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Building a milling machine

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NormanV:
Some of you may have noticed my questions regarding problems that I have been having setting up to cast aluminium. I have been doing this as I am planning to build a milling machine. I have based the design on the body of Dave Gingery's shaper as it allows adjustments to be made to the build to achieve the accuracy needed (I hope). Here is a sketch of what I am planning.

NormanV:
The main body will be aluminium castings and I will recycle parts from old machines where it will achieve accuracy. For example the fine vertical feed is a lathe topslide mounted on a thick wall steel tube that also carries the motor. I have used the tube as it allows me to adjust the verticality of the head in relation to the table. Any comments would be appreciated.
Norman

NormanV:
I may use a coordinate table for the X and Y axes in order to save time but I have made the patterns to cast my own in aluminium if I decide to. Here are some of the patterns.

NormanV:
The first casting that I did was for mounting the lathe topslide to the steel tube across the top. I had been having problems getting my moulding sand to the right consistency and the casting turned out very rough so I had to machine it all over. Since then I have not had those problems.

NormanV:
After machining the casting I attached the cross slide with a steel disc that I had as a mounting plate between the two.
The next casting was for the front of the machine where the angle plate shown in the diagram will mount. My first attempt warped but a second try was successful.

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