My first job was to design a linear rail mechanism which was made using standard steel hardware. I was impressed and inspired by the linear rails mechanism on the mpCNC machines from v1engineering as it was made using standard steel pipes from hardware store and these pipes were available in lenghts of upto 20 feet. But this had some limitations too. The pipes would flex a lot after exceeding certain lengths. Although I decided to use it in my prototype, I had to make a few adjustments to it to adapt to my machine.

I also decided to design my own linear rail mechanism which could be made out steel bars and were supported at regular intervals so that it does not flex irrespective of the length. I came up with two iterations of them and decided to use all of them in on axis each and use the one which worked the best in my next prototype.

My makerspace had limited tools, so I had to improvise and use a few wooden parts in my deisgn which were manually cut and made using a print template.

Upon the completion of the build, and wiring some of the electronics I realized, the frame was quite wobbly upon the movement and gantries were misaligned with each other. I tried to fix these outcomings but realized that the design was flawed. Although this gave me new ideas how to deal with the issue. So I am back to the drawing board.