Anyone made one of these?

[Swifty]

Has anyone made a CNC mill like this http://zealcnc.wordjot.co.nz
I was thinking about building one this way, before I came across the website above. It appears that it may be more for routing, but I want to mill aluminium. The head looks a bit light, I would beef it up a bit. Do linear bearings give enough support or will the whole table shake?

Paul.

 

[RonGinger]

Linear bearings, if sized right are very rigid. The new Tormach mill (and I think lathe) use them. I used some under a short XY slide that fits on a 5ft dia x 10 ft bed lathe used to turn railroad wheels (in 1:1 scale, not models). Most modern commercial CNC machines use them.

But, note I said sized right. Dont expect to take some small size bearing and load it with a 4 ft table

 

[Swifty]

Not sure what size linear bearings are used in the mill pictured on that site, 30mm may be ok, it would only be for light work. I will have to price up a build to see if it's viable.

Paul.

 

[Omnimill]

We had a small CNC Milling machine at work and that had Linear guides. It's a shame the Chinese haven't caught on to using linear guides and ballscrews on their small mills, they'd be far better and last longer I reckon. Might even be cheaper than using dovetails?