Re: trouble leveling the frame
Would a thin shim placed between one corner of the extruded piece and the frame help get things square? I'm thinking it would help but I don't know what it would do to the stability/strength of that joint.
Re: trouble leveling the frame
@bill.d, I'm kind of with you and tend to obsess over minutiae, someone in the shop once put a sign on my door that read "sometimes you just have to shoot the engineer and finish the job!" But looking at all of the parts in the assembly and the lack of pretty much any solid dimensional information for the build, e.g. set P.I.N.D.A height using a zip tie I'm assuming tight tolerances aren't really a major consideration for these things. I was planning on grabbing calipers, micrometers and gauge blocks for the build but at this point can't see where I'd use any of it.
Re: trouble leveling the frame
After reading about this issue here and thinking about how rotating/moving parts around has an effect on leveling I thought I try a little eperiment. I've machined and built a lot of things in my life and when things don't line up you start looking at details. I just for S&G's took a small Arkansas stone and gently stoned the ends of one of the extrusions looking for burrs and sure enough there were some witness marks. I didn't remove a lot of material. I just watched for the stone to contact the anodizing on most of the surface. Did it to all of the ends of the extrusions and the mating surfaces of the end plates and x axis plate. When I assembled it, dead flat. No rock. If you're having leveling issues maybe give this a try. Remember, minimal material removal.
Re: trouble leveling the frame
After reading about this issue here and thinking about how rotating/moving parts around has an effect on leveling I thought I try a little eperiment. I've machined and built a lot of things in my life and when things don't line up you start looking at details. I just for S&G's took a small Arkansas stone and gently stoned the ends of one of the extrusions looking for burrs and sure enough there were some witness marks. I didn't remove a lot of material. I just watched for the stone to contact the anodizing on most of the surface. Did it to all of the ends of the extrusions and the mating surfaces of the end plates and x axis plate. When I assembled it, dead flat. No rock. If you're having leveling issues maybe give this a try. Remember, minimal material removal.
Can you tell how the extrusions were cut? I'm curious if they were faced off after cutting and judging by your experience I'm going to assume they're pretty darned square...
RE: trouble leveling the frame
A suggestion, or perhaps someone has already suggested it:
When you attach the extrusions to the frame, hang the frame off the counter/table edge, square with the end of the counter/table, and hold the extrusions down while tightening the screws. This will guarantee the extrusions end up all parallel to each other and squared up with the frame.
I would have posted a screen shot, but it says I cannot upload files.