Quote Originally Posted by LeeWay View Post
Right.
That was static weight too. Add the weight o the Z axis as well. Then when you add in the driving forces of the weight of the whole gantry, it uses that weight against itself when it changes direction abruptly. Even though it is relatively light, the span makes it susceptible to many different types of error at the tool. I would venture to say the tool itself would not be rigid enough to get any kind of tool life from carbide tooling in aluminum. Anything less than rigid is going to quickly be fatal for carbide.
OK so how do we define rigid?