MKII CNC Router Table

Posted by on 20 July 2010 | 1 Comments

After having heaps of fun with the original DIY CNC machine and having it run on carving jobs for some 12 to 14hours per day it came as no surprise that the aluminium angle used for the guides started to show signs of wear and the MDF also seemed to show some reduction in structural integrity. Although I could have realigned things and probably continued to use it I decided to look for other options.

I first contacted a local aluminium supply company who in turn put me in touch with another company who own an extrusion die for channel that has the perfect profile for the job and after a bit of negotiating managed to obtain 20meters of the stuff. In addition I managed to locate a supplier with some hardened steel 20mm shaft and some linear bearings as well as a few pieces of Acme Shaft with Nuts.

Armed with only a vague idea as to what I wanted I started to look at ways of making the primary table/structure. One if the issues I had was this channel usually has a special locking rail that would not be practical for my purpose so i set about coming up with a simple solution using some 20mm angle that was left over from the rails on the original machine.

Each bracket has two screws and a large washer allowing for the bracket to be clamped into the rail. once in there the assembly is pretty solid and although i intended to use something like loktite to stop the screws from coming out I didn't think this is going to be needed.