Mechmate Almost Home in Holland! #92 - Taipei Taiwan

[rischoof]

Hello, all. I spent allready some evenings on the mechmate forums and at the plans. Gerald, I saw your name very much times allready And I have much respect for the work you put in this forum!!!
Let's introduce myself. I am Rik and I live in Taipei for almost a year now.
I am a Dutch guy from the Netherlands. I speak only 2 words chinese. and thats "hello"and "thank you"
My mechanical skils are OK. but elektonic......
I want to make a "small mechmate" that means table size 125 x 65 cm. this because i don't have the place to place a full size yet. Full size means for me 125 x 245. but once I can place it.... for this reason I make the x axis 65cm and the y allready full 125 cm size. The machine has to place in the "maid room" from my house. because I am allready started I will start up a tread in the allready started tread. I have allready just fun with collecting the materials localy here.

[rischoof]

Merged the "introduction" thread to this "started" thread

I just introduced my self at the forum. but I started allready with bulding my mini mechmate.
I decided to build a 125 x 65 cm mechmate. the reason is that I can't place a full size 125x245 mechmate yet. (not in Taiwan, and not in the Netherlands)
I am a Dutch guy living for some years in Taiwan.
So I started to print out the drawings and make the decisions what i want to bild. this means a table which can be easely disassembled ,the rail made with skate. and stepper motors.
I print out the drawings, made a selection of the drawings and studied the ammount of parts I need. after this I start collecting the materials. I bought a markatec disc grinder and some cutting wheels. I shipped my emco compact 8 lath to Taiwan. All my large machines are stocked in the Netherlands and I have only my hand tools here. The old "maid"room is my place where make and place the planed mechmate.
I found a street in Taipei where I can get all the materials for the mechmate.
It's lovely steet with all kind of small shops which are specialised in a products. So you have shops who are selling only springs. (from 2 mm to 80cm)
you have shops who are selling brass. shops wiht bearings. shops with guidings, shops with gears, shops with motors. (50 % oriental motors) shops wiht materials and shops wich can machine parts. Most chops don't have more than 3 machines in it. a cutter, a lath and somethimes a steal planer.
So I think there are arround 50 shops in this only street.
Then I am walking with the drawings and my calliper in this streat , my little girl in the strawler, and buy the materials, they don't speak any word english, and I don't speak only 2 words chinese. shi shi and nihou. that means thank you and hello. 2 weaks ago I ordered the material for the table in one of these shops I had to pay 14.000 ntd thats around 420 us dollar (be aware that I only nead a small table). The shopowners knees were completely worn and I had to hold him at list 3 times to avoid falling. His wife was doing the finacials in his shop. 2 days later I could collect the materials. My car was a little bit lowered by the weight.
Then there was a shop with bending machines. there was a wife, arround 50, sitting on 30 cm material sitting behind a HUGE bending machine and I saw a plate material which were parts cutted out by laser. The wife takes care of my girl which was sleeping in the strawler and I walked also over the 30 cm stock material over the floor to the shop owner. I maked clear that I would like to have laser cutted parts. He phoned somebodey who could speake some english and I got an E-mail adres where I could sent the pxd files and what I wanted
So I sent an E mail with what I wanted and a Taiwnese colleage did some translation work and called about the quotation. Yesterday I received the quotations but the ammount of parts was not OK. and I didn't know if the price was including the bending work. Colleage made a phone call price was including bending. price for all laser cutting parts 7100 ntd. thats 230 usd.
Tomorrow I am going to place the order and pay the deposit. I don't go to discuss the asked price!!! Thats what I like about the forum. You know some prices. In taiwan they allways discuss always the prices... For me the price is OK
I also asked a price for the v track bearings. I couldn't found them in one of the shops in my favorit street. I send an e-mail to Yi tong in china. but 35 us dollar each..mhh. and shipping cost same as from us..hmmm I will order in Us.
i can let made the "shoes"of the v track bearing for 250 ntd (hardened) and a bearing was 330 Ntd. this are the prices given directly whithout negotiation.
32 ntd = 1 us dollar.
So I am going to place a order in US soon.

