I picked up mattbesquares DM45 last week (thanks again, Matt!) and am planning on re-converting it to CNC. So far the only thing I see that really needs attention is the table.
Matt had the table milled out to clear a 1" ballscrew but I feel like it's probably a bit too thin.
Here you can see where it was milled out underneath:
And here you can see how thin the middle groove is:
I was going to try to order a new table but I called around a little and even Penn Tool said they just didn't want to mess with trying to order one.
The pocket is a little over .3" deep (.31 to .32). I am probably going to go with a 16mm ballscrew so clearance shouldn't be an issue. I thought about cutting out a 1/4 or 5/16 piece of steel to fit in the pocket and have it welded to the table but I was afraid that might cause some warping. I could also just drill and tap into the underneath of the table and bolt the steel plate to it. Probably not the best fix but it would probably be better than it is and good enough.
Any thoughts?