| The idea is to have 3 columns on which the tool holder will glide. I glued all 4 pieces of MDF together and used a drill press to get the holes exactly right. |
| My first idea was to have Z axis be mounted on top of X-Y axes. |
| The tool fits snuggly into the two holes and is tightened with a plastic red nut. |
| I used unipolar Vextra motors. The motor is connected with a thin plastic tube to the theaded rod. The clamp is a metal tape used for holding large pipes to the ceiling. I cut a small piece, bent it, and tightened it with a bolt and a nut. |
| On the other side I put a thrust bearing in place which takes off load due to gravity from the motor. More on this in the bearings section. |
| The rails can be adjusted to tighten the holder, which is a fine balance between a smooth glide and a margin of error due to it being loose. I found that the MDF is good at obsorbing WD40 to stay lubricated. A better solution would of been to make these parts out of plastic, which glides much smoother on metal. |
| The final version of Z axis is actually mounted stationary to the base. |
| My first idea to have the Z axis glide on the X-Y axes was scrapped, because of the advantages of having it mounted stationary. |