The stepper motors.
First I was thinking ordering the stepper motors at kelling.and making the 3:1 belt drive gear box. but my collegue called for a price quotation for the oriantal motors 296 with the 7.2 gear box somewhere here :price 7000 ntd each lets say 220 usd
Then I think I am going to install first choise motors, om 296 with 7.2 gearbox in comination wiht geko 203v. So I am looking arround where I can buy them here.
Because I don't have knowledge from the motors, drivers and electronics I have to trust the information on the forum. I have a very positive feeling for this.

So tomorow ordering the laser parts,
And when I have all the stuf, I go back to the shop where I bougt the materials for the table and going to""explain"" him for the welding.
Drilling I will do myself at company and I bourgt the required drills and "tappen" this ar the tools to make M5, m6, m8, payed 4700 ntd for a set M3 up to M16 including the required drils (2 pieces each) and "Tappen"holder. a large and small size
Also the lady in the shop did't speak 1 word english but with my pencil and a peace of paper..I survive in taiwan.

I found a supplier for the racks in Taiwan. they can supply 2 meter m1 racks and I will ask for the hardend gears. didn't do yet.
I will updat this forum with my progress. I also will add some photo's frome the shops in my "favorit"street here in Taipei.

Gerald, I reed that you visit India, plans for Taiwan? bee my guest. and I will show you my favorit street.

Regards, Rik

[Gerald D]

Rik, it sounds like fun for a Kaaslander to work between the Chinese! If you are a typical Dutch guy, then you are also double their size. :)

[rischoof]

Its taiwan Gerald, In "mainland" they are smaller. but there are some taiwanes with the same size. The sizes of the girls, thats an other story. they are definitely smaller as in the Netherlands. Within 2 weeks I go back to the Netherlands for vacations and "friet met frikandel" Thats what I am missing here. The dutch cheese is available, also trapist from my local dutch town, la trappe from Tilburg is available. For the "hagelslag" that are chocolate dips for on the bread, I have to ask dutch collegues who are travelling to Taiwan. For the mechanical stuff, just drive arround and keep your eays open, program the shops in the navigation system so i am able to find them back.

[Gerald D]

Waar is jou tuisdorp in Nederland?

[rischoof]

mooi dat zuidafrikaans. Ik kom uit Goirle net 4km van de belgische grens.

For the guys who have some problems wiht dutch and old dutch,
I am comming from Goirle, thats 4 km from the Belgium border.

[rischoof]

So I ordered the laserparts. some time ago. my lasercutter find out that there were some diferences between the pdf files and the pdx files.
It were the files 10 20 451 and 10 20 452. Now I am typing this a see what it is. I supplied the drawings for bending. On the bent drawings are still the slots for geared screw heads on the cut files they are removed. For me a sign that he has studied wel the drawings. parts should be the 10 of august ready.
I had installed my lathe. And I think it hasn't been used last 20 years. placed the 220- 110 converter and made the turned parts. I also made the x stopper blocks square on my lathe. First the lath is starting to turn wel, but I think my capacitors needs to be replaced.
My dutch collegue, Jewa has visited me and we had a nice whole eavaning about cnc routers. He has bild a small one himself with uhu controler and servo.
I made allready the safe stepper choise recommended in this forum. For the electronics I need the help from this forum. but after this evening hmmmm.

Showed Jewa also my favorit shop street in taipei. He Enjoied as wel as I do.We visited my lasercutter in this street. We had to enter the shop by walking over 40 cm high stock material on the floor. just lovely. He had arranged a very wel englisch speaking man, to explain the differences between the pdf and dxf files.

I also looked arround for a welder. Fist want to do myself. but I saw at some places in my rental house the wiring. I think when I start to weld it will cause a fire. All those heavy steal parts again in my poor honda. and go uphill 25%

After a break from a couple of weeks I will restart.

