads and build for a few weeks now, you seem to want to be able to do everything with this machine.

I would avoid going 5 axis for now and just stick to a 3 axis machine with the ability to add a 4th rotary axis, I dont think the 5axis from DD will allow you to also mill aluminum, then you also have the whole other mess of the software for 5 axis.

Just my opinion, wish you the best in your build.

[HereinCS]

Most definatly it will, HereinCS, Ive been watching your threads and build for a few weeks now, you seem to want to be able to do everything with this machine.

I would avoid going 5 axis for now and just stick to a 3 axis machine with the ability to add a 4th rotary axis, I dont think the 5axis from DD will allow you to also mill aluminum, then you also have the whole other mess of the software for 5 axis.

Just my opinion, wish you the best in your build.

I think that's good advice. I was worried because my spindle choice is so limited due to the size f the device. I guess I'll have to figure out how to spend that $2500 that was allocated to the drive