One year later - a report back #29 - Manitoba Canada

[astrolavista]

Laser cut parts ordered
V-rollers and bearings ordered
Steel order coming today...

Excitement building..

[sailfl]

Rene,

Way to go! Good luck with your build. It is exciting to get started.

[Robert M]

Whishing you all the best...Way the go :D
Robert ;)

[Rad Racer]

Remember to take lots of pictures.

good luck with the build,
Wayne

[astrolavista]

Finally got my steel order friday and started cutting drilling and tapping..
Had a standing table by sunday night, I have the cross braces and diagonals yet to cut and weld in, a bit of finish welding to do.

This thing is going to be a monster, gonna chew up a fair bit of my garage space ... go big or go home..

You guys said you wanted pictures so here is my first try at posting..

[Gerald D]

Good pictures!

[astrolavista]

Been busy, not much time to post my progress.

I've completed my table and got it's first coat of paint on it, man was my finger sore after 12 spray bombs.. I finally went out and got one of those newfangled spray bomb handles for the next round.

Got my X & Y Rails done, ran into a little snag with the Y rails but reading in the forum - I found the solution. One rail was .5mm taller than the other, so before I ground the V detail I used a thick grinding wheel to remove the extra .5mm.

THe skate worked awesome, one thing though, I had not even though of - "Its designed for 4.5" grinding disks" I had a stack of 5" disks that I thought I could use, but when grinding the v detail the 5" disk hit the "top of the bottom" of the angle iron before the skate's adjustment bolts hit the rail. I ran out and got the proper disks and it worked like a charm.

I was waiting for the old Bosch to go up in smoke after so much cutting and grinding, but it hung in there. I've had it for about 20 years its cut ceramic tile, biscuit slots, 2 hot rod frame builds. Like a Timex.. What a mess in the garage though, best to do the rail grinding process out side - the weather here did not co-operate though - too cold.

I got thegantry welded up last night, couldn't help myself put some wheels on it and took it for a spin I even bolted up the X steppersto see how they fit.

I have to say the instructions in the plans and the additional photos in the forum were top knotch, thanks again "G" and other "posters" the process went smooth. Once I had it level and square on an old flat soild door I keep for projects, welded it up and voila all 4 wheels sit really nice on the rails.

I did notice however that I could "hear" the wheels on the rails, Ifigured that the ground V surface was a little rough so I gave the V profile on the rails a light sanding with some 100 grit sandpaper to polish them up a little and it rolled alot smoother.

Thats my story so far, I gotta go out and shovel a foot of snow we got today, then maybe go out and tinker in the shop. Gotta get lots done this weekend - nex week I'm off to Texas fro a Nascar Race.. Yee ha..

[Kobus_Joubert]

Nice going Rene, I like your SPRAY BOOTH...I did it outside and my wife complained about the BLUE flowers..:)

My Bosch grinder look just like that....I killed 2 cheap types....gave them back to where I bought it so it did not cost me a cent. I wanted to SPARE my Bosch but in the end finishing my rails with the Bosch...GREAT MACHINE

[astrolavista]

HI Guys

Here's some pictures of the finished product.. Missing my logos, they are ready I just have to go get them. I've been busy building and learning how to control this beast.. My last one was much smaller and alot slower.. (btw, its for sale) I Have couple of little things left to do - clean up router control wires (hanging out the bottom of the control box & add a air filter to the control box)

Pictures are Old cnc machining Router Mount, Mechmate, Mach3 Screen I designed for guys with bifocals, Mechmate's roomate....


Thanks again to Gerald for the great plans, Heath for the perfect parts and all the regular posters on this forum - parsing through forum really helped the build..

I Have a couple of videos to show off..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYz_WAxmA6c
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BlcbTNdODUI&feature=channel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WgiD52ccceQ

[domino11]

Rene,
Looks really good. You have been real busy from the looks of the pictures. :)

[Gerald D]

Brilliant attention to detail and there is a lot of innovation in there, well done!

[isladelobos]

Perfect Rene.

I need info from your Toroidal transformer and your laser center point.
It is possible? Thanks.

