Cutting Letters, Airplane parts and Dinosaurs! #18 - Horsham, Australia

[Jayson]

OK you have all forced me to start building. I have wasted far too much of my life logging into this forum every day to see what the rest of you have been doing. Its now my turn. I was hoping to grab serial #14 but alass I have felt my run too late, so maybe now I will have to aim for #21 or so. :)

First off I would like to thank those that tried to help me get some rack a while ago. Unfortunately I have had to bow to the extortion demands of the Australian suppliers and I have purchased locally. I have been a victum of the financial situation that is currently affecting a few regions. Our dollar dropped substancially compared the the US$ which made it uneconomical to get anything sent here from overseas.

I did find an Australian supplier of module 1 rack that was half the price of anywhere else that replied to my quotation requests. So with a great deal of courage I emptied my moneybox (literally) and ordered 5 x 2 meter lengths of rack and 4 pinions. 5 days later the parcel arrived.

and so it begins...

Jayson.

[Gerald D]

This is probably the first time in my life that I a cheering for an Aussie - go Jayson, GO! :D

[sailfl]

Jason,

Good luck with your build and you are right it is not impossible. It just took me longer than I thought it would. I some times wondered if I was actually go to finish. Now, I am very pleased and it was worth the effort.

[Greolt]

Jayson

Good to see a Mechmate started in Aus.

Did you get the rack from TEA? Or somewhere else.

Greg (Geelong)

[domino11]

Welcome Jayson! Getting all the parts sourced is not an easy task anywhere. Especially if you are looking for good deals. :)

[gmessler]

Good luck with your build Jayson. It's a long process (for most....not mentioning any names:p) but well worth it!:)

[Jayson]

Hi Greg,

yep the rack came from TEA. No one else could get close to their price. I'm a little unsure why everyone else is so much more expensive, the rack I received looks like it is good quality.

Hopefully I will have my machine finished in a reasonable timeframe, the main problem is getting everything together as stated.

Watch this space...

Jayson.

[Jayson]

Well just for fun I decided to see if I could make the rail skate plates myself. I considered gluing paper onto steel and cutting it out on the bandsaw but then I remenbered that I had a cnc mill :)

Only broke 3 end mills makeing both these... not too bad... oh wait yes it is, at the cost of 3 endmills it would have been cheaper to get them laser cut, but would not have been as much fun.

Will get them bent soon.

Jayson.

[smreish]

Jayson,
I did the glue, stick and bandsaw method for the protype which is a lot like your pictures. So, if anyone want's to get started before the laser parts, you do have options that are easy!

Nicely done.

[Jayson]

Ok well here is a little update...

I had started to build a router a little while ago before I actually decided to go with the Mechmate so I had a little bit of a head start. Here is the base which is similar to that in the plans but not exactly the same the main difference is that it is a bolted design. Also the main rails are only 100mm high which I will address later
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Ok so the first thing to do from the plans was making the rollers
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Cutting the stock to a rough length and Boring for the bearings
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Homemade bearing puller to remove roller once machined
and the completed roller wheels
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Next were the eccentrics and the spider plate spacers
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Those who are eagle eyed will notice that there are a few too many parts...
I decided to extend the end plates by 50mm to compensate for the smaller main rails. I got the original parts cut also just in case my alterations did not work correctly, then I will make the Y axis as designed and drop the bed by 50mm below the rails.
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I was very happy with the fitting on the parts from the laser cutter / bender and proceeded to weld things together. I have not done a lot of welding and this is the first mig welding I have done so please forgive what you see...
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I next made the spider plate and then the z slide. Those who have completed these parts will know that this is NOT the correct order in which to do this. You can see (hopefully) that the spacing for the bearings is 126.33mm which did not allow the plate to fit the spider so I pulled apart the bearings and remachined the wheels. I now have a spacing of 122.8mm which does allow the plate to fit. Lesson learned, make sure you make the parts in the correct order.
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I drilled and countersunk the z plate and stiffener on my mill. This made things extremely easy (I love cnc :))
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I could not get a gas spring with enough travel so I have 3 sets of mounting holes as suggested elsewhere on the site. Works great.
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Next were the stop blocks.
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Having made the stop blocks I welded on the stops. Knowing everything about this design since I have studied the plans so well I knew that the stop adjust screws were only needed at one end of the gantry so I welded on undrilled stops at one end. It seems that Gerald was not aware that this is the way the design was meant to work so I cut off the blocks and make them the other way and reattached them :rolleyes:
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Fitted up the cable chains that I purchased from a second hand shop. Surprisingly they were exactly the right lengths for both the x and y axis. It must have been fate.
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I next unbolted everything and applied a few coats of undercoat in preparation for painting.
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Next applied the filler and then another layer of undercoat.
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Must be time for painting.
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This is how I made the feet. Large washers with the hole half filled with weld and a bolt drilled and tapped in the head for a retaining screw so the washers don't fall off.
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Started bolting everything together... It’s starting to take shape.
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Due to the main beams not having exactly parallel flanges I needed to shim the cross supports. I used .5mm thick steel strapping for this purpose.

Well I seem to have used up most of my allocation... geez you don't get many posts before running out of space :)

There was not much left to show anyway, just the rack welding.

Hope you all have enjoyed the pics. I hope to get the machine finished early next year.

Oh and by the way Merry Christmas to all.

Regards all,

Jayson.

[Gerald D]

Bowl me over! Wow Jayson, you are obviously not watching the cricket at this pace! :D

(Your pic allocation has been increased.)

[sailfl]

Jayson,

You are making the rest of us look bad. Nice job and great work.

[gmessler]

Great pics Jayson!!:)

[Jayson]

Thanks all, I usually don't watch sport anyway and with such a project going on in the shed it is hard to find time to even eat! Thanks for the Pic increase Gerald.

So the most dreaded part of the build so far was welding the rack together. I was not looking forward to this part of the build and I knew it would be exceptionally hard to do, especially since I had to sell an arm and a leg to be able to afford the rack. This makes it both hard to stand and also hard to weld :p.

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Imagine my surprise when the welding went perfectly. I will tell you all my secret to success, follow Gerald’s directions. He knows his stuff.

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The next most dreaded part of the build was the rail making. Now I know that many of you have said that it is not hard but until you do it yourself you can just not appreciate how easy it actually is. The angle for the x rail that was supplied was not as thick as I requested but decided to use it anyway, mainly because I was sure that the process would not work and I would end up buying linear rails. :eek: Well the process was so easy and went so well that I have a slightly under spec rail but I am sure it will be fine. I have bolted the rail down at centres of 120mm. The reason for this was that is the spacing required for the linear rail that I may have required oh and it adds extra support for the thinner rail :rolleyes:

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The rail cutting was very easy and from reading some other posts I think that I may have been very conservative with the rail cutting. I used a total of 4 disks for all the rails. I did use very light cuts and was ever mindful that the angle grinders usually do not survive a Mechmate build. My angle was 2 1/2 inch on both legs so I could not use the whole disk as the skate plate hit the rail before it was totally cut through once the disk wore a bit. If I had used differed rail I may have gotten away with 2 disks I think.

