DIY CNC Build in Switzerland - Building the X and Z axis carriage - Part 1

I am back:) After a long break, I got back to working on my CNC again. And started with a failure:D In order to create my X and Z axis I bought a 100X100x10mm aluminum plate and failed to cut it according to my design. It is incredibly hard to cut that thick aluminum precisely if you do not have big machinery like me. I have no professional tools to cut that thick aluminum. So I decided to create my CNC first from MDF then use it to cut its parts itself:) This is actually cool as you create one a working CNC, you can machine its own parts:)

So lets begin...
I have used a 12mm MDF board for X axis carriage and created a paper template. I used Pritt to glue it on the MDF for drilling holes. You can use Inkscape program to create your one to one templates and print using it. The linear bearing would look like as below after mounting. Using drill press all the holes are drilled.

After drilling the holes, check of alignment of linear bearings is necessary. Linear bearings has M5 holes for the screws. I usually drill one size bigger. Here I drilled M6 so I have some space to compensate error. When you tighten the screws the size would not affect actually.

Now it is time to cut steel hardened rod according to my needs for the Z axis carriage which will actually reside on X axis. After cutting it, I always try a test fit as you can see below. I use 12 mm steel rod and shaft supports for the Z axis-

Now we are ready to screw everything in place.I realized that the money that I paid to screws and bolts is getting bigger and bigger:D

 Finally, I looks like this at the end of mounting the linear bearings, rods and shaft supports.

Here is a picture to visualize all the things in place.

Next is building the mount to gantry and motor mounts for X and Z:)