Fixed Gantry CNC Router Build Part 1 

I'm convinced at this point that Tony is just a really smart 3 year old.

Your son's part in the videos are priceless. I love it!

It’s 2023, how old is this little guy now Me just going through all the videos , I must say his confidence and speech quality has improved a lot over the years🤙🤙

I really like the shots of your side kick helping you out in the shop. He seems to be a great helper.

The young machinist at work is something formidable to watch!! I have an (almost) 2yr old daughter I want to teach all I know (which isn't much, but... you get the point!)

Richard and others: I don't have drawings exactly, but I'll post the 3D CAD file in the next video.

Good lord, you are a steely-eyed missile man for sure!! One of the best build videos I have ever seen. Just when I think I am getting fairly handy, I run into someone else that sets the bar way above my head. To do all that yourself is beyond impressive. Design, build, electronics, troubleshooting, the total package. I can only imagine the time it takes to record and edit this as well. All I can say is thank you for taking the time. Keep em' coming!!

Watching this video again a few years later made me remember being a kid in the shop with my dad. Thanks for sharing, you made an old man smile

I cannot express enough, how much I love you using the metric system.

You will forever cherish working with Small Tony. As for welding pieces together I was shown to tack on one face and then tack the opposite side. It pulls them back into position. For critical alignment I tack on a brace, check the alignment of the two pieces, and weld them together.

Genius, Mr Alan Alda in disguise. Your makeup dept is top notch. How you have time to do theater, movies, university lectures write books and this (the on-line practical (in-every-thing) courses) is outstanding. On videos you appear different from film but it's obviously just tons of makeup and your voice gives you away. The magical thing, of course is how no matter how long each video is, it only takes 5 minutes of my time to watch. I checked by watching your vids multiple times. With very few exceptions they take no more than 5 minutes of my life to get through. Magic I say. Black? I wonder. Thank you, for sharing your experiences that in the middle ages would take decades of apprenticeship and a couple of newborns to achieve.

Absolutely enjoy your sense of humor and entertaining video creations. Thank you.

Wire under the joint is a great tip. Getting joints square is always a problematic but this will be a great dodge for me especially as I mostly stick weld. Thank you. Great build. Jez.

I stumbled on your channel by accident... and am an avid watcher. I'm devouring these like chocolate. Thank you so much for your experience, your patience, and your love of what you do. Its just.... wonderful.

Wow! That tip about putting a gap in a joint to give space to square things up is absolute gold!

Part one came out great I think. Nice tip on using the wire as a spacer. And I'm going to tell you Old Tony, Young Tony is a good helper! Looking forward to watching part 2. Thank you.

Hi Tony. I've been a subscriber of yours for more a year, and many other assorted but mostly engineering and woodworking channels, and I HAVE to say that yours is definitely up there amongst the VERY best of them - if not THE best. Very similar to 'clickspring' channel in terms of clear, calm, precise explanation and speeded up video where needed. Haha, even the music is similar (or the same). In short, FABULOUS stuff; can't wait for the next video. Regards Mark in the UK

Looking forward to This Young Tony's first presentation.

you da man Tony. Watching your show is better than armchair sailing. 25 years ago I built a CNC router with a 4' X 5' bed. I confronted the same challenge of having to use long lengths of warped steel as a base to mount the precision guides. Manually I was able to bring long lengths to near perfect flatness. First I took down the high spots with a belt sander. Then using (half) the technique employed used to produce precision marble blocks, I flipped the C-channel on to a 3'X6' 3/4" thick piece of glass (came from a dining table)where I glued sandpaper belt material. Then slid the hunk of steel back and forth across the surface. I started with 80 grit and by 180 it was perfectly acceptable A running water hose kept the abrasive from clogging. BTW. For the shorter gantry axis I used 2 pcs of (hefty) precision ground square stock for support and double as the guides for V rollers ... the driven screw runs between them. And while I'm on the subject of time travel ... Dollars to Donuts the Egyptians squared off their blocks by rubbing two stones together.