[Gerald D]

Rik, the dxf are the most up to date.

The title block of the pdf drawing tells you the purpose of the drawing. The bending process is not affected by slots in the plate, there was no urgent reason to change the drawing for the bending.

[rischoof]

After some weeks "vacation" in the Netherlands back in Taipei. During vacation my laser parts were cutted and bended. I was very pleased with the cutting and bending quality. I assembled the Y car and it is fitting very nice togehter. espcialy the bending work has been done very nice.

Ordered also the gecko 203v motor drivers, they have discount this month.
I ordered at friday in US, at monday, tringgggg. arrived in Taipei. First I thougt they sent 3 instead of 5 but those are so small, this because there where 3 bags in the box, some of the bags contains 2 drives. Great service!

So I am preparing everything to go to a welder.

I also want to look for a flat piece of granite to do the scating grinding. I saw a place near the road were they had stones. I think I going to ask to "lent" one.
I prepared my grinder for cut the L profils at the right height and bought 25 metabo grinding discs (200 Ntd = 4.5 euro) for cutting the height I made my own device, for the V cutting I will use the scate. the scate parts I have to assemble.
For this week I will see if I can order the bearings and the rack and pinions.
Bearings will come from US, China is more expensive.

[domino11]

Welcome Rik,
Seems like you are well on your way!

[liaoh75]

Hi Rik,

I'm also in Taiwan and completed construction on my Mechmate about 5 months ago. Good to see someone on this island is building one too. If you need any assistance during your build, please don't hesitate to ask.

[Doug_Ford]

Hey Rik,

We look forward to seeing pictures of your build.

[rischoof]

Last saturday I picked up my Welded frame and bolded it together. I planned it to pick up friday but I spent 2 hours in a trafic yam.
They also welded the cable gutter guids for me.
I was tinking to use a flat piece of stone for grinding the x and y guides.
I prepared a set-up in the car-port.
I promis to make some picture and upload them.
Also nice to here that I am not the only with a mechmate in Taiwan.

[liaoh75]

Hi Rik,

I got your message and tried to reply but your account is set not to receive private messages so I'll answer your questions here. I am using OM motors that is the top recommended motor (highly recommended). I got everything from back home (US) in one shot, motor, V-wheels, power supply, Geckos, PMDX. I had a friend headed this way bring it for me. You can get V-wheels made here for cheaper than buying them from the U.S. suppliers mentioned in the forum. If you need some help in this department, I'll be happy to assist. You are also invited to come down south to check out our setup and get some ideas for your build.

I am somewhat bilingual so I don't have as much trouble communicating but do run into the occasional problem. Best of luck to you.

[rischoof]

some comment to the pictures. It takes me some time to upload.
If placed some pictures taken in the street in Taipei where I get all my material.
There is a picture where I bought the spings. The women behind the big forcing machine did the bending om my lasercuted parts. These lasercuted parts I get also I this shop but they outsourced it.
There is also a picture of my scating set up, outside the house with a nice view over Taipei, but uptill now I didn't make sparks.
You can see the lasercuted parts, bended by the lady, on the bench
With kind regards,
Rik

[jhiggins7]

Rik,

On uploading pictures, did you follow Gerald's advice in this post (http://www.mechmate.com/forums/showthread.php?p=4018&postcount=2)?

I cannot see the pictures in your posts #16 and #17. They appear as red X's.

Hang in there. We're wishing you great success. The first few posts, with pictures, can be tricky. They were for me.

[smreish]

Rik,
The scale of your machine really shows in the length of the cable chain supports! I can't wait to see this "mini" finished. Nice work.
I also see you have the "universal" style motor plates. Personally, I like the option of having the geared and non-geared motors mount in the plate option.

Good luck.
Sean

[rischoof]

some comment to the pictures. It takes me some time to upload.
If placed some pictures taken in the street in Taipei where I get all my material.

6015

There is a picture where I bought the spings. . .