Christmas is underway here in Australia so I will have to go now, I will give an update in a few days when I get time to get back to the machine.

Cheers to all.

Its time to enjoy some food...
Jayson

[Jayson]

Did a little more bolting today. Its starting to take shape

I am happy with the way its looking, I've already got plans on what I'll do differently for the next one :eek: :D

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For those interested my machine was designed to have a cutting area of 4 feet by a tad over 12 feet. The reason for this size is because that is the size of aircraft aluminium sheet in Australia, just in case I ever want to build one :)

Jayson.

[YRD]

have a cutting area of 4 feet by a tad over 12 feet. The reason for this size is because that is the size of aircraft aluminium sheet in Australia, just in case I ever want to build one :)

Jayson

I see that I am not alone :D

[Jayson]

Hi Yuri,

it seems like a perfect project for the Mechmate :)

The Sonnex looks good and a friend of mine has purchased the plans. Its a shame that they are not available in CAD format already, it would save a lot of work.

I will build a Zenith CH601 or ch650 but thats down the track a little.

Jayson.

[Jayson]

I have been a little buisy trying to get my machine going. Its all the little things that take ages. I have installed all the motor mounts but am short on springs, these will take about a week to arive. I had enough parts to get the Y axis going.

Here is a little video, not very exciting unless you were there :)

http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=T-hq2edoY-o

Must go and build some more.

Its getting close now


Jayson

[Gerald D]

Very impressive Jayson!

[Gerald D]

You could use a heavy rubber band (o-ring) as a temporary spring.

[Jayson]

Thanks for the suggestion, I might just do that.

All I have to do is purchase the MDF for the table, mount the remaining 3 motors and wire everything. Should only be a few more days work, I hope.

I was a little worried about the motors as they were "rescued" from some photographic equipment. They are 5 phose motors, 500 steps per rev. The drivers only have full and half step. Until I am finished I will reserve judgement on them but initial thoughts are that they will be fine.


Jayson.

[YRD]

Jayson,

It seems now that will cut.

On this site (AirFox (http://www.airfox.com.br/br/div_album.asp)) in my friend Beto, you see Sebastien (http://www.airfox.com.br/br/albumws/images/WS%20Atibaia%20180_jpg.jpg). Here (http://www.airfox.com.br/br/albumws/images/WS%20Atibaia%20185_jpg.jpg) am I the left.

My first flight was in XL601 ZOD (http://www.airfox.com.br/br/albumws/images/WS%20Atibaia%20333_jpg.jpg).

The 650 project seems to be very good.

[Jayson]

Well things have slowed down a little. I am now finding out just how many things I had forgotten to order.

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The tape I purchased for the rack is distributed by Husky (Google "Husky Tape"). They told me that it was exactly the as the 3M tape. It might be I'm not sure but it has so far worked fine. The tape is foam cored 2mm thick and was 18mm wide and was 16m long. This meant that I had to trim the tape a little but once it had been applied to the rack it was easy to run a knife along the edge to trim it.

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Today I cut out some stickers to go onto the machine. At work we have a CNC matt cutter for cutting mats to go around photos. I found that if you placed some vinyl underneath the matt, the knife would go through and cut the vinyl along with the matt. This resulted in individual letters which may have been hard to align but I had a plan

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I kept the mats and used them as "stencils" to align the stickers.

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I also stuck some onto the door of the controller box.

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I have made a start on the controller enclosure. It is a little large however I am fairly certain that I will not run out of space in it. For reference the enclosure is made from a parts washer. I plan on screwing it to the wall and placing the PC in there too. All the parts in the control box have been "rescued" from a photographic machine.

I ordered some shielded cable today. It is 7 conductor .5mm wire. I hope it will be ok. My motors require 5 conductors but I could only get 7 in .5mm. There was 5 conductor available but it had 1.5mm conductors and was way more expensive.

I am hoping all the parts will be here by the weekend so I can get it finished.

Jayson

[William McGuire]

WOW! December 20th to January 5th... and already have one of the axis turning.

In post #7 you stated "Hopefully I will have my machine finished in a reasonable timeframe". Looks like you will need to slow down a whole lot to attain a "reasonable" timeframe:D

[wheelygood]

Hi Jayson. Do you have a link for the supplier of the rack you used.
Any one know of anyone building a MechMate in New Zealand?

[Jayson]

Hi Steve,

Here is a link to TEA that I got the rack from.

http://www.tea.net.au

Not sure if they have a New Zealand distributor or not.

Good luck.

Jayson.

[wheelygood]

Thanks, I am onto it already.

[Jayson]

Hi everyone, just letting you all know that I haven’t fallen off the face of the Earth...

The wiring seems to take ages but I am happy with the way it is coming along.

Here are a few pics

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I am still amazed at all the small details that have been accounted for, like the holes for the wires to make everything neat :cool:

I am using EMC2 for the control software. I use it on my CNC Mill and am so pleased with it I can not recommend it enough. You do need to have some patience if you want to deviate from a standard configuration (like pause/run buttons) but once it is configured it works great.

I have been cutting lots of air as I do not yet have a suitable router to mount on the MM but this will be fixed soon. I am amazed at the speeds some of you have been getting and am having trouble achieving them myself. The best I have been able to achieve was 660mm/second but this lost steps so I have backed it off to 450mm/second which is totally reliable but far short of the 1000 some of you have been getting. Maybe my motors are just no good... I should build a belt reduction to take the load off the motors which should make it go faster.

I have been having a great deal of trouble finding MDF for the base the right size. As stated before the main purpose of my build is to aid in the construction of an aircraft. Aircraft aluminium comes in 4 foot by 12 foot sheets however MFD is metric at 1200 x 3600 mm or 1800 x 3600 mm sheets so I will have to make do with 3 pieces on the table of 32mm thickness. I will do the same for the sacrificial board (16 or 19mm) but will offset the joins from that of the table to add strength. I hate the metric / imperial thing it causes so much confusion and just makes some things hard.

That’s it for now.

Jayson.

[Appimate]

Hello Jason

Nice build, do you ever sleep or are you like the reality shows, lots going on behind the scenes but one front guy!.

You should be able to get 25mm ( I think even 32mm ) from Laminex Industries, down side is that it isn't cheap nor is it light, I used some 25mm to make a sound proof box when I was using a Triton router and needed a hand with the 2.4 by 1.2 meter sheets.

Ed

[Jayson]

Thanks Ed,
I'll give them a try and see if they can help.

