Originally Posted by
handlewanker
Hi, just my 2 pennoth worth......as you only want to cut wood and that means you can get away with less exacting tolerances for rail alignment..........that interprets as..... provided the two rails are mounted on flat bases and are fairly level to each other, you will win.
If you do not have access to the full compliment of an engineering work shop, then something of a compromise is in the air.
I would find, get, acquire.....whatever..... a slab of granite.....approx. 600mm X 600mm and not less than 25mm thick...... the type that is used for a kitchen bench top......offcuts are as cheap as you want.
This will be about as accurate as you can get under the circumstances, not good enough for scraping ways etc, but good enough for alignment.
You didn't actually say how big the machine is or what it is and it's assumed it's a CNC router not a mill..... but a 600mm square granite slab should do the trick for leveling and alignment.
What more can I say.....if you can't relate to the granite flat surface as the best you have then you won't do it any other way.
I would mount the granite slab in a wood framed box with a cover and look after it for future reference......it won't be perfect but it's better than a piece of particle board topped with Melamine.
This is for aligning and checking the base Y axis linear rails.....then the X and Z axes can be aligned from them.
Ian.