What about vertical clamping with an AltMill? The standard cross brace and leg setup doesn’t support it. A hole in the middle kind of approach is bad. The vertical support needs to be at the low end of the Y axis.
The AltMill needs a tilting to vertical clamping solution. Made out of metal. In fact all benchtop CNC’s NEED this. They all need it because then I wouldn’t have to choose based on that.
Of course it would be an option but a super attractive one. Check out the Legacy Woodworking vertical clamping system. The AltMill needs this. I would design it so that it could be tilted all the way up to horizontal so no horizontal work surface is lost.
I made several mortice & tenon stools and small tables with awkward Youtube jigs. and have thought of the about same idea. Need to give the Sienci engineers some O/T for this project.
@Shoeman I have a vertical clamping set up on my LM Mk1, which works well for my purposes. It is not as elegant or flexible as the Legacy one, but then, mine cost nothing.
I certainly have some ideas but the AltMill is absolutely not designed for this. Leaving off the end cross piece might compromise the structure. Leaving off the end crosspiece probably means the leg kit would have to go as well. You have to screw it to a bench like the the Longmill and the Onefinity. I’ve seen some feedback where people are bracing the legs with shelves and stuff anyway because the legs aren’t as stable as some would like and because who can afford to give up those cubic feet?
Interestingly the Shapoko 5 Pro is designed to provide an overhang for vertical clamping. There are two possible placements for the X axis. And of course you can do it on a Onefinity because that’s a pure benchtop machine.