Sleep, now that would be a novel idea... ;)

I'm really looking forward to getting this thing completed.I need to start building my plane :)

Jayson.

[Jayson]

Hi all,

Here is a link to a video I did earlier this week. Its a little large and only cutting air but I like it anyway.

http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=XwT_d--KCVg

I had slowed with the build a little. It has been a little warm here over the past few days. We have had 3 consecutive days with the temperature sitting at 44.5 degrees C (about 112 F for the rest of you) this made it a little hard to get motivated to do anything.

Anyway I had to get out and build some more regardless of the temperature so here is what I got done over the past 2 days

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I cut out some mounts for the router that I am going to use to get started. I made them from 12mm aluminium on my cnc mill.

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After doing this all that I had to do was run some wire for the spindle and mount the board for the base.

The board is still on order so that is not yet done, I did however manage to make some dust. Poor quality but still very exciting... (10:30pm may have been a little late for testing, maybe no one noticed the noise :rolleyes:)

http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=oQG5cJEkHEs

Just a simple square

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The quality was much better than I had expected it to be. I may stay with direct drive after all. Next I cut some text just to see how it would go.

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I am very impressed. I have not squared the machine yet, even so it was not far out at all.

Thanks Gerald. Thank you, Thank you, Thank you.

I will keep you all updated as things progress further but as it stands at the moment I am very happy with the performance of the Mechmate. I still need to tune EMC2 properly. This will/may increase the overall speed that can be reached but as it stands at the moment I am happy with 27 meters per minute rapids.

Regards,

Jayson.

[hennie]

Jason is that an old makita. My first router was one of those cost me R 50.00 and it was a mean machine.

[Jayson]

Hi Hennie,

it sure is old but for the time being it will do the job. I plan on upgrading to a water cooled spindle at some stage. The makita is just to get things going in the mean time.

Jayson.

[bradyaero]

Hi Jayson,

Great work, I've enjoyed following your build, you certainly have some creative thinking going on with your MechMate.

Keep up the good work and I hope to see some cool stuff from your machine!

[Gerald D]

Jayson, you will have to admit that the hardest part of the build was the decision to get started!

Congratulations on a job done well!

[Gerald D]

Okay, we have MechMates running all over the world - except in the UK!

Where are those Brits and their famous Industrial Revolution in the black country? If an Aussie and a South African from Brakpan can build these things, there must be a Pom who can do it? Would even settle for a Welsh type. :D

[jhiggins7]

Jayson,

Congratulations on Serial #18, the First Serial Numbered MechMate in Australia. And a fast build too.:eek: Great job!:) The updated Builder's Log is here (http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pLoxg8wu4WnsBc2_U5yEaQw).

What are the dimensions of your machine...that is the maximum X and Y travel. I'd like to add the size to the Builders Log.

Regards,
John

[domino11]

Congratulations Jayson! That sure was a fast build. :)

[hennie]

Good Stuff Jayson On No 18

[sailfl]

Jayson,

Congratulations on #18. We are closing in on 20.

[myozman]

:)Congratulations :)

[Jayson]

Thanks all for the nice comments. As has been said many times before, this forum is a great place for information and advice.
Gerald, you are correct, the hardest part of the whole process was starting. The rest just falls into place.
For the record I have 3839mm X travel, stop to stop. 1316mm Y travel and at the moment around 120mm Z travel. I seem to have a little less in the Y than I had expected but still plenty to allow me to cut 4 foot wide sheets.

Jayson.

[jhiggins7]

Jayson,

Thanks for the update. The updated Builder's Log is here (http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pLoxg8wu4WnsBc2_U5yEaQw).

Happy cutting.:)

Regards,
John

[YRD]

Congratulations Jayson at # 18 :).

Now we have more 30.000 holes and 15.000 rivets ... :D

You did a great job and very fast.

Yuri

[sprayhead]

Hi Jason

Where did you get the motors?

Congrats!

francis

[Jayson]

Hi Francis,

I recovered the motors from some photographic equipment. You know those machines that you see making photo's in 1 hour shops and Harvey Norman it was a pair of machines like that. I don't advise you go out and buy 2 just to get the motors out of them though... :eek:

http://cgi.ebay.com/NORITSU-2301_W0QQitemZ130284777367QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_De faultDomain_0?hash=item130284777367&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1205%7C66%3A2%7C65%3A12%7C39%3A1%7C 240%3A1318%7C301%3A0%7C293%3A1%7C294%3A50

It would be cheaper to import some motors I think ;)

Jayson

[Jayson]

Got some 32mm mdf for the base and 16mm for the spoil board . Got the base screwed down and even managed to cut out a little project. I think the results are good and I am happy with the over all performance of the MM.

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I believe that I may need to upgrade to belt reduction as I am not totally happy with the finish. Don't get me wrong, the results I am obtaining with direct drive are more than acceptable for a wood working machine, I would however like a slightly better finish

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These marks are fairly fine and could easily be removed with very little effort with some fine sandpaper and for a lot of projects these would not be of any great consequence.

The 3:1 belt drive might just be the solution. I will keep you all informed on how I get on.

Jayson.

[Gerald D]

Jayson, what you are seeing is typical for direct-driven pinions, and I fully agree with your comments. Nice project!

[jvfc]

great bee, but the big wings is inverted.
hugs

[Fastrotor]

I have been looking into doing a cnc router for years. I've lost count the number of times i have searched the net looking for plans/info etc. They all left me wanting....

Finally Mechmate has me exited. Sorry, this is my first post on this site.

I just wanted to add that i am in the lucky position to have my work depo located about all of 100meters from a laser cutter. They also have a water jet, plasma, and one jinormous cnc router table.... its a monster. Also they do full bending as well.... how lucky am i !
I put work thru them for my job already, so i know the guys and they will give me trade price on stuff i do personally.

Thanks Gerald for the dxf files, that is amazing.

Sorry to post my first post in your thread Jayson, however being a fellow aussie, and after just reading your thread, i couldn't resist.

Would you mind if i contact you now and again if i need a hand finding out where you sourced your parts in Oz ?

Gary
Townsville
North Queensland !

[Jayson]

Hi Gary,

Good to here that there is going to be another build here in Australia.

Feel free to ask any questions you like, thats what we are all here for.

How are you going with the rain up there? It seems stupid that 1/4 of the country is under water and the other 1/4 is burning.

Regards,

Jayson.

[sailfl]

Jayson,

I see that you live about 250 Km from Melbourne. How far are you away from the fires?

Are you concerned that they will head your way?

With Hurricanes you know they are going but fire moves so quick and you don't get much warning. I am sorry your country is suffering from the fires.

[Gerald D]

Fires move a lot slower than hurricanes. I reckon a wild bushfire moves about 30km [20 miles] per day max.