6016


The women behind the big forcing machine did the bending om my lasercuted parts.
6014

These lasercuted parts I get also I this shop but they outsourced it.
There is also a picture of my scating set up, outside the house with a nice view over Taipei, but uptill now I didn't make sparks.
You can see the lasercuted parts, bended by the lady, on the bench
With kind regards,
Rik

lets try to upload some pictures. Nice reaction, that you can see the size of my machine on the size of the cable guter holder.
It's a small machine. table size will be 125x65. x axis will be 65 cm. Once if I have more space. I will enlarge to 245. but my maid-room under my house is to small. In the Netherlands I also don't have the space to place a large machine. I have allready some other equipment. I am assembling the machine in the glass house in front of my house. my children have there play area there. just as there father...:D

[Gerald D]

Rik, those are great pictures!

[jhiggins7]

Rik,

Your pictures look great. Thank you for sharing the details of your build with us and also the pictures of the "market" and Taipei.

That table looks good too. Good luck on the rest of your build.

Keep the pictures coming.

[domino11]

Rik,
Pictures look great. Always nice to see some pics of countries I have not had the pleasure to visit! :)

[jehayes]

Rik: My son is flying to Taipei as I type this so your pictures of the shop were very interesting to me. Have you found any good local sources for motors, controllers, power supplies, racks, etc? I would guess that the electronic parts are easily available in Taiwan. No?

Great looking table. Keep up the good work.

[liaoh75]

Hi Rik,

Looks like you are off to a great start! Just out of curiosity, how much did it cost you to get your parts laser cut and bent up north?

Thanks,

P.S. Check your PM!

[rischoof]

I payed 7000ntd for cutting and bendig thats 155 euro. (they asked 6800)
I am very pleased wiht the quality of the bending work.

[Claudiu]

The women behind the big forcing machine ...

Hi Rik,

very nice work, nice pics. I like the scenery of Taiwan with your Workshop in it, ... on floor 21. ;):D But the nice Lady I would definately hang in my Workshop:)

Greetings

[rischoof]

No no, I am not living at floor 21, I have a house in the Tiamu. I lived once in an appartment with my emco compact 8 in my bedroom. Then I promissed myself to do this never again:eek: It's on the hill side from Taipei. so I can make some noise:D:D. I allready bought a new table saw. Ridgid, but produced in Taiwan ofcourse. Nice fence but a little bit noisy. My robland K26 is stocked in the Netherlands, just as my dewalt radial saw and my schaublin lath. I have my Emco compact 8 over here. I made allready some parts for the mechmate on it.
I have to make some wooding things on its time. for this reason I am also making the mechmate.

[rischoof]

Yesterday I tried to made the guidings.
First I cut of the height to 28 mm. heigth was variating between 27.5 and 29.7.
When I grind carefully I could do one length from 1.5 mm with one disk.
also problemens with the final through cut. grinder blockes several times. Nut to lock disks was tightened with this action. cost me some effort to realese the nut.
In the next profile a first made some cuts +/- 3 mm then I cut the profile in one time. In this case the grinder didn't block. I placed M8 mm studs wiht a ball at the end to guide over the steal plate. The ball didn't roll so there were som flat sides on the balls. this decrease the height with 0.5 mm

So first I have to do some finetuning at the height.
This is my plan.
-first level my set up completely
-go with a sharping stone over the surface to improve flatness of surface and profiles
-Change cut grinding weel to the thicker ones
-make the scate less senstive for wear.

When it is everywhere the same height I am going to made the 45 degree edges.

My wife heard the naburs, I wear proper ear protection so I didn't

[ifffff]

Rik try to find that type cutting disk what is on sides covered. I dont know how exactly explain, but disks what i used their side dont cut. You make carefully first cut and then later flute helps hold disk in right height

[rischoof]

Last week was quite on the forum, but not quite in my carport. O man, I maked some sparks with my skate. It spent two saturdays to cut and Equal the height. so the 45 angle still has to be made
I cut the L profile with 1 mm metabo disks. In the beginning The grinder blocked completely several times. I broke one disk (the first one in my life)
The way which worked for me was first cutting 3-4 mm sleve by sliding the grinder left to the right, than cut the last 2-3 mm in one time.
When I tried less than 2 mm. the grinder was blocking.
When I was ready I quickly measured the hight at some places.
Actualy it wasn't that bad as I thought. within 0.1 mm over 90% over the lengt, one bad area -0.6 mm
I want the pare of guidings with the same height, Costed my some time en expirimenting wiht disks. the chinese "kinky" disk was not abrasive. The bosch disk was better. First I grinded the height with the bosch disk, and made it more smooth with a 120 grid disk.
I will make some pictures of the equipment I used ( I need day light) and a discription from the way of working. I received 0.08 mm in the beams. between the beams is 0.1 mm, I find out a good way of working to receive these results. I was thinking om grinding them completely equal but my kids would swim.
I am preparing my scate for the 45 degree angle. I am going to make a fine height adjustment on the scate. I collected the materials for this but I have to make it.

[rischoof]

Making the guiding rail costed me some effort. I cutted allready the L profiles but I wasn't satisfied with the height. so I wanted to finetune the height

I leveled the grinding disk with a bubble level. ( the steel work table was leveled first) This to make sure that the disk is flat on the surface. I think I can also see improvement in the final roughness from the surface
http://www.mechmate.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=6869&stc=1&d=1257087911

To cut the rail on height. I used a gage to check the height. I market the higher places with a marker and grind it with the grinder. I placed some screws in the front of the grinder holder to keep the grinding disk at the same space. I used a fine grid (ac 120) grinding disk each pass was removing some 0.001-0.002 height. This is creating equal height and a smooth surface.
http://www.mechmate.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=6870&stc=1&d=1257087911

Then I modiefied the skate. I wanted to set the height easy and accurate.
I can adjust the height with the M8 rods which are mounted on the handle bars. ofcourse bougt in my favorith street.
http://www.mechmate.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=6872&stc=1&d=1257087911
http://www.mechmate.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=6871&stc=1&d=1257087911


Then I scated, with supervision from my daughter the angels on the iron.
Firste wiht a rough grinding disk, afterwards with a fine grinding disc.
http://www.mechmate.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=6873&stc=1&d=1257087911

I would polisch wiht a polisch disk but the disk doesn't fit into the scate.
I will polisch it with some sandpaper. The quality is allready good but will be perfect after some polisching.

next step wil be drilling the holes in the guidingrails and beams.
Then I have to go back to my favorith street for welding.
I tried to find v wheels in taiwan but until this moment I didn't found.
Only some places were they can make the wheels custom for me. But I think they can't do the grinding afterwards.
I also checked the website several times for motor choise. First I was think buying the oriental motors with gearbox, but I'am still thinking making the belt drives

[Gerald D]

Rik, you have done some amazing things to get great precision. Just remember that the rail is flexible and it will follow the shape of the beam when you screw it down. That you will fix with shims, and you can also fix other small defects with shims.

[shoot]

a great read rik thanks for sharing your progress ,look forward to seeing it finished;)

[rischoof]

I want to drill the 20 mm holes in the rials. but first I would like to see how those swichtches are mounted. and what is comming in the 20mm hole
Has somebody picutures if this?

Do I need to drill the 20 mm holes on both rail on both site? or is 1 rail on both side OK.

are the homing sensors also used as limit switches. I would like the situation that the power is from the motors before they hit the hard end stops

With kind regards,

Rik

[Gerald D]

The sensors will do "homing" and "limits"

Nothing goes in the hole. The sensor detects metal and the hole is suddenly NOT metal :)

7026

[rischoof]

I thougt there was going M1 18027 a 20 mm round piece of metal whith an excentric hole in the 20 mm hole. I was wondering how to clamp it
I think that I have to outsource the drilling of the 20mm hole.
The speed of the drilling machine I can use, can't go lower than 450 rev/min

on 10 20 000 gantry assembly I see M1 18 000, the prox switch holder 2 times,
on 10 30 000 y car assy, I see M1 18 000 1 time
on 10 40 000 z slide assembly I don't see a proximity switch.
on the part list from David Moore, is see 4 proximity swithces

Is there a proximity switch mounted on the z slide?

