All of the mounting plates for the X and the Y are done.
X:
Y:
Finishing up the last standoffs with a quick polish on the lathe.
Then I'm ready to take the machine apart again in order to test-fit the axes. The first time I disassembled the X&Y I made the mistake of taking the lead-nut off the saddle. The two lead-screw journals are held in place with bearing plates that are pinned into position on the ends of the table. This means the lead-nut has to be positioned and then fastened to the saddle after everything else has been reassembled. This would be fine, except that there is no room for tools, let alone hands, in the space between the table and the saddle! Tightening it down involved tweezers, flashlights, electrical tape, elastic bands, custom wrenches and copious cursing. This time, having learnt my lesson, I manually thread the screw off the nut just in case I need to put the machine back together to modify or remake a part.
Y axis in place! Bolt torquing order is important in order to minimize misalignment and consequential wear. First, the ball-nut is tightened to the ball-nut mount and threaded onto the screw. That assembly is fastened to the saddle just enough to take out play but still to allow movement. The gib is reinstalled. Then the fixed journal bearing is fastened to its mounting plate and fitted to the screw, they are fixed to the base casting and the saddle moved to the closest point in its travel to the motor. Finally, now that everything is where it wants to be, the saddle to ball-nut connection can be fully tightened. The hole at the back of the base needed a little bit of extra clearance which was accomplished with a round file and a die grinder (we won't go into why there is a sawzall on the ground beside the mill in this photo...).
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