atomarc
Diamond
- Joined
- Mar 16, 2009
- Location
- Eureka, CA
I have a earlier thread regarding building two 4" riser blocks for a Haas gantry router..this is another question regarding the same project on the same machine.
I can fabricate the riser blocks from steel or I could use aluminum. For some reason I feel the steel risers would be more robust from a stiffness and dampening aspect although that may be my own insanity coming through.
The risers measure 17" X 13" are 4" thick and are open in the center. I have decided to fabricate them from flat bar, weld them together and Blanchard grind to matching thickness. Doing it this way is twice as expensive using steel as it is using aluminum.
Unless there are other unknowns using aluminum, am I nuts for thinking this material is going to be more problematic than steel in a application where it is only under a compression load..a spacer.
The aluminum is less expensive, cheaper to ship to me, easier to fabricate and much lighter to carry and install, plus being bolted together I won't have to normalize any welds. The only negative is having to mill both assemblies to the exact same thickness versus a Blanchard grinding.
Having said all that, I still think the steel risers would be more rigid, am I crazy for thinking this way?
Stuart
I can fabricate the riser blocks from steel or I could use aluminum. For some reason I feel the steel risers would be more robust from a stiffness and dampening aspect although that may be my own insanity coming through.
The risers measure 17" X 13" are 4" thick and are open in the center. I have decided to fabricate them from flat bar, weld them together and Blanchard grind to matching thickness. Doing it this way is twice as expensive using steel as it is using aluminum.
Unless there are other unknowns using aluminum, am I nuts for thinking this material is going to be more problematic than steel in a application where it is only under a compression load..a spacer.
The aluminum is less expensive, cheaper to ship to me, easier to fabricate and much lighter to carry and install, plus being bolted together I won't have to normalize any welds. The only negative is having to mill both assemblies to the exact same thickness versus a Blanchard grinding.
Having said all that, I still think the steel risers would be more rigid, am I crazy for thinking this way?
Stuart
