I've mostly been a silent observer on these forums but, just wanted to say thanks to everyone who ever posted questions and answers that helped me along the way. I think most every question I've ever had was satisfied with a search of the forums. Below is a small summary of my machine and some things I did during the build.

Also, don't want to detract from anyone else's machines with this post. I'm just extremely happy that it is now complete and that I'm able to make some of the first pieces on it.

The usable cutting area on it is X = 45", Y = 25", Z = 9.5"

I also built this in mind with using it as a combo table for a plasma cutter eventually. I think I've laid most all of the ground work aside from the water below the table but, have yet to thoroughly investigate a proper THC and how to go about mounting, electrically grounding the plasma cutter etc...

Here is a link to a youtube video of my machine cutting out a very basic circular pocket(you may want to turn down the volume as it may be a bit loud):

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejBX6KCLEg4"]YouTube - CNC is Complete[/ame]

I used a lot of ideas on this forum for the build of my machine. I've spent about 3 years building towards a machine that I would be happy with. Since the only engineering I know is hillbilly engineering I messed up two other machine builds first and then tore them down to build the one in the video. Nothing was designed on a computer so it was a lot of trial and error until I got what I wanted.

So far the basic circles and rectangular pockets I have cut appear to be the exact tolerance I specified in the wizards(haven't learned Gcode yet) so I'm pretty happy with that. The resolution is .000 and I don't have any tools that can measure better than that.

The gantry on it weighs in around or over 300 pounds. I wanted something very sturdy and it is very sturdy. I would guess the machine is around 1000 pounds. I filled all of the lower frame tubes with concrete to hopefully help(not sure what good if any this did).

The two things I'm most proud of on the machine are first the copy of the belt system I used for moving the X axis. I copied this from one of the posts here on the zone but, can't find it. Basically it was a company or person who had developed an idea to lay two timing belts on top of each other. One was epoxied or held mechanically in place on the bottom and the other belt was laid on top and clamped at each end while rolling over a timing pulley. I successfully replicated this idea on my machine and did this on both sides by running a single rod between the two timing pulleys on each side. Then I only had to use a single stepper on the end(using Nema43 by the way). Unfortunately a single revolution carried the axis around 9 inches so I have to use a pretty large chain sprocket to gear down and get it to something usable(should have used a smaller timing belt pulley).

The second thing I'm most proud of and the only thing on my machine that was an original thought, at least as far as I know, was the way I setup the ballscrews and ballnut. I actually have adjustable preload on the cheap ballnuts and ballscrews that I used(no detectable backlash that I can tell). I used two ballnuts on both the Y and Z axis. More or less what I ended up doing was machining two pieces of aluminum with three holes and a small lip that fits just over the square 1" ball nuts I used. One hole for the ball screw and two holes on each side for some 1/2" - 13 threaded rod. I put the two ballnuts on the ballscrew and then a piece of aluminum on each outer side of the ballnuts. I then put the threaded rod through the two holes in each side and use two slim 1/2" - 13 to act as a jam nut. I also used some threaded anchors that attached to the threaded rod and then drilled holes into the back of the aluminum plate for each axis to keep them held down. It is kind of difficult to explain but, if anyone shows any interest I'll see if I can draw something up and post a picture on here with better detail.

Sorry to make such a long winded post but, I figured there might be questions so I thought I would post some information up just in case.

Again, thanks to everyone who contributes to this forum as I would never have even begun to know where to start without it.