Hi Tony, it was good to see the little one helping out and I will bet that he will have a lot more shop time in the future. We need to get more of the youth interested in the shop making cool things instead of devoting a good portion of their time to video games and watching television. Now that will be a rather sturdy machine when you are finished and far more substantial than the X-Carve, Rockler's CNC Shar, etc. I would think that you would be able to mill a bit more substantial material than plastic, wood, and aluminum as long as the router's spindle is built to withstand those greater axial forces. You are definitely off to a great start and I am certain the end result will be worthy of your effort. I look forward to the next installment. Thanks for sharing!

Only one word describes this: AMBITIOUS This video demonstrates why precision machines start with massive heavy castings that get machined. Light metal and welds equate to ten million shims and adjustments.

Hello. More important than your build, is the fact that you have included your son in this project. Teaching a skill to the next generation must always be considered since at some point he will become more autonomous and with the right peer, (YOU), he shall succeed. Good on you!

Looks like your little helper is having a great time it's awesome when I see our younger people in the shop learning

My son said the same thing at his age when he hit his head, I was so proud that he knew what context to use that word in.

Yup you are correct the import routers do what they are supposed, break at the exact wrong time.

5 years late and 2nd time watching this video and it just occurred to me, maybe the gantry back plate should have been the front plate. A lot easier to mill flat the edge s of the c-channel than the entire back. No? Anyways, thanks for being my "Bob Ross" of fabrication. I can't believe you're still under 1M subscribers. Then again, with who is at the top RU-vid viewership I'm not surprised... we "makers" are outnumbered by the "takers" ;)

Thank you for this sweet build! I always appreciate your editing and humour.

RU-vid isn't suggesting me your videos chronologically. It's weird to see you built a machine I am already familiar with 😅

I used to be a pipefitter / fabricator. If you have multiple welds on one side . We actualy chimmed , the pipe or beam , in the middel like 1 to 5 % of the lenght between the fartest welds. At the end of the pipe or beam , we Just welded it first to the welding table. It looks like a bananna at first ... But when you angle grind those holding welds at the welding table ...everything pops magical straight again !☆☆☆☆☆ *So proud now i actualy gave This old Tony a pro tip* Greets from the Netherlands Johny geerts

Nice build... Last 7 years in cell block c has obviosly taken it toll on the editing skills and smartassededness... ;)

Tony, of all your videos I have watched so far this was the first time I have heard some trembling in your voice and seen some trembling in one of your fingers :-) Thank you, Sir, for being as genuine as you are. I think I will go for a good old lathe and mill and try to figure out the old school way how to build my parts!!! And most of the time I will watch your videos to figure this old school way out.

hey Tony, thank you for taking the time to film your cnc build, lots of good tips and advice. I was curious about buying some digital angle finders, but after seeing you using them, I will definitely get some!

Great project. Most of the time I have the feeling that I can do what you are doing (of course if I had all the tooling you have). However, for this project, I've been amazed: that's really an incredible project. Congratulations and many thanks for these 3 videos.

Like seeing this pop up. Showing that long evolution to what only right now appears to be the end product, TOT 2020. YT really should push those recommendations for old videos to express the what is true. There is a process, and you haven't reached the end of it yet. Also good to see your wife's can in this older work.

The tasteful addition of your kids is great I really dig your channel. Thanks.

Tony, you are the good best at smarting.

Loving the CC at around 11:00. All that machining going on and CC says "yeah". Twice. My feelings exactly.

Tip for your next one. For a flat gantry face, two words. Liquid Granite, homemade with epoxy and carborundum powder. That's what I used on mine, a 1m section of 250x150x9mm RHS, after welding and heat treating of course. Was significantly (x100) cheaper than getting that face machined.

Tony, awesome build! Tip, use two dowels on your master rail and two on each master truck. One side only. Let the other slave rail/truck float, move it around then tighten. Aligns things perfectly parallel.

