I had been stymied by the 3/8″ bolts in the CNC build. I had trouble finding 3/8″ bolts in pan head either online or locally, so I bought socket head ones instead. This has proven to be a pain in the rear for the whole build. I was working around the tall heads, but the fact that the bolts were also lag bolts instead of all thread really sealed their fate.
I stopped by Tacoma Screw on the way home and picked up a few 3/8″-16 machine screws. I had to get flathead screw style instead of Torx or Philips, but at least they were pan head.
When I got home, I uninstalled all the bearings on the z axis table, and reinstalled them with the new bolts. This went together pretty easily, and I got the y and z bearings all installed and adjusted.
I then went to work on getting the y axis motor mount installed. That went in with minimal fuss.
I installed the router vacuum shoe next. That was a little wonky, but went on ok.
I moved to the z axis motor mount, and ran into a small snag. There is a double thickness of plywood there, so I needed longer screws. I had bought 3″ screws for just this occasion, but it turns out that I really needed 2-1/2″ instead. So I spent a little time cutting a spacer from the spare plywood I have lying around, and was just getting the holes drilled when I had to quit for the night. The spacer is going to work great, I just need to line it up with the 4 holes in the z axis motor mount seat.
In short, assembly is going pretty well. I got one idler sprocket installed, and the z table is on permanently. With any kind of time out there, I can start ripping down big parts of the assembly. There is not a lot of work before I can start installing motors and chains.
I still need to drill the holes for the x axis rails, but I decided to sort of move on and do some of the lower hanging fruit first. I will get to a point where the long rails need to happen, soon enough.