[jwilly]

Today I spent 2 hours making the frame. After grinding the welds on the end caps smooth I tack welded the longitudinal members to the welding table (it's a solid 120mm thick piece of steel)





Then I tack welded the pieces on top, making sure they were square to the longitudinal pieces





Once I'd fully welded the assembly from underneath, except for a couple in the middle I skipped to avoid warping the assembly, I flipped it over and proceeded to finish welding.





I jumped around the base when welding, only doing 50mm runs at a time to minimise heat input. It seems to have worked because the main longitudinal members don't have any noticeable bow in them. I'll still have to epoxy or grind the mounting surfaces when I go with profile rail, but for round rail I believe it will be fine.

There are a few more reinforcing members I'd like to weld in tomorrow and I'll try to get the flatbar rail mounts welded on as well. If I have time I'll weld on the mounting plates for the gantry, my goal is to have the gantry and base completely welded by Thursday evening.

This may be elementary as far as I know but I really like the idea of tacking to your welding table !. All I need is a "real" welding table now....LOL !