[darudude]

Hello,

I've been assigned the task of building a router table that can be extendible from a 2x2m area all the way to a 50x50m area.

Coming from an electronics background, with no real experience in fabrication, this is quite the challenge for me. Has anybody seen any extendible designs?

Also the solution has to be fairly light. This is possible because the machine itself will not be doing any machining. The part where the tooling would be, would be replaced with a sensor, so it will never actually come into contact with the surface, just measuring data. Think more a printer than a cnc router.

Anybody have any ideas?

[posix]

I have come across a huge gantry built on columns that was around that length. but I cannot find the link right now. a german company. the problem is I don't see how you can shrink it to "only" 2mx2m as the columns themselves were probably 1m diameter.

[LeeWay]

GPS. I think you would be talking about two different machines. Perhaps a prototype small one. Then a large one capable of doing small work. Is there an overhead crane in the building already? If so, there you are. If not, no other bright ideas from me right now.

[flash319]

50X50 meter area I think you would be better off building a robot that will move around the area. More info would be needed as to what you are using the machine for. I think a 50 meter span of anything will be very hard to engineer.