[astrolavista]

HI Ros..

My Toroidal transformer is part of the Antek PS-8N50R12 I just took it out of the Aluminium case it was in.. I didn't like the look in the control box so I mounted it to the backer plate.
The Laser Crosshairs - I found them on ebay 3-5volt, I have a little box mounted on the Z plate with a switch and a couple of batteries. I could power it from Mach3/control control box but I am out of conductors.. To use it with mach 3 I used Greolt's programming - http://www.mechmate.com/forums/showthread.php?t=596

[domino11]

Rene,
I noticed the additional bracing on the back of your spider plate, what was your need for the bracing?

[astrolavista]

Heath
When I dropped my spider plate into the y car the first time I had about .062" play side to side, which was acceptable - left some room for adjustment to plumb the z axis side to side.
I bolted it up (without spacers to make up the difference ) the first time, and noticed that it flexed. So I decided to add some .375"rod to the back of the spider plate while I had it un painted.. One of those might as well do it now things. I'm not sure where I saw it in the forum, but there was a discussion on firming up the spider plate..

[Doug_Ford]

Beautiful work. The machines on this forum keep getting better looking and better looking.

[astrolavista]

Got my Vinyl letters.. Now it looks like something..

3-D Sign Hot off the press, Made out of Blue extruded foam

[Gerald D]

Rene, that's a darn fine job! Serial number coming up . . .

[sailfl]

Rene - #29

Congratulations and fine job on the sign.

[jhiggins7]

Rene,

Congratulations on Serial #29. Beautiful work...and FAST too!:):):)

The updated Builder's Log is here (http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=pLoxg8wu4WnsBc2_U5yEaQw).

Please let me know the size of your machine...for the record. Looks like the size of a sheet of MDF. Is that 97" X 49" in Canada?

Also, please review the comments in the log entry and provide any changes you'd like to make.

[smreish]

What a pretty blue MM....is it a boy or a girl? Congratulations on your accomplishment. The fun is just beginning!

Bravo.
Sean

[astrolavista]

Thanks Guys,

John, My final size is 102 X 52

Sean, It's a boy of course..

[Rad Racer]

Rene, Congratulations on #29, you have built a sweet looking machine.

Great sign, love the design. What type of paint did you use on the foam?

[Doug_Ford]

Holy smokes Rene. Beautiful design work.

[astrolavista]

Wayne,

I just used what I had in the cupboard.. I used some Kilz primer sealer 3 coats so I could sand flaws, then I used some Painters Touch acrylic/latex (Green), the for the gold I used acrylic/latex that my sons and I bought at Micheals for anouther project, then topped it all off with a couple coats of clear.

Here's a tip - when doing a foam sign don't let anyone near it untill you have a hard coat on it.. you can see a couple of finger dents on my sign because the boys and the neighbors had to test it to see if it was actually foam..

[jhiggins7]

Thanks, Rene. Updated Builder's Log is here (http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=pLoxg8wu4WnsBc2_U5yEaQw).

[domino11]

Rene,
Congratulations! That sign look mighty fine for plain old blue foam. Good to know that the Kilz primer works ok with the foam. :)

[astrolavista]

Been busy over the last year, The Mechmate is hanging in there. Still as accurate as when I first built it.

R
http://rbdesigncnc.com

[smreish]

Rene'
Fantastic photo's of common foam cutting.
Great work as usual.

Sean

[MetalHead]

Great work with the Mechmate !!! What foam is that and what software are you using to make the slices?

[renebour]

I use Vetric Aspire, auto slices, manual paneling.

The foam is a light weight EPS Foam similar to what you would find at Home Depot, Coated with Styro Spray to give it a hard coat.

[liaoh75]

Beautiful work Astroloavista, how long does it take to paint one of those signs? Do you have any tricks for painting the raised lettering quickly?

[astrolavista]

Sorry no quick tricks, I paint them by hand and it is very time consuming..

[Trillo4]

Hello everyone, just got here and I am already impress with the results of this bill, great work. Hopefully I will be able to build one as well. Congrats once again, and now let me learn where should I start :)
Trillo