Truly an amazing project. Your narrative is super clean. Your son is going to be a world class machinists.

Great Video. I love the way you walk us through all your thoughts on this and how you deal with issues that come up. I've watched a few videos like this and all they ever do is just put the thing together and apparently never have a single problem.

'Next time I'm just going to double-side tape the whole thing.' LOL!

I believe the word to describe you level of genius is “Uber”. ! I can’t even imagine being able to design and build something like this... but is certainly enjoy watching you do it. Looking forward to No.2

It took me a whole 5 Minutes to realize that you are building your Router Table? What is this world coming to? Lolly Gagger I am! I'm not so beautiful to me, can't you see? You are the BOMB, Tony! (Bill of Materials Bibliography).

Beautifully done machine and the video editing is delightful. I loved every minute of the 3 part trilogy and learned a ton. Thanks!

Next time you need to surface machine a piece like the C section... Find a discarded treadmill. I'll leave it to you to figure out how to turn the belt into an abrasive belt... And I'm sure you can figure out the rest of my suggestion on your own. (Also good for making a few bucks machining heads for engines.) Imagine the torque those things have to have, to keep the belt moving with a 200 to 400 pound person on them.

Tony, Just saw your videos, Great Job! When you machined the C-section your problem was locating from the twisted flange legs. When they were clamped to the table the C-section conformed to the table and hence sprung back when the clamps were removed. A better way would have been to; first, locate from the flat surface mounted on blocks in each corner and machine the legs. The flip it over and locate from the legs you just qualified. Also, I think it would have been better to stress relieve (normalize) the part after rough machining and best to grind after stress relieve because when you remove the skin the part will move again

Tony, I have to admit, first time commenting but long time subscriber… excellent video and better yet, excellent subject matter. CNC is a field that I understand little about and now learn for this, your most recent series, is something I too can start thinking more about. Hopefully, I can also join-in the action… Keep-em coming… Great work!

Have to say, great tip using the welding wire to lift your piece slightly. I've run into that while MIG welding and had trouble bringing things back square....will do that from now on.....

I use that dimensional equation whenever possible. "Pi times the square root of as small as possible". Works great.

Excellent video my friend, this is the first time I have seen your channel. Thank you, it will only serve to inspire many others, much like myself, to use their own home shops to build tools of their own.

Hope everyone learned a lesson here. No matter how much you clamp a piece down, IT WILL MOVE WHEN YOU WELD IT! Thats why the term "Jig Welded" means absolutely nothing, but hack fabricators LOVE to throw it out. Metal shrinks when welded, period point blank. If you have it bolted rigidly you are adding stress to the material, if you unbolt it, its GOING to move. The weldment is either designed for this shrinkage, or its not. There is no stopping it, aside from not welding it. Tony just showed you this perfectly, its a really good life lesson.

great video. and it is so good to see dad & lad doing things together.

Great video mate and i guess a lot of this build was based on trial and error but so far it's looking brilliant with a little help from the young supervisor lol

all i can say is that you work at a level that i consider as Professional, very nice work!

He's been gone for so long, RU-vid started recommending me his 5 year old videos :))

By the way you are talking it sounds like one of those jobs it's a good idea, it will come in handy but has quiet a large footprint . I've been there a few times where space is limited and you will only use it twice a year. if you could only mount it on the ceiling. I bet you are looking forward to painting it. lol But another great video Thanks Andy.

from the way you laid that down the axzis that you are calling Z is actually the Y axis. x is left to right, Y is back to front, and Z is up and down. From what I have read everywhere else. Unless I am complpetely missing something and the designation Z corresponds to the axis that the tool directly travels on.

Super video. Very helpful narration and I like the overlay measurements and outlines. And, great little helper you have, the future in action. I could use a talent like that in my shop. Give him my praise. I hope to see him doing more all the time. Now I'm looking forward to the next installment.

