Ive gone the other direction as I needed my timber machine to be able to machine alloy to a component standard. Built a new Z with a 4.5kw spindle that was a great success, but then I rebuilt the gantry as it needed to be more rigid. Now the frame is up for a makeover as I have a resonance that goes through it when taking deep cuts. I want to use it for timber and alloy using some good vices on the T Slot table

The frame, at present, is timber with steel rails running down the sides bracing it all. Funny really its doing so well for just timber.

Anyway. The plan is to lift off the rails, complete with gantry and place them onto the new frame. The Nemas will sit alongside as they are independent on brackets alongside. They are driving 2510 screws. What is interesting is I used a machinist level to shim the linear rails at each attach point. By doing this, my machine currently is quite nicely accurate. I was surprised at just how much the 30mm linear rails bend with the attach screws. I will do the same when I lift it onto the new frame instead of trying to get the rails flat with epoxy (that idea looks not idea) or similar.

The frame attached is in concept. The main rails are 152x76x6mm steel. The other sizes are 100x50x4mm and the feet are made out of 10mm mild steel. The T Slot table is 1100x900x100mm solid 680kg I bought it off a Chinese company.

So bracing. No triangles because I thought the size of the steel might be enough? And I wont be machining steel only alloy.

Have I gone for an overkill? I am also unsure how to attach the T slot table and make it perfect. I was thinking I would drill underneath something like a M18 and tap a thread into it. Also dont know how much support I need to give it.

If I make this current design the steel is about NZ$1700.

Always up for robust conversations on this. I am not an engineer of this type.