For whatever reason Baltic Birch comes in 5’ x 5’ sheets and I want to be able to cut a whole sheet edge to edge. The size calculator allows me to put in the dimensions, but my question is has anyone built one with a 5’ X-axis?
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You’ll need more than 5 foot. Mine is close to 5 foot for a 4X8 machine.
Yeah the calculator page shows rails of just under 6’ to have a 5’ cut width.
Some places sell essentially the same stuff in 4’x8’ sheets too. Supposedly it’s not “Baltic” birch, but “Russian” birch or something. I’m pretty sure the Birch trees are unaware that they’ve crossed the border though. 8^)
I don’t see any reason 6’ wide table would be a problem though. Ryan’s wiring kit might not be long enough, though.
I figure if I build a gantry with a 5’ cut and a table length enough for 5’ then I can later extend it to handle a 4’ x 8’ sheet.
There was one enormous build a long time ago. It was metric, but I think it was 1500mm. The pipes were sagging enough, that they ended up implementing auto bed levelling, and measuring the whole bed.
Are you sure you need it though? I would wonder if it is worth the effort, especially because you could build the table 5’ wide and still fit the panels in, or you could cut them first with a circular saw. It might be worth it, depending on the jobs you want to do.
I don’t know if you have any experience with cnc or Ryan’s machines, but there is a pretty good learning curve already, so it may make sense to at least start smaller and see for yourself what kind of workflow makes sense.
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