With the ballnut carriers complete, and after some basic plate work we come to the X-Axis trial assembly.
Tapping the motor mouting plate for the X-Axis. In order to keep the tap vertical and square to the plate, I am using a small block drilled to clear the tap.
We start off with the carriage plate, registering the X rails with the step that was ground into the plate.
Using a dial test indicator attached to the master rail we also check to make sure that it runs parallel with the side of the carriage...
....here is the view from the other side. Looks pretty good.
Now we make sure the othet rail is parallel to the master rail, again with the DTI.
This is a time consuming process took me a couple of hours to get this far.
Once we have the rails parallel, we flip the whole thing over and screw the rails to the table, at the same time mounting the ballscrew.
You'll notice I haven't done the floating bearing for the X-Axis yet.
The vice is the squarest thing I own so I adjusted its position such that the back surface is parallel to the X-Axis travel and then used the side to make sure that the Y-Axis master rail travel is perpendicular to the X-Axis.
Once this is accomplished, as you can see here I am making sure the secondary Y-Axis rail is parallel to the master.
The bed and the Y-Axis ballscrew ready for the table assembly to be bolted down.
Here the table assembly has been flipped and the Y-Axis rails have been screwed down