Tony, 1. I love your work - learning a ton about machining from your vids. 2. Doubleplusgood on your apprenticeship system.

He's got his Old Man's hands. Poor kid.

Hi just want to say great video. Also just wanted to give you a little insight into the tolerances of making C section. I've worked as a production operator in an Australian Steel Mill for about 15years. And we make 150 C section. I'm not sure what standard the stuff you got it make to but The AS standard are quite broad not as bad a China but well you decide. 1st the legs of the Channel are allowed to have difference in length of 2.5mm The web thickness is between 4 and 5mm but this normally is on the thicker side of things There is also the leg thickness which is slowed to vary about 1.5mm but I can't remember the min Max Now the interesting part the straightness of the channel! The web is allowed .5mm of concave but convex is no good. Also the the legs are allowed to be up to 1.5mm out of square on 1 leg and 2mm out of square between both legs and the web. Nice hey now wonder its was so bad you say. Well I'm not done yet LOL There is also a tolerance for twist. Yes the channel is allowed to have up to 5mm of twist over a 12meter length and I think that drops down to 1mm over 6meters. There is also the sweep (up and down) of the bar and camber (left to right) both are allowed 2mm per meter so over 12meters you could have up to 24mm of sweep or camber what a joke hey. If have any questions just ask LOL Cheers and keep the laughs coming

Tony Junior installing chemi-anchors & double nutting the frame bases - he's going to be one savvy guy.

i thought the Victorians did away with sending children under precariously balanced machinery, glad to see you trying to revive the practice,

Your son is a very lucky young man. I think I want to build one of these too.

Yeah the digjital protactor are great. We are moving our factory. But we have 3 axis mori seiki machine centres.and the protactor has been used plenty.since we brought them.highly recomend even more if you just need to mill at an Angel and don't want bother with adjustable.vice

First off I truly enjoy your videos Tony On the welding subject I would like to make a comment the best way to get a straight part out of welding is preheat and post heat in my experience granting fixtures are also a help but a proper preheat and post heat can save a lot of time

Nice - and a great little helper you’ve got there too!

A tip. You can break a Allen key and put the bigger side into your drill chuck to fasten the Allen head screws

What timing! I'm just about to build a 3x2 but in aluminum, I'll follow this closely, Cheers, Tony.

On Thunderdork's all steel cnc router build he got around the unevenness issue you're experiencing w/ your X-axis using self-leveling expoxy. Also, in case you don't already know, epoxy granite is commonly used to fill a machines tubing to eliminate harmonics. Nice start btw. I'm at the start of a similar build using 2"x2" x11 guage steel tubing. I plan to use the standard cartesian style mobile gantry design. I have a ways to go though. I'm welding up my welding table this week. Once finsished, I should have a somewhat flat reference to clamp my work to. Life is good.

I know it isn't your standard but for a more hobby approach I was planning on using JBWeld between the C section and rails to level it. Concentrate on getting one rail flat on a thin layer of JB (oiled to prevent sticking to rail), probably measuring 6" ahead on the same rail could detect rises/falls - I'd ignore twisting and pray instead. Then set the second rail from the first. I'd hope that when it is all dried and tightened it would be very strong under compression with so many bolts.

Just Awesome. Really a joy to watch. I also built a Gantry Router. Fusion360 and Mach3 and 4 all the way. Geckodrives definitely the way to go..

Neato project. Ditching that music might have been the single best thing you've done for your videos (other than adding the humor module).

Any reason you went with steel vs aluminum? Much much easier to work with. Compensated by going about 20% larger perimeters. Also... double up on the trucks. Very enjoyable journey into your head... My favorite part is where you show your controller in a later video...Sound Logic, Geckos, Smooth Stepper. Exactly what I run. Tougher than a 50 cent steak and mines been on the job for 18 years without one glitch.

