Hi Spumco - My original thought was a lifting, moving gantry. But it was less stiff and more complex then the other configurations. This is intended as a benchtop machine but its growing to a stand machine. I may shrink it a little after this next Round. We are now at version No8 so there has been plenty of variations looked at. I spent a lot of time developing a moving column design prior to going into this mill. Seems its a sweet spot. Its the Y travel that drives some of these decisions. I have made it a little narrower then first spec to remove the issues with double columns, gantries and saddles etc. Being my first mill I want to keep it simple KISS is important. And since I'll be making moulds I need to b certain its the best solution. if I made a steel or aluminium one and needed to change it that would be easy... But a production cast machine is bit of a risk that needs to be minimised.. Keep Making Peter

If you look at the Vulcan early videos you may pick up that they originally designed it as a double column or bridge machine ie fixed gantry and the Y passed under the bridge. Somewhere along the path they changed it to a long X model vs a long Y model and since they had committed to castings they had to rejig a few things. So I think their design falls short of their original intent. I prefer to do nearly exhaustive CAD/FE work to prevent such mid track changes and to understand the design envelope and opportunities/downfalls as best as possible.