I’ve been spending some time thinking about a method to enclose my CNC machine.
There are lots of ideas… (pictures). (another link) (enclosure build log 01)

One key thing is that I want easy access to the CNC table so I can easily add heavy items like vices, rotary tables, etc. And the encluse needs to be somewhat modular so that I can take parts of it off in case I want to work on/service the cnc machine.
The three sides (left, right and back) will be plywood construction. That part was easy.

The chip/coolant tray was the second hardest part to figure out, but I think I have a design for that.

Thirdly is the front door to the enclosure.  Since I have walls on the left and right side, the width is set. My initial thought was to make side-to-side sliding doors using full extension kitchen drawer slides. Depending on how large I wanted the opening to be, I could use either one sliding pane (per side) or two nested panes (per side) to allow more of an opening. For a door system that uses two nested doors per side, I would need  4 pairs of slides. Each pane needs 2 slides; one for a bottom track, and one for a top track.
But then I came across these Over The Top Slides.  I can make the door as wide as I want, and flip it up and push it over the top in one motion. Or if one door gets too heavy, split the door into two. Only drawback is that the slider only comes in 14″ lengths, which means it can only accommodate for 14″ of travel.

Did some measuring and thinking last night, and I’ve decided on an enclosure that is 1500mm wide on the inside (nearly 60in) and just under 24in deep and 36″ tall (to clear the top of the motor at it’s highest point). The enclosure will be a rectangular box  that will sit on top of the chip/coolant tray.
The doors/opening will consist of two 16″ sliding doors, making a 32″ opening. The doors will be on drawer sliders and have one window each (as large as possible). One slider on the bottom, and one slider will be on top.
The sides of the enclosure will  have one window each, and be constructed of 1/2″ plywood. The back of the enclosure will be 1/2″ plywood as well. The top of the machine will at fist be open, but if stuff flies out, it will be covered with 3/8″ of 1/4″ plywood.

UPDATE:

I started and have been updating a thread on the CNCZone Forums here (link).
A post where I had summarized some notes on the build of the tray (link).