2:50 Autodesk: I am sorry sir, but your check bounced

you build all cnc machine by hand . i learn a lot from it. thanks

Hi Tony, I am enjoying watching your project builds. I'm sure that you have completed this fixed gantry router but in hindsight, I think you should have looked at mounting the rails to the backing plate rather than the c-Chanel, the backing plate looks flatter than the Chanel web. Any way, keep up the good work

Looks like it is coming along very nicely tony, top notch editing

Your videos are incredible. You are very talented individual.

GEEZ! , I love the TIG wire spacer to create a gap for (a) weld penetration, & (b) MORE POSSIBILITY TO REALIGN.

Quite the little helper, you've got there.

Awwww. He's got your hands!

Big. Beefy. HEAVY Duty. Built in the shop. What's not to like. Thanks for sharing.

Nice build Tony. C-beam milled down. When Francesco clamped it down to the table, I think it would work better if he clamp it at the bottom and not the top. Bending it and not cutting the material under stress.

Red wine, blue cheese & This Old Tony making a CNC router: doesn't get much better. Wait what? Predictive text knows Tony? He's more famous than I thought.

Naively wondered why you'd bolt it straight to the floor and lose adjustment options. Then clapped at my screen with your solution. Don't know whether it's a common trick, as I'm nowhere near advanced and just learning, but nicely done!

Can't wait for part two. Incredible build so far!

Impressive build; no small feat. I bet your little helper has an Italian mama :-) I spend a lot of time in Umbria myself, but no shop or garage there yet.

Really well engineered machine and a great video. I built a fixed gantry mill after the moving gantry build failed utterly. Fixed gantry is the best solution for a solid machine. For the gantry I used 250mm 150mm x 5mm rectangular steel section (RHS). maybe over engineered but I wanted the rails 200mm apart. I am wondering why you chose C section with a cap plate on the back. After a lot of research I decided to go with 20mm round linear rails, much more forgiving with allignment than rectangular rails. Yes the RHS was not flat by a long shot! but I didn't have to machine it. I used a 20mm ball screw and nut as you did. I wondered why you sank the screw inside the C section but discovered the reason in part 3; to enable a curtain to be attached. Thinking ahead! One other thing I noticed in part 3 is the VFD had no shielding around it, did this not cause interference problems? I mounted my control box on an arm to the side on the machine at eye level. Agian, great job, great videos with a really dry humour I like.

Why not use the backplate as the frontplate? I think the plate is straighter than the C beam.

You are unbeliable....mate....I'm looking forward to seeing part 2 sincere congratulations... Fabio

Hi Tony, just wanted to thank you for sharing (and MAKING) this video! Great tutorial! I learned lots! I especially liked the trick with putting a piece of TIG wire in between your joint, to give you a bit of wriggle room to correct the alignment of the part you're welding. And one thing I also found quite funny is that I have EXACTLY the same lathe and milling machine as you! (Min 25:28) A Colchester Student MK2.5 (with removable gap for 18" swing) and a Bridgeport. Yay! :)

Beautiful editing on the video. Beautiful build job. Looking forward to more.

if you ever read the old Gingery books about building. lathe that's why he uses cold rolled flat stock for the ways, and bolts that to the casting, because it's close to true on its own, and easier to flatten

Thanks Tony very interesting. Machine looks very solid

Hi from over the pond .I've just started to watch your vid's , i have enjoyed watching the projects that you have done ,

Would it have been better to build your C-section truss the same way you did, but to machine the flat bar stock (back side) and mount the rails from THAT side, instead of web of the C-section? I know that the flat bar has some crown to it as well, but it seems like it might have less tendency to twist up like a pretzel. Does that make sense, or am I missing something else? Or does it really make any difference at all in the grand scheme? Just thinking out loud. Looking forward to the rest!

LOL....hey Dad, do ya' know the pianos on me foot?........Don't worry son, you hum it an' I'll play it.

I didn't realize Young Tony used to do more work than his dad for these old videos.