[Jayson]

Hi Nils,

One of the fires started about 5km away from where I live. The one here was minor compared to the rest of the state. There were 8 homes lost but no one died.
This is a link to a friends facebook page that shows some of the photos he has taken of the incident here. He works part time for a TV station so manages to get some access to places others don't get to at times.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=59128&id=564905052

Horsham used to have one of the best golf courses in Australia, but it looks a little secondhand now.

The concern about the fires was not all that high when it was happening, its only afterwards when you see how bad it could have been that it finally begins to sink in as to what could have happened.

The fire did move very quickly here but I could not say exactly how fast. The wind speed at the time was about 40km/hr but at the fire front it was somewhat faster I believe. The high winds meant that spot fires would start in front of the main fire, sometimes at least a kilometer away.

There are still fires going in the rest of the state and so far at least 2 towns have been totally destroyed and the death toll is about 172 at the moment but that is expected to rise as the authorities are able to get into some of the more remote areas.

That’s enough of that, this is a happy place to be with lots of friends. I do appreciate the concern though.

Thank you.

Jayson.

[Jayson]

Gerald,

I just read Yuri's thread...

I am stunned that you want us to crash our machines :eek:

I will slow mine down right away soon (with a belt reduction), I am (reasonably) sure the design will handle it but I am not willing to test it. It made a huge loud bang when I crashed it at 5 meters a minute :rolleyes: ...don't ask...

I have a problem with the way the rest of the world looks to blame people when things go wrong. If my machine comes off the rails and I get injured, then it is my fault, no one else’s. However if it hurts someone else then it is still my fault and this is not so good.

Your concern is justified, we must all remember that the gantry has a great deal of inertia and we should do all that is necessary to prevent someone getting injured.


Regards,

Jayson.

[Gerald D]

Had to highlight that those high speeds are impressive, but potentially nasty. Glad to hear that you take responsibility for your own actions, but I will still be sad to hear that you got trapped under a fallen gantry and the router/spindle had slowly emasculated you :eek:

[Fastrotor]

Hi Gary,

Good to here that there is going to be another build here in Australia.

Feel free to ask any questions you like, thats what we are all here for.

How are you going with the rain up there? It seems stupid that 1/4 of the country is under water and the other 1/4 is burning.

Regards,

Jayson.

Thanks Jayson, i will give you a buzz when the time comes. Nothing like getting some info where to get things locally. Im an electronics tech so the wiring and that side won't be a prob, might even build my own motor drives to save dosh.

Yeah, the Floods.... its so weird (and tragic) to read about the fires down south. We are alright in Townsville where i live doesn't flood, although alot of other suburbs have. Ingham is the worst hit (100km's north). I was working in cairns a week ago, and on way home on friday, got stuck on road for 2 days ! Not fun. Anyway, better get back to the topic. (not sure how strick this forum is just yet !)

Thanks for the reply, and mostly for posting up your pics. Its amazing how much easier it is to see a part in a real photo over a 2d drawing........

Gary

[sailfl]

Jayson,

Thanks for taking the time to explain about the fires.

Gerald, it is true that hurricanes move faster but you get a whole lot more notice about them coming some times a week. But a fire can look like it is going to miss you and within the next hour be on top of you. I have no experience with fires but what I have seen on the news and the experiences of California and local fires in Florida.

With regards to speed and some one getting hurt. I consider myself a nubie when it comes to my machine. I have seen how quickly things can get out of hand. I fortunately have not done any major damage. I have not broken any bits but I have had to realign the Z and Router because I drove the bit into some wood or the router into the table surface. I can see the importance of having a number of E-Stops located in easy reach. I hope I never see the gantry coming flying at me.

It is good that Gerald reminds us of the potential danger. Every tool has to be treated with respect and understand its limits.

[Jayson]

You bet these speeds are impressive.
Nasty if things go wrong, definately.
When I crashed at 5 m/min scary came to mind as it had been traveling at 27 m/min moments before. My heart took a little while to beat again and the ringing in my ears lasted even longer ;) Please take note everyone, it is cool to have a machine going this fast but things can go wrong really quickly.

:eek: I just looked up the definition of "emasculated"
Gerald, I can tell you that is not going to happed and I can't believe you want it to happen slowly... :eek: :rolleyes: :)

Jayson

[Jayson]

I haven't posted in a while so I thought I had better give an update.
I have not made anything spectacular just cut out a few MDF letters for a friends kids. Something for them to paint and put on the wall no pictures but you get the idea.

Now on to something I do have pictures for :)

I have started working on the belt reductions. They are based on the ones that J.R. made, thanks for sharing... I ordered the pulleys and belts from a local supplier who got them in promptly for me. Unfortunately they did not get exactly what I wanted and instead of a 3:1 reduction I ended up with what would have been 2.9333333333333333333333333333333:1. This was not going to be acceptable as far as I was concerned, so they returned the 44 tooth pulleys and got me some 48 tooth. This results in a ratio of 3.2:1. There was not as much room with the original belt as I had hoped but at least it should still work.

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Due to the belt and pulleys not being exactly the same as J.R. used I had to change the design slightly.

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The plates machined well and I managed to press the bearings in without much hastle. (made on my CNC mill)

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My motors have 14mm shafts, but the only bearings I could get quickly and cheaply have 1/2 inch bores. This meant that I needed to make shafts with a small step in them, not a big deal to do just a little more time.

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I also make a few spacers for the bolts between the plates

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I was a little concerned as to how I was going to bore the small pulleys but I came up with a plan. I bored a piece of aluminium the same size as part of the pulley and then used loctite to "glue" the pulley into this while it was still in the lathe. I then drilled and bored the pulley. This kept it as close to centered as I could get it. I was very happy with the way this worked, and none on them slipped.

3967 3968

That’s about it for now. Hopefully I will get the pulleys drilled and tapped over the next few days so I can test them out.
There will be no working on the machine on Saturday though as I am off to an Air show with a friend but I am sure to be eager to get it finished once I get back.

http://www.airshow.net.au/avalon2009/index.html

[J.R. Hatcher]

Jayson the parts look very good. How long did it take to do the plates on the cnc mill?

[Jayson]

Hi J.R.,

The plates were machined very conservatively as I have enough broken end mills in my collection already :rolleyes:

Each plate took aroung 35 minutes. Slow I know but it got the job done.

Hopefully I will get them finished on Sunday and have another run soon after.

Jayson

[Jayson]

Sorry all for not posting on the weekend, I was just too excited about getting the gearboxes finished. They went together perfectly and have made a difference of course. My maximum speed has been reduced from 27 meters per minute down to 15 meters per minute. I am still happy with 15m/min rapids, the table is not all that big so it gets from one end to the other quickly. The added safety of the slower speeds is also a bonus ;)
Some pictures...

