so as a welder ive always thought it would be handy/fun to build a cnc plasma table and this is where im at with it so far. im gonna change a few bits and some parts to be added,but looking forward to knocking it up,
Hi Chip, looks like you are using similar carriage running gear to my proposed build. I will be running on stainless 50x50 box section, carriage came with single bearings on a stack of ugly nuts which was not very stable.
So I doubled up on bearings with longer bolts and a spacer, massive improvement.
Meant to say, regarding the single profile rail on Z, should work fine enough if it is a wide profile.
I had some 15mm profile rail I bought cheap years ago and used that but double with ballscrew in the middle. The ballscrew was repurposed from a small lathe I did and is tiny, think it is just 8mm dia and it does fine, so no need to go crazy on Z axis ballscrew size
thanks all hi hood looking at the commercial table builders that use this carriage set up, the racks just tig/stitched on. ..i might look at lightening the carriages and may be even go 50x50mm box for the y axis
I don't think I would fancy welding the rack on but if that is how some do it then...
If you are set on the orientation you have, which your design really requires, then I would be welding blocks or a square section bar and bolting the rack to it. If the holes in the rack are larger than the fixing screws you will be able to adjust if required.
yeah i still have the same concerns so nothings in stone yet ,ive also seen people use a double sided tape literally ,and it seems to work ,i just dont like the idea of using sticky tape. the extra box section or blocks are a nice idea.
The rack needs to be adjustable or extremely accurately positioned if wanting good motion and accuracy.
The rack on my table is heavy duty in comparison to the normal stuff from the likes of CNC4YOU but even it needs to be adjusted to get the best out of it and it is amazing how easily it can be tweaked up or down, even with it having a section of 20mm x 30mm