Hi everyone. I have been thinking of building a "better" version of my current 6040 Chinese CNC router.
I basically do wood, plastic, rubber, brass and aluminium on my current machine. Obviously due to rigidity and design flaws my machine handles only 0.2mm runs
on aluminium. Otherwise its very good, i have rebuilt the electronic controls and installed a Kress router.

Anyway i have been thinking of doing this build for a long time. Due to my poor cad skills i am unable to draw up a nice 3d model.
I would really appreciate some input on my design ideas.

If i can mill aluminium at 0.5 to possibly 1mm runs then it would be great.

My current machine is similar to this one...
What i found to be the major problem is the open pillow blocks on my machine's y-axis.

Here is what i have come up with thus far...

1) Clamping area 1200 mm x 850 mm.
2) 80 x 80 mm Aluminium profile for frame and table
3) Two 1610 ball screws for y-axis
4) Four HGH25CA linear blocks for y-axis
5) 20 mm side plates/brackets
6) 25 mm (unsupported) round shaft for x-axis
7) four linear bearings for x-axis.
8) Additional 25 mm shaft added for rigidity of the x-axis
9) 1605 ball screw on x-axis
10) 1605 ball screw on z-axis
11) 16 mm unsupported round shaft on z-axis
12) Four linear bearings on z-axis
12) Nema 23 stepper motors

Please feel free to comment