4019 4020
One X axis gearbox and the y installed

I got a delivery of some 6mm acrylic sheet during the week that I had hoped to make an edge lit sign with. The sign is 230mm high by 530 long and is to go over a friends BBQ area. I was not sure how it would go so I was conservative with my machining feeds and speeds. The finished depth was 4.5mm and this was done in 4 passes at 1900mm/min using a 12mm 45 degree V cutter. It took around 45 minutes to machine. If I was to do it again it would probably be in 2 passes at the same speed.

4021

The picture does not do the finished product any justice, it does look fairly good even if it’s me that says so :)

4022

Here is a close-up of one of the letters just so you can see how badly the machine does curves...

I still need to mount some LEDs and a way to hang the sign but so far so good.

That’s it for now, off to dream up another small project before I start the next big one.

[jeffa]

Jayson,

I assume you're being sarcastic about "how badly the machine does curves". This looks really good. Congratulations!

Jeff

[Jayson]

Hi Jeff,

Yep I was being sarcastic. I feel very happy with the cut quality.

Regards,

Jayson.

P.S.
4051
Sign Finished.

[gmessler]

Looks great Jayson.:)

How did you end up lighting the sign?

[Jayson]

Hi Greg M,

Thanks for the comment.

I lit the sign with a string of 30 surface mount led's with adhesive tape on the back. Probably too many LED's but it was easy and it worked.

Jayson.

[Gerald D]

Smart work Jayson!

Where are the other Aussie CNC router blokes these days? Probably out practicing their rugby so that they can thrash us again!

[Jayson]

Thanks Gerald,

there are other Aussies lurking here, I have been answering a few PM's and phone calls filling them all in on what a great design you have provided. There will be others built here soon I'm sure.

Jayson.

[Greolt]

Probably out practicing their rugby so that they can thrash us again!


Yeah, just lets not talk about the cricket right now. :(

[MattyZee]

Hey Gerald, thanks for the great plans! I've been one of the ones bugging Jayson with questions. I've had a homemachine i was going to upgrade to improve it but i've since decided to go with the MechMate.
It looks like Jayson has done a great job with his build and i'm lucky enough to be able to use the same laser cutters/benders as Jayson as they are 10mins down the road (Jayson is about 5 hours away).

Funny you should post here Greg as your machine is what inspired me to mod mine to a Rack and Pinion drive but i like the idea of a large cutting area.

I'm still going through making sure i understand everything before i dive in. I have a couple weeks of leave from from work begininnig Easter weekend and hope be able to really getting cracking then. Will keep you all posted.

hardest part was convincing the wife....

[Besser]

Jayson,

Gerald has mentioned elsewhere making the carriage transom represent the longest axis to later accommodate transfer to a larger table.

After building #18, is there anything you would do differently?

[Jayson]

Hi Besser,

There is not anything that springs to mind that I would do differently. The design is extreamly well thought out and if the plans are followed you will not have any trouble with the build.

[stingry]

Smart work Jayson!

Where are the other Aussie CNC router blokes these days? Probably out practicing their rugby so that they can thrash us again!

Still lurking until I get room in my garage to start my MM! My son has a Mini in the way right now. I am educating myself first on CNC before I start.

Jayson - good work. I know it is achievable in OZ now.

Pete D

[Jayson]

A brief update on what’s been happening here.
I spent some time fabricating a pen holder so that I could draw some cross's in the corners of the machine, the purpose being to square it all up. I could have just followed Gerald’s squaring directions but where would be the fun in that :). After a few hours of fabricating and cross drawing the machine is now .5 mm out of square (it was 5mm out to start with :o ) I will spend some more time on this soon to get it better I just cant live with it the way it is :rolleyes: .

Oh and the postman delivered this last week...

4365

The spending never stops. I have hooked it all up temporarily to test it works and also to do initial setup. As others have found it is important to set the motor parameters into the VFD before trying to make the spindle turn. Failing to do this may result in damage to the spindle and/or VFD.
Some may notice the white tape on the collet nut. This is a target for my optical tacho so that I can confirm the VFD if displaying the correct RPM. An interesting observation for those of you without a tacho. Here in Australia our mains power is 240 volts at 50 Hz (it's the 50 Hz that's important). Fluorescent lighting "flickers" at a rate of 50Hz here so if you have a target stuck onto the nut it will appear stationary at 50Hz or 3000 rpm and at multiples of 50 so 100 Hz is 6000rpm with the same result (100Hz x 60 seconds = 6000 RPM). Just some more useless information. This little fact also means that to use my optical tacho I need to turn off the shed lights and turn on a torch otherwise the tacho just reads 3000 rpm no matter where you point it. I am surprised that in the dark the VFD didn't end up in the bucket of water on the floor under it. I guess you have to be lucky some times.
I have to order some aluminium during the week to make the mounting brackets so at present I have only been doing bench testing. I may have to look at getting a different pump as it does not seem capable enough. It is rated at 12 litres per minute but once restricted to the smaller size tubing (only restricted once it gets to the spindle) it is only passing 250 to 300 ml/min. This still seems to be plenty for testing and very well may be enough when running but I would like to get another 100 to 200 ml/min just to be sure. All the same I will monitor the temperature of the water and the flow just to make sure things don't get out of hand.

I have noted that it looks like there have been some markings removed from the spindle, and I'm not sure why

4366

Can anyone confirm what is usually marked on the third line, is it anything important?
For those that have more knowledge on water cooled spindles than I what do you use to cool them (apart from water :rolleyes:) Do I use automotive coolant or is there something else I should be trying to procure?

That’s it...

'till next time.

Jayson.

[jhiggins7]

Jayson,

That spindle looks great, and already running.:) Was the VFD RPM accurate?

Best of luck with your spindle set-up...already looking forward to more updates when you get it hooked up.:D

Regards,
John

[Jayson]

Hi John,

The RPM is accurate now that I have set the parameters correctly. ;)

Yep, there should be more updates soon. I can't wait to get it cutting.

Jayson.

[javeria]

HI Jayson - for the benefit of others can you list out the parameters which you set on this VFD -

one basic doubt - don't laugh at me :D - when you were setting up the VFD was it connected to the spindle? I mean when you powered it up.

RGDS
IRfan

[Jayson]

Hi IRfan,

Yes the spindle was connected when I was setting up the VFD. I was unsure if the VFD would be damaged if I accidentily started it without a load connected.


All settings are default except for:-

PD003 Main Frequency 25.0
PD004 Base Frequency 400.0
PD005 Max Operating Frequency 400.0
PD023 Rev. Rotation Select 0
PD141 Rated Motor Voltage 220
PD142 Rated Motor Current 7.5
PD144 Rated Motor Revolution 3000

I don't think I have missed any. These are just initial settings and I am sure there will be changes once I get the spindle mounted but for now they are working. I have PD003 set at 25 so that when I press start the spindle runs at 1500 rpm just to prevent running it full speed until I get it mounted and also to prevent bearing damage. I have PD023 set to 0 as I do not require the spindle to run in reverse as my cutters do not work very well turning backwards.

I hope this helps someone.

Regards,

Jayson.

[Gerald D]

I would like to copy the last few posts over to a thread for setting up spindles, but I need the name of the VFD for the title please?

[Jayson]

You certainly may have the name of the VFD.
It is a Huanyang HY02D223B.
Purchased from ebay and shipped from China.

Only time will tell if it was a worthwhile purchase.

[Jayson]

Got some more done today. Got the spindle mounted, the water lines ran and the pumps sorted out. Yes pumps (more than one)

I forgot to take photos of the mount while I was making it. :(
I will have to apply some paint to it in the near future so I will take the photos then.

My initial tests showed that my pump was going to be ok but this did not take into account the 10 odd meters of 12mm pipe that it had to pump through. The pump was not capable of doing the job. I ended up with about 100 ml/min. Just not good enough. I did a little reading and discovered that the centrifugal pumps that I have can be connected in parallel to increase flow rate or series to increase head pressure. The pumps specs stated that it would pump about 10 liters a minute so I did not need to increase flow rate. I opted to connect them in series to increase head pressure.

http://www.tpub.com/content/doe/h1012v3/css/h1012v3_76.htm

4410 4411

Initially the series connection made a small difference but it was still only around 300 ml/min. I left the pumps to run for a while as I noted there was a lot of bubbles in the lines and I knew this would affect the flow rates. After about half an hour most of the bubbles were out of the system. This increased the flow rate to 800 ml/min which I am a lot happier with and I was supprised at how restrictive the bubbles were. The system contains about 15 ish liters of coolant and some anti corrosive agent. I am unsure of the construction of the inside of the spindle so I put in the additive just to be safe.

4412 4413

I cobbled together a flow switch from some rescued parts I had laying around. It’s not the best looking thing in the world but I think it will do the job until I find a reasonable priced flow sensor. The water enters in the top and fills the U section of pipe causing the float switch to activate. When the pump is turned off or stops, the water drains out the small hole in the bottom of the U and the switch deactivates. It takes about 10 seconds to change states which should be OK I think. I am happy so far with the way this is all working. I just need to make a new dust foot and I'm back in action.

Jayson.

[javeria]

Hi Jayson - jsut about the right time - My submersible pump (single ) facing similar problem -

tell me one thing what happenns when you stop them for a while and then restart them - the same story of slow start till the bubbles are out continues ?

ok also where are you planning to connect the flow switch - to the e-stop or just to a high pitched buzzer?

were the pumps supplied to you by the spindle supplier? how much did it cost u

RGDS
Irfan

[Jayson]

Hi Irfan,

when I leave the pumps off for an extended preiod the fluid runs back down the return line until it is below the level of the coolant in the reservoir which is only about 12 inchs. There is no way for any other bubbles to get into the system unless I have an leak in the system. When the pumps are turned back on this small amount of air is pushed out within seconds.
I plan on connecting the flow switch to an input in EMC2 so that it shuts down the spindle, stops motion and also trips the E stop of both the VFD and the machine. Hopefully this will be enough.
The pumps I am using are Iwaki MD10's that I removed from some used equipment at work. From what I have heard they cost a fair amount so I am glad I had them on hand already.

Regards,

Jayson.

[javeria]

Thanks Jayson - I am planning similar connections for the float switch -

think I will just get a better pump.

RGDS
IRfan

[MattyZee]

Hey Jayson, I've just bought a very similar spindle to yours off ebay (may be the same infact) I notice its advertised as a 2.2kW spindle and the markings on yours says 2200W, all good. But then it says 220V 7.5A. Which by my calcs only works out at 1.6kW? whats going on there?

[Gerald D]

Hi Matt, it is a 3-phase motor and it is using 7.5 Amps on each of the 3 phases. Not all at the same time though. See top calculator on http://www.nepsi.com/total_power_calculation.htm

[Jayson]

Hi everyone,

I have been absent from here for a while due to intesive work on the mechmate. To be specific, I have been trying to get the VFD and EMC2 to talk to each other. At first I thought that this would be relatively easy as EMC2 supports the modbus protocol and the VFD supports it as well (according the the VFD specs).

It turns out that the VFD has a communications protocol that is very similar to modbus but not the same as most other units out there. This meant that to make it work I would need to modify the software. This would have been easy if I knew what I was doing but I am not a programmer so it wasn't so easy. Like all things I don't understand, I stuffed around with it :)

After 3 weeks of intensive changing and compiling, testing, reinstalling, etc, etc, the two now communicate. To be accurate, due to the way I have "fixed" the software there is occasionally a misunderstanding between the two and a communications error is created. This does not have any adverse effects on the system and I just ignore the error. I might have to learn how to program so I can make this work correctly, one day.

Here is a screenshot of what I now have:-

4582

Time for some more testing. I will report back soon.

Jayson.

[Gerald D]

Very interesting! Especially the fact that you have the feedback of things like the Amps displayed on your screen.

[Basilica]

Hi Jayson,

Nice work, did you keep a track of the costs involved in the project?
I am also contemplating a similar size to yours and as a fellow aussie i am keen to know the local prices.

Cheers,
Basil

[Jayson]

Hi Basil,

Roughly AU$4700 to date. Cheap at half the price :)

Jayson.

[Basilica]

Hi Basil,

Roughly AU$4700 to date. Cheap at half the price :)

Jayson.

Thanks for that Jayson,

Concerning getting your VFD and EMC2 to talk to each other.
I can program software and have experience with EMC.
Can i assist you?

Cheers
Basil

[Jayson]

Thanks for the offer Basil. A week ago I would have given you the job, but I think I have it sorted out. I would not want anyone that knows how to program to see what a mess I made of things to get the results I wanted though... ;)

Jayson.

[Basilica]

Glad you got it sorted.
Most clients of programmers never see the source code either.
So they don't see what a mess we made of things to get the results they wanted. :)
But do not tell anyone.

[Jayson]

Hi All,

Time to drop in again with some more pics.

My Grandma asked if I could cut out a few tree shapes for her so she can paint them and turn them into fridge magnets. I told her that I would see what I could do.

4810

It took just under a minute to do each one. She only wanted four or five but since they were so quick and easy to make, I made a few extras. It is 3mm MDF and was cut with a 3mm router bit.

Today I cut some signs from treated pine. An acquaintance has a commercial machine but was unable to do these due to time restrictions and also due to the size of one of them. The longest sign is 3 meters long and his machine only has an 8 foot bed (2.4 meters) so it was going to be difficult for him to cut anyway. I'm fairly certain that I didn't mention that my machine is home made, cost heaps less than his, but can do more... Well maybe once I did :)

4811

I think I'm getting the hang of all of this.

