Originally Posted by
ChipsBFlyin
Craig,
Thanks for your input. I am trying to consider all of my options. The cost of the Y axis rails mounts, including material, SR, machining/grinding is at least 2k+. Then I still have the dilemma of mounting them to the surface plate. I checked the surface plate and the sides are not square to the top to themselves or anything else. They aren't even flat, so my best solution for that so far would be to add jack screws to the Y axis mounts and use them to offset the steel mounts from the surface plate, then proceed to snug down the mounting bolts. I would then fill the gap between the surface plate and the y axis mounts with epoxy. I am questioning how this mounting method would work, so that's when I started looking into epoxy granite.
Pete,
I am in Brooklyn, NY.
I have no idea what material I would use for a casting yet, I have never heard of the grout option, but would like to hear about it. Is it prone to cracking? I do like the idea of UHPC, but I thought the concern with concrete is that it never fully cures and tends to move a bit? I don't know enough about these materials, I still have a lot of research to do. I did stubble upon a company called Basetek and they make castings, but based on the picture I see on their website, they don't look cheap.
I've seen some people mix in fiberglass and some mentioned carbon fiber into the epoxy granite. Any benefit in that?
Any recipes or commercially available products that have been tested would be greatly appreciated.
My process for making my casting would be:
1 - Build a mold around the surface plate.
2 - Hold the inserts in a machined jig that I can adjust to set as parallel to the surface plate as possible.
3 - pour the mold
4 - self level epoxy the Y axis rails mounts
5 - hand scrape the self leveling epoxy of the Y axis mounts to the surface plate.
Anyways this is what I have in mind so far.: