Hello everyone,
I've been a long time lurker on the forums and am finally getting ready to build my own machine, my budget is currently ~$6k but I'm willing to allocate more as necessary. My goal is mostly wood routing with the ability to do some aluminum and brass.
I am still just doing rough sketches of my design, but I'm leaning towards the idea of a fairly large router with a rail length of ~5.5'x10'x1.5' to achieve a cut area of 5'x9'x1'. That way I have the option to add a tool rack and ATC spindle later on. I am leaning towards the use of HiWin HGW25 series rails with a pair of blocks per rail, and also having fixed blocks/moving rails for the Z axis.
The machine will have dual screw for the X axis and single screw for the Y axis (Gantry), along with single screw for the Z axis. The tablet itself will be made from a mixture of 3060, and 3030 extrusion.
I was looking at the prices/weights of different extrusions and I found myself stuck with a decision to make for my gantry. Do I want to use a single piece of 3060, or should I go for multiple pieces of 2040 and 2020 series extrusion? The span is 1700mm
Current options for my gantry:
- A single span of 3060.
- A pair of 2040 extrusions bolted together with plates along the joint making a square beam.
- A pair of 2040 extrusions and a 2020 extrusion bolted to form a "C" shape with the leadscrew travelling in the channel between the two.
In any case I'm looking at mounting the linear rails to the top and bottom of the gantry so that I can make the front to back depth as thin as possible. If this is a bad idea and I should mount both rails to the front of the gantry, please say so.
How does this rough outline sound so far?