Regards,

Jayson.

[LIBBIT]

Hi Jayson,

Could u pls tell what software you r using (the screen shot)?

Regards

John

[sailfl]

John,

Look back over the thread. He is using EMC2.

[MattyZee]

Jayson, those signs look great.

So how is the spindle working out? Have you got a reactor installed? Any intereference issues?

Also, what is the rating of the outlet you use to power the spindle? I'm thinking I need to get a 20A outlet installed?

Do you have the spindle power going through the same contactor as your stepper motor power supply?

[Jayson]

Hi Matt,

the spindle is working out great. I'm very glad I got it.
I do not have any reactors installed. There is a little interference coming from the installation but this has not affected the machine only my shed radio.
I am using a standard 240volt 10 amp outlet and not having any problems. The VFD does not get powered off when the Estop is pressed. Instead there is a signal which goes into the external e stop terminal of the VFD which makes the spindle stop very quickly. If you just cut power the spindle has to coast to a stop. If I have an emergency then I need the spindle to stop right away, otherwise it would not be an emergency ;)

Hope this helps,

Jayson.

[shaper]

Jayson/Matt

If you went for a contactor with 1N/O and 1 N/C auxillary contact the same thing could be achieved by running the e stop signal through the normally closed auxillary when you hit the e-stop on the steppers the contactor drops out and the signal line to the VFD closes, would this work:confused:

[javeria]

Jayson - if you are stopping the spindle right away then you may want to put on the braking resistor on the VFD.

[MattyZee]

Did you ever get around to painting your Spindle mount? you promised more pics of it ;)

[Jayson]

mmm shamed into work again :rolleyes:

Here are the pictures you requested... (hot of the camera as I've only just finished them)

5066 5067 5068 5069

5070

I countersunk the attachment screws and also cut a groove into the front side of the mount so that everything alligned correctly.

I also made another small sign for my sister.

5071

I hope the original designer doesn't see this and get upset about it.

This one is 220 x 300mm V cut into the back of 3mm acrylic 1.5mm deep.

I still have trouble setting the machine going and leaving it to do its thing. When watching it I go into a trance and stand there for the whole job.

Jayson

[J.R. Hatcher]

"I still have trouble setting the machine going and leaving it to do its thing. When watching it I go into a trance and stand there for the whole job".

Jason have you spoken to a doctor about this, it doesn't sound toooo serious in fact it sounds very familiar. If he is able to prescribe a pill why don't you get several extra bags to distribute here on the forum. I know I will take a bag.

That some good looking work!

[Jayson]

Thanks JR,

I am booked in to see the doctor on Monday, I hope he can help as I seem to loose many hours over the weekend as well. Hopefully he can help me find these also. I will start sending out the pills as soon as I get them ;)

I sure am enjoying this machine...

Jayson.

[domino11]

Jayson,
Even in a trance, you sound happier than a bird with a french fry! :)

[Besser]

Hey Jayson and MechMaties,

To get a nice finish on outdoor signs, try painting the board before machining. Once painted cover with lowtack film (sometimes called frisk, like the stuff you cover books with) then machine, then paint the recess with paint and peel off the film. Easy eye popping finish!

Have fun...

[MattyZee]

hey Jayson, I just went back to look at your belt reduction drive and i think my pulleys are the same size as yours, and you also have 14mm dia motor shafts. You have a 15T small pulley right? did you have enough wall left on them after you bored them out to 14mm? My pulleys only have 16mm dia hub. I think i have the to scrap my 15T and go up a few sizes. but then i'll have an odd ratio :(

[Gerald D]

Can you press a steel ring over to improve the collar strength?

[Jayson]

Hi Besser,

thanks for the advice on painting the signs. I will keep this in mind for future referance.

Hi MattyZee,

Yep, my small pulleys are 15 tooth. As Gerald suggested you can put a ring on the outside of the pulley if there is room. Look at post #60 in my thread (http://www.mechmate.com/forums/showthread.php?p=22866&postcount=60) and you will see this is exactly what I did. I used aluminium instead of steel, so far this has not proven to be an issue. Aside from giving more room for the grubscrew, it also allowed me to get the pulley centered in the lathe more easily.

Regards,

Jayson.

[Besser]

Jayson,

What is the depth of Cut (also bit diameter) you get on aluminum? I have been wondering what is possible with a T6 or T7 grade? Do you run Air cooling on the bits?

[Dale Murray]

G'Day Jayson,
My name is Dale Murray. I'm an Aussie working in Afghanistan at the moment. I will be back in the USA at the end of the year and plan to start buying the parts I need to build a Mechmate. But for now I will be buying all the parts that I can from the USA (hopefully cheaply) before I come home in 2011.
As you have the first operational MechMate in Oz I thought I would ask your advice about what you parts you could buy in Australia and what you had to buy from the USA or overseas. I realise that you already had the Steppers and drivers from your "Photographic equipment" spares.
I was also considering asking Gerald if we could start a Australian thread where we could get together and pool our information about the best place to get the hard to find parts (without giving Quoted prices of course). I have noted that there is about 20 Australians that actively contribute to the Mechmate forum.
The main reason that I would like to set up an Australian thread is that I have already spent many hours trying to find certain parts on the internet both in Australia and the USA to compare prices and figure out what you can buy in Australia and what I can’t. Besides I like to buy the very best that I can afford but hate finding it cheaper a week later at another site.
Oh and very well done on the first Mechmate in Oz. You have inspired me to get a Mechmate number of my own.

Cheers Dale

[jvfc]

Hello, Jayson.
What the assessment which you have about VDF and water colled spindle, works fine?
hugs

[AuS MaDDoG]

Hi Jayson,

Great build, very interesting reading your whole thread. Looking to venture into a build myself at some stage, just starting to do all my homework, so we shall see how we go.

Cheers
Tony.

[Jayson]

Hi All,

I have been absent for a while due to lack of internet. Sorry to anyone waiting for answers...

Besser, the aluminium pieces that I have posted pictures of previously were cut on my CNC milling machine. For the mill I use cutting fluid and I think the bit was 6mm diameter. More on cutting aluminium on the Mechmate soon...

Dale, I am glad that I have inspired you to take the plunge. Most of my parts were sourced locally, the only imported components were the spindle and VFD. Having said that, the price of the rack in Australia was by far the most surprising part of the whole exercise. If you can get the rack shipped to Australia economically I would suggest you do, unless things have changed a lot since I purchased mine. Other Australians currently building will be able to guide you on the current rack pricing here. If you don't want to make the V rollers yourself then I suggest you get these as well. I found the rollers to be around AU$75 each, a little too steep for me so I made mine.

