@ mhectorgato -
There is beam between the vertical risers to help with rigidity. The bottom plate though is too flexable. I’ll have to laser cut that first.
@ kurtnelle,
I have never been good with wood. But I might also try a bigger CNC later, using MDF(superwood).
I went with silver steel rods, also called tool steel. Mine is only 3mm, but it was under $5 per meter. And it can be hardened, if I can find a place that hardens tool steel. It’s the stuff that drills are made of, btw.
If I can help you out by cutting them on my CNC out of wood or HDPE, let me know. I can go up to just shy of 12" w x 16" L x 4" thick. I also have a MakerBot Replicator, so can print out the gears in plastic if that would help.
Feel free to shoot me an email to discuss further if you’d like.
-Steve
Thanks Steve for the offer.
This first machine will hopefully be my FEZ repstrap, so from there I can go bigger and better. My idea is that this first one must just print, doesn’t have to be good, just so that I have a place to grow from… 
At work we regularly have 12mm steel laser cut, and I’ve seen them cut 25mm steel, so that is also an option for me, but pespex is cheaper to cut so I might stick with that for a while yet…
steve where have you been all my life!
What kind of CNC do you have?
@ Error (hehehe… I mean Errol) you should take steve up on that offer, it will save you a lot of pain.
Hiding! 
I’ve got one of these: http://www.zenbotcnc.com/all-products/zenbot-1216-cnc-router
With a Hitachi 2-1/4-Horsepower router mounted… Can do wood, plastic and 2024 or 7000 series aluminum
I’m not familiar with pespex - looking at a couple of sites, looks like it’s a flavor of acrylic, so I could be able to cut that too… looks cheaper than HDPE, but I would imagine it may not be as rigid until you get into some decent thickness.
Either way, if you want something that needs to be 2D milled, or even 1D cut outs, would be glad to help if you can’t get some time on the laser at work.
@ kurtnelle noticed you are working on a 4’ x 8’ CNC… not sure if you have seen this yet, but I picked up some MakerSlide as part of their ‘kickstarter’, but it was on another similar type site called Inventables.com
http://store.makerslide.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=6&zenid=ajjd9nirrvsgp90juth531g1k3
Very nice long extruded aluminum lengths and carriages available, with parts. I picked up (4) 2000mm (78") length rails for $35 each, another $250 or so in wheels w/ bearings, carriage plates, assorted hardware and belts. Planned on doing a 6’x6’ cutting area, would have around 3" on each side buffer.
Something to keep in mind, I couldn’t make these lengths out of HDPE or aluminum for that price.
Here’s the blog post I did a couple of months back on my CNC setup:
http://stevepresley.net/zenbot-12x16-cnc-intro-photos-and-info
@ stevepresley -
Do you like that CNC?
Nice CNC steve. Thankfully I don’t get jealous.
I am! That’s a nice setup, Steve. Do you just toy with it or does it serve a purpose outside of hobbies?
Can you cut acrylic with it or does it burn/melt?
Yep, for the most part. I think I would have purchased the 16x24 if I were to buy another one, as you can always use a bigger cutting area. If you aren’t building your own, and don’t already have a CNC controller, I think it’s the best priced models in this class. I researched for around 6 months before actually making a decision on which one to go with.
For my 12x16, with the controller box from Shaun and a copy of Mach3, I paid right at $1200, the router was an extra $100.
If you need to do harder grades of aluminum or steel, the cheapest “benchtop” CNC that I would feel is “Safe” to do the work is going to run you around $5k, plus you’d really need to invest in a liquid cooling system, which is another 500-1k depending on how serious/effective you want it to be.
Thanks! You’re a lucky man in that regard!
I plan on starting a thread on some of the mounting boards and enclosures I’m thinking of making for Panda/Cobra and Gadgeteer boards. Will post a link to it once I get to a point to show things off.
Thanks! Mainly to toy around with for now, until I can get some decent designs and projects together.
I can do acrylic - you really need to use a bit made for acrylic, have to turn up the spindle speed and I have an air pump that I use to blast the bit/cut area with “cooler” air.
I managed to get 3 axis to move:
Here is new data…
Looking good!
Connected the lead y and z lead screws to their axises. Now we have 2 degrees of freedom!
And here is a close up of the limit switches. They are push to disconnect momentary switches and the plastic part is from an old cd.
Are you planning to dual purpose the limit switches as home switches as well?
Indeed I am dual purposing them.
Good call. The one thing I wish I had on my ZenBot (and can wire up, but haven’t had the time) are limit/home switches.
Keep the pics coming 