I am designing a small (5x10x8 inch cutting space) CNC mill and I have a limited budget. I am deigning the machine to be as upgradable over time time as possible. Therefore I am investing the most money into the most basic foundational parts first, so that more money can be spent on upgrading the successive levels as time goes on. This means I hopefully will have to do less work as I spend more money over the years because I start with the most expensive and difficult to change bits.
With that said I have designed a skeleton frame of 80/20-like extruded aluminum. Then I intend to fill the interstitial space with concrete which will weigh down and stabilize the frame. This framing only needs to serve as mounting points and as an initial skeleton for the concrete. I have seen builders fill large size extrusions (like 80x80mm) with concrete, sand, epoxy granite, ect. but I have never seen someone fill a cavity constructed of the extrusions which seems like a cheaper (less expensive extrusion needed) and a much stronger method. What are your thoughts, and what are some downsides and/or issue you see with this?
In the images the grey is extrusions, blue is concrete. There are cavities molded into the concrete so I don't need an absurd amount and so that it will cure better, and so that it doesn't weigh a billion pounds. This was just a proof of size sketch and I intend to move to a more professional CAD software for the final design later.
With that said I have designed a skeleton frame of 80/20-like extruded aluminum. Then I intend to fill the interstitial space with concrete which will weigh down and stabilize the frame. This framing only needs to serve as mounting points and as an initial skeleton for the concrete. I have seen builders fill large size extrusions (like 80x80mm) with concrete, sand, epoxy granite, ect. but I have never seen someone fill a cavity constructed of the extrusions which seems like a cheaper (less expensive extrusion needed) and a much stronger method. What are your thoughts, and what are some downsides and/or issue you see with this?
In the images the grey is extrusions, blue is concrete. There are cavities molded into the concrete so I don't need an absurd amount and so that it will cure better, and so that it doesn't weigh a billion pounds. This was just a proof of size sketch and I intend to move to a more professional CAD software for the final design later.