Vladimir, I am very pleased with the spindle and the VFD. I do not have any complaints at all about them.

Tony, glad to see another Aussie. If you look carefully at some of the pictures on my thread as well as those of others it should help prevent making some of the mistakes that I and others have already. I look forward to reading your thread.

OK, housework out of the way here are a few more pics..

I was asked by a friend to see if I could cut some 0.063 inch T2024-T3 aluminium on the Mechmate. Always up for a challenge I gave it a try. I can not pertain to being an expert on cutting aluminium but so far my settings have worked. I used a feedrate of 1000mm/min spindle speed of 20,000rpm and a cut depth of 0.5mm per pass. These figures were/are very conservative but until I learn how hard I can push things they will do.

5259 5260 5261

I was pleasantly surprised at the finished quality of the first panel. So were some other that saw it and within 2 days I was asked to make the other 2 panels. The pictures do not do them justice but the finish is very good. The aluminium has a protective plastic coating on it which tears a little when machining, giving the rough looking appearance. This is just the plastic not the aluminium. It looks like my machine is capable of cutting aluminium, that’s lucky since that’s what I wanted it to do.

5262

I also tried see if I could do some small text on the Mechmate. It worked out fairly well. Next time I will try to go a little smaller.

Till next time,

Jayson.

[Gerald D]

Nice to see Jayson posting again - always some surprises :)

[Doug_Ford]

Cool. Your friend must be constructing an airplane. I'm interested in doing that someday so this info is fascinating. Thanks for posting.

[Jayson]

Been doing some more signs. this time a little of redgum routing.

The first was the Pups bar sign, the letters are 120 mm high complete sign is 1200mm x 190mm.

5647

The disabled toilets sign was a few days later. The letters are 40mm high and complete sign is 330mm x 82mm.

5646

I was impressed by the overall results. Will do more red gum in the future.

5648

Gerald once a build is complete would you rather these type of posts be placed directly into the Showroom thread to save you having to copy them there and also save a little room?

Thanks,

Jayson

[Gerald D]

Jayson, the choice is yours on where to place the posts. It is a bit less work if you place them direct to the Showroom, but if you want to have a collection of work in your own thread then you need to place them here.

[MattyZee]

You seem to have a couple of friends with bars, i hope they shout you a few drinks after you make them signs like that. they look great.
Iit might be nice if you could give a brief description of cutter type(s), feedrate, depth per pass, total time cutting etc. (if you don't mind sharing those details)

[Besser]

Jayson, I love the redgum! it's such a dense wood and the finish you achieved is really clean considering the transitions you made across the grain. (Maybe some gold inlay would make it POP!

Your getting into the signs, are there any tips for the group?

[Jayson]

Just a little update...

Machined some thin aluminium. It was not the best to machine but the mechmate did ok.

6270 6271 6272

Just some parts for another project. I'm glad I made the machine large enough to make these parts ;)

Jayson.

[sailfl]

Jayson,

That looks like a gatling gun or a ray gun.

[myozman]

Nils,
You beat me to it. I was thinking gatlin gun or HHO generator.

[domino11]

Nice looking discs! Did you have any problems holding down the small pieces as they were cut free? 1/16" endmill? Nice work. :)

[kooskoek]

Interesting

[Jayson]

It will be a little minigun when its completed.

Heath, I drilled the holes first then placed a screw in the centre hole to hold it down. I ran around the outside with a 3mm spiral carbide cutter.

Jayson.

[sailfl]

Jayson,

What is it going to shoot, BBs?

[Jayson]

Hi Nils,

No, it is just for show. Making things like this work in Australia ends with the Police taking away your guns and license and never being allowed to own a gun again. Even though I would like the challenge of seeing if I could make it work, it's not worth the risk.

Jayson.

[Jayson]

Hi All,

I haven't posted for a while but still pop in now and again to see what you are all up to. I must say that the quality of the work being done and the support given by forum users has not changed, it is still first class. Its good to see some more Australians here taking on the challenge.

I thought I would give a very brief update on a few of the things I have been doing.

I was asked a little while ago if I could cut some letters out of 3mm MDF to be threaded onto string and hung up. This was a simple job but something the Mechmate was happy to do it. I first drilled the 2mm holes and then cut the profiles. After drilling the holes I had a complete sheet of MDF that would be wasted if I messed up the tool change but luckily all went without incident. The letters were 85mm high and there was around 300 of them so it took up a complete sheet. I didn't hold the individual parts down, I just relied on a very light final cut to keep the letters in place. This worked fairly well and I only needed to redo about 10. I didn't take any photos of the letters so you will have to be content with the leftover waste.

9166

I have also been loitering on another site and found plans for a Velociraptor. Now whoever drew this thing up must have liked big projects as most of the plans you download are for 3mm material whereas this one was for 10. I didn't have any 10mm MDF so I had to enlarge it a little to fit the 12mm that I had. Strangely enough when scaled to this size and nested correctly it takes up a complete 1200 x 2400mm sheet.

9165

And from one extreme to the next. As stared previously, I have made a few things for peoples aircraft and I was asked if I could make a panel to replace one that was now outdated. The panel is make with perspex and is 165mm long and 26mm high. As always the first thing I did was try to make it on the Mechmate. Now I do have other machines that I have built that would have been capable of doing this for me but I was sure that the big blue machine would be good enough. I was not disappointed. The first photo shows the original panel at the top and the new one I made underneath. The photo is not the best but it shows the results. The perspex was painted black and then engraved with a V cutter through the paint. I decided to see what it would look like if I mirrored the cad drawing and viewed the perspex from the back, the results are in the second photo. I must say that in person the actual panels look much better that the photos. Just for referance the text on these is 2.5 mm high. Once again 2 thumbs up to this wonderful machine and its creator.

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Lastly I had a little incident with my spindle coolant. The float switch stuck on but there was no coolant flowing (maybe someone accidentally turned it off :o). There was no damage done as I realised what had happened within a few moments but it could have been bad so I installed a flow rate sensor the same as Skippy (Paul) as purchased. It took an amount of head scratching and time but I finally got it into EMC2 and it works great. The reading only updates once every 4 seconds but this is often enough as if the coolant flow reduces below 600mL/Min the spindle will stop in less than 5 seconds. It usually sits at around 720mL/Min.

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Thats it for now. I look forward to reading the progress of others.

Regards,

Jayson.

[AuS MaDDoG]

Nice work Jayson!!
I love it!!

Cheers
Tony.

[Seriogal]

Hello Jayson,

I'm sorry in advance, if my question is incorrect :). Could you please explaind a bit deeper how to connect LinuxCNC to Huanyang VFD via ModBus and give a link to flow sensor and explain a bit it's connection to the software. Thanks a lot! I'm complete newbie in CNC world.

Regards, Sergejus.