Recently I have been thinking about building a ZX-45, but needed to machine some parts out of aluminum for the CNC conversion and possibly some light steel cutting.
My current CNC Plasma/Mill works good for plasma cutting, milling wood, G10, and plastics but will not mill aluminum due to about .030-.050 thousandths play in the gantry that I found with a dial indicator. I added supports and got the play down to around .010-.015 thousandths of play but I know this would cause the end mill to chatter if I attempted to cut aluminum much less light steel cutting.
I decided to rebuild the gantry with some 8020 extrusion (two pieces of 3030 extrusion) using .25 steel for all of the gantry brackets. I was also using the CNC Router Parts Linear Carriages but I was really never happy with the way they performed. I needed to have the machine up and running while plasma cutting all of the parts so I figured I would give a new linear motion system a try. I am utilizing v-groove wheels from Open Builds the CNC Router Parts Pro V-Con Linear Motions Rail Clamps and source some 1"x.5" 1018 cold roll steel rails from CDA Metals that I use as my local supplier for all of my steel and aluminum needs. The carriages are something I designed as I wanted this build to be primarily my design to ensure the stiffness and rigidity of the machine would meet my expectations.
These plates till utilize the CNC Router Parts Linear Carriages currently for the Y a-axis and this is due to me working towards building a 5 foot by 5 foot machine similar to the smaller foot print (35 inches x 35 inches) machine that I currently have.
I am choosing to go with a 5x5 CNC table due to shop space and future plans of a full enclosure for a zx-45 cnc conversion and a cnc lathe. I can always index material that is larger but lifting a full sheet of .250 steel would be a tall order for me to do alone.
The following are renders of what everything should look like when I get all of the parts cut.
Here are some pictures of the parts that I cut out. I did change SheetCam to use a drilling profile for the bolt holes instead of trying to use the plasma to cut small holes since all of the small holes will need to be tapped for bolts. I haven't welded any of the plates together as of yet since I want to get all of the parts cut prior to cutting the 8020 down and doing the final welding of the gantry end plates. I could of probably gotten away with .125 in steel but I bought .250 steel so that is what I am going to use.
very nice design
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