I live in Helsinki, Finland and am planning a new machine build.
I am working on a high precision fiber laser cutter with a granite epoxy base for thin sheet metal and small tubes. The laser is 300W.
The machine base be 1200mm x 800mm x 100mm. It will weight about 200Kg and the 2 rails will weigh about 50kg each. I am also thinking about making the stand granite epoxy. The base and rails will be cast as 3 pieces.
I ordered epoxy from the german online store R&G Online - Epoxy, Epoxid, Carbon, Epoxyd - Faserverstärkte Kunststoffe. Epoxy Resin L (25kg) with Hardener W300 (8.75kg). (They recommended this). About 350 euro before shipping, no vat. Still waiting for it to arrive.
I have been picking up some aggregate and plan to make some tests:
Quartz Flour 80 kg
Sand, .2 to 1 mm brown play sand 40kg
Sand, 0 to .7 mm black 50kg
Sand, 0 to 2 mm black 50kg
Crushed Stone, 2-5mm black gabbro Hyvinkaa 50kg
Crushed Stone, 4-12mm black gabbro Hyvinkaa 50kg
The larger stones were dirty and wet so I washed and dried them. The sand looks pretty clean and dry. The large aggregate is called black gabbro. It is not granite but sometimes is called "black granite".
I've ordered some hardware to cast into the machine:
This one is for attaching the sheet metal frame to:
200PCS 5/M5*10 ISO13918 IT internal threads stainless steel, 45 usd, 200PCS 5/M3*6 ISO13918 IT internal threads CD Welding Stud welding screws dicharged welding stud-in Screws from Home Improvement on Aliexpress.com | Alibaba Group
And will also get some M10 concrete anchor inserts in stainless steel that I will put throughout the frame. I'm trying to order those locally from Concrete Anchors | Tukituote.
I will cast in some stainless steel bar about 1 cm thick in various places including on top the rails to affix the linear rail to.
Epoxy granite mold will be in MDF.
I tried to contact Thomas Zietz for the grading spreadsheet but did not hear back. He has also removed the spreadsheet from his web site. I think I can get pretty close based on other posts here if I can't get it. I am hoping for a 8% mix.
I am building a vibration table. It is going to be a 4' by 4' piece of plywood that will sit on top of my 4 winter tires. I will screw a 450W orbital sander into the plywood. I can't cut into my winter tires so will screw on some strips of wood to the plywood so that the sheet doesn't move on the tires. The sander was only about 35 euro so will get a second one if the power is not high enough.
I attached an initial cad model.