Butchering the chip tray - mounting the drag chain tower

The drag chain tower (aka the base for the fixed end of the drag chain) is a fairly simple concept - a lid holds the chain in place, as well as sealing the tower. The channel down the middle of the tower is big enough for me to drop the encoder and limit switch connectors through without needing to disassemble them. I should be able to run those cables without majorly dismantling all the neighbouring components.

Some dimensions, for when I come to butcher the machine:

Let's try a mockup:

And check the movement (450mm) will be accommodated without clashing:

Mark out the positions of the holes:

After some stich drilling and die grinder action, it's done. So I then got a bit carried away and cleaned away the swarf and gunk from the chip tray. I'm not about to paint the thing but this seems like a good time to get rid of that nasty muck.

From the front as well:

The machine is old and tired but having stripped it back, adjusted the myriad gib strips and fitted the Linuxcnc system with closed loop servos, it should be good enough for the likes of me. And it can do stuff the Tree CNC lathe can't, like faceplate work and larger, odder shaped workpieces. The Tree was really intended for repetitive machining of bar stock, rather than jobbing work.

When the drag chain tower is done (tomorrow), I will assemble the cables, drag chain etc and hopefully move on to mounting the cabinet and routing the cables in a semi professional fashion.