Originally Posted by
NIC 77
Wow, really nice looking workmanship in the photo and video. If you made that then you know how to build things very well. I'm not saying you're a good designer, but certainly, a great fabricator.
I'm guessing that is much thicker than 3/8" plate you have used for the gantry as it is bolted in from the top and bottom. Clearly the top and bottom plates the rails are mounted to are larger than 1/4"
I have built a machine. It wasn't very good at cutting aluminum. I am correcting those issue on my current build. Also I have looked at many build logs and videos to see what actually works, and I have figured out the math on acceleration and torque including inertia looking at different gantry weights for different designs.
Perfect. Show me a video of the similar machine you made cutting stainless, and I will be quiet.
Here's the thing. This is a typical rookie mistake. To design the table with a torsion box, then to have the gantry as an I beam with lightening holes cut out in it. 5lbs is nothing. He should be adding weight on. Alot more. It's a small machine with two motors driving the gantry. It's such a shame to see the potential of having laser cut parts being wasted on a design that could be so much better, and the OP has already said he wants to cut aluminum.
I stand by my statement that the advice you gave previously was the worst I've seen on the zone.
A laser cut steel gantry to make a machine to cut aluminum should be built like a torsion box, with internal ribs, ideally filled with epoxy granite, and the nice thing about using a laser is that you could have it all cut out nicely to hide the ballscrew inside the gantry. So much potential to make something awesome and high performing here, and IMO, you are leading the OP down the garden path so to speak.