[Lee DeRaud]

Not really a "build thread", as it's been up and running for several months now...
A fairly conventional skate-bearing, cross-dowel-construction, MDF machine:
32"x17"x5" travel
PC890 router
Dual X drive
G540/Smoothstepper
The only unconventional aspect of it is in its fabrication: almost all of the dimension-critical bits were laser-cut from 6mm MDF and laminated up to 18mm. This was mostly due to the fact that my 25W laser won't cut MDF (or much of anything else) thicker than about 1/4", not to mention that lasers in general suck at pocketing operations. Doing it as a "sandwich" allowed me to cut countersinks as through-holes in the outer layer. As a side effect, it eliminated the trickiest bit of using cross-dowels, since the cross-bolt holes could simply be cut as slots in the middle layer rather than having to drill holes edgewise through 18mm stock.
(The gantry sides and backbrace were made from 18mm MDF, using a laser-cut template to drill the holes and trim the edges.)

[r00t4rd3d]

Whats that thing on the front of your router?

[Lee DeRaud]

Whats that thing on the front of your router?

It's a drill-press laser guide: http://www.woodcraft.com/Product/208...ttachment.aspx

I had to disassemble it and reverse the laser modules to get them pointed "backwards", but other than that, it's just as it came out of the box. It's very handy for lining up workpieces (there are no homing/limit switches installed yet)...remains to be seen whether I'll keep it or replace it with something smaller: it will probably interfere with any kind of dust shoe.