MIMF

Aluminum oxide is also known as Corundum, and yes that will grind through most things. (with specific trace impurities it's also known as Ruby or Sapphire)

Al

I scored a free sheet of 1/4" thick 12" x 23" aluminum!!

It had a small bow to it and a couple of holes but I can straighten that out fairly easy. I'll be adding some ribs to it to hold it straight eventually as well.

I picked up the 1/2" x 3" plate of aluminum to make the outer frame of the X axis for the table. I'll add some 8020 pieces to it for the hold downs eventually.

Here's the x-axis frame screwed together. there will eventually be stringers in there with some cross bracing as well.

Wow,
That's a lot of tapping and drilling on the ends. Nice work!
That reminds me I've been meaning to ask what circular pattern of dots on your round work table is all about.

oh, that's a template for a balloon deflation system. I'm assembling this at work right now

I did make a template that I clamped onto the end of the pieces so I could drill nice and straight. then I drilled the template out bigger and used it to guide the tap.

If I ever have a misbehaving 5 year old's birthday party to assist at I'll be sure to get a balloon deflation system to blackmail them all with. It might actually be more fun than I can imagine right now.

You obviously have not seen a 5 year old lose a balloon. It is definitely not fun.

they are actually tethered blimps used for surveillance. but we do high altitude balloons for NASA and others.

Looking really nice man!

I brought some parts home today and partially assembled the x-axis. Here are a few pictures






and one of the timing pulleys for the dual rod on the x-axis.

Hi Eric,
Very impressive so far.
Looks like you'll have dual screws driving the x axis?

that's the plan. I'm running a timing belt to keep them in sync while I have it set up with a hand crank. I may go to dual steppers on it when I automate.

Are you planning attach a DRO or dials to the cranks to know where you are? I suppose you could put rotary encoders on your lead screws and attach them to a digital counter.
I have a couple kit DROs from Shumatech and some very inexpensive glass scales from Ditron in China that read to two tenths. I'm still needing to install them on my Bridgeport and 9x20 lathe.

I'm going to make some dials for it to start with. I may add a digital scale or 2 but may just skip that and save the money for the cnc equipment.

Here's the anti-backlash setup:

LittleMachineshop had some reasonable dials in 100 and 50 graduations. I'm sure you can get them from Grizzly's parts dept too. Making them is hardly my idea of fun unless you happen to have the right sort indexing head or you are using 8, 12, or 16TPI. A standard 36 hole indexer isn't much help with decimals.

I'm going to scale a print and attach it. then I can punch some of the markings and numbers if I choose to.

That's totally cheating!! <BG>

I did a bit of assembly

still some more parts to make but it's getting closer!

Now go fly a kite!