by Cre8ivdsgn » Thu Sep 27, 2012 4:15 pm
Bart,
My intention was only to point out that because the axis is now surrounded, it forces you to build the carriage to the X before mounting things to the Y. It was also to point out that cable carriers which would be mounted along the X would no longer work and you would have to go to a tether loop that now would move in X and Y (and maybe Z).
Its also amazing when you consider how strong 1/8" aluminum tube stock is, especially when you preserve corners when notching. I make a cover out of 1/8" aluminum that is 24" x 5", and sometimes the material has a bow to it (when cut from a larger sheet now that Kaiser Aluminum no longer supplies 6061 "flattened" or "stretched" sheet stock - or at least I can't get it). I cannot get the bow out or even change the shape when I stand on it! (Ok, its been a while since I tried that last bit and I might have been lighter then!) I'd try this now, but the covers I have are all painted and only bad things could happen if I stood on them now.
Certainly making the hole small gives maximum strength. I am only trying to point out that turning it into a slot and yet preserving the corners would give a minor reduction in strength but now return the functionality that would allow a cable carrier along the axis or encoder or whatever.
Well, and I think I got caught in the trap of thinking out loud in a blog post. Can outright senility be far away?