My machine is free-standing, so the top beam is not attached to the frame of the trailer. As awesome as it is to have my Maslow in the trailer, there really isn’t enough room for it in there with the rest of my shop so I built it in a manner that I could move the machine to a garage when my wife and I ultimately buy a house.
However, I’m working on revisions to my Maslow frame to use Unistrut in several places to give me more adjust ability where I need it. Good examples are the top beam, where I want the ability to work with as long a beam as possible, that way I can test a couple of different motor positions to see what gives me the best performance. I also want to make a depth adjustment for the top beam so I can easily adjust the “depth” for thicker materials. The last place I’m considering right now is in the A-frames that hold the bed at an angle. I would like to try a couple of different angles to see how it will affect the accuracy.
As a sidenote, welding galvanized steel unistrut (which is what I will have to do in a few places) is extremely dangerous. Burning the galvanized coating, which WILL happen while you’re welding, creates a lot of zinc fumes. Zinc is a very toxic heavy metal, and good ventilation/PPE is necessary to not poison yourself. I will be taking the necessary precautions to protect myself but I figure I should warn people who may not be aware of the danger.
That is the orientation of the top beam in @MrFugu’s Unistrut frame thread. I think that is ideal because then the motor brackets can bolt up easily to the holes in the top of the strut.