[Gerald D]

The M118027 eccentric is an option if people want to move the hole for adjustment. I don't think that anyone has actually used it. That eccentric can be glued in.

The standard drawings do not have a sensor on the z-slide. A couple of people have fitted sensors to the z-slides, using their own designs.

You can do the 20mm hole at that speed if you use a hole saw and lubricant. (even a standard drill will work if you increase the hole size by 4mm at a time, but it is not pretty.....)

[smreish]

For my holes I used a 5/16" pilot, then a 25mm step bit made for panel work. Worked quickly and clean - as you can see from the picture Gerald posted of my proximity installation.

[rischoof]

This evening I am "off" I turned off the electricity in the basement after the wall outlet became completely black and smoked.
Am glad, I didn't bought weld equipment and did the welding myself.

In my favorit street, there is a shop specialized in pipes. they had pipe in size 1 inch outside 2 inch. Nice material for the bearings. I bougt 14 pieces from 17 mm
for total 280 ntd. thats some more than 6 euro. Nachi bearings are 60 ntd each so I'am going to give it a try to make it myself. I red that it is not really necessary to harden the shoes. And my wife told me already several times I didn't use my lath much

So I was turning the "shoes" for the bearings. my emco is 220 volt and with a transformer connected to the 110 volt wall outlet. After I returned from a tea break, there was some smoke. I turned of the headswitch for the basment and tomorrow I will have a look to replace the wall outlet

last weeks I could spent much time on my project, and in the available time I did some resurch on the forum for the materials I still have to buy.
Last saturday I orderd the gears, racks, flexable cable gutter, and the pulleys for the and I decided to make a 1:3 belt gearbox for the motors.
The motors I am going to order at "tedmotors"in taiwan.

A dutch collegue showed my some very nice electronic shops were they have all the required electrical materials. And of course we had a lot of discusions about the mechmate. He just builded a smaller cnc router for circuit bords.

My x and and y cart are ready to take to the welder.

For the 20 mm holes in the x and y guide I used a hollow drill. I was easer to do than I expected

So this evening I could spent updating my tread instead of turning my "shoes"
I will make some pictures and upload them. 2010 will be a happy mechmate year

[rischoof]

http://www.mechmate.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=9324&stc=1&d=1272205358
picture from my transformer

[rischoof]

I just updated my story for an hour, but when I whould add the picture the program blocked. so I first added the picture and know do my story again.

Its a time ago when I updated the bulding progess. but In the meanwhile I made some nice progress.

I spent quite a lot time on making my V-groove bearings. Fist I made a serie with 2 single row bearings, I finished the shoe up to the V-groove and installed the bearings wiht my vessel (bankschroef) When I mounted the unit on a mandrell to make the V groove I mentioned that some bearings where not in line with eachother. When I had used 1 double row bearing, I didn't had that problem.
So I had to remove some bearings which I had installed with locktite 648. With a hand press and a custom made press-piece I was able to remove the bearins. I cleaned every thing and Installed the bearins again. This time wiht the hand press. I also made a new batch and installed double row bearings.
Than I had to make the V groove. I made a mandrell and installed the V-groove bearing without the v groove. I spent an evening grinding the right chisel and started to cut. but when my chisel was in the center of the V groove the chissel and the workpiece started to dither, Afther the dithering the mandrell was not in the center anymore (0.15mm) This happened 3 times.
After the third time I thougth: Time to outsource. So I went to my tool shop which has also a tool grinding service and asked if he could make the V groove for me. First he provided me 2 test pieces, I checked and aggreed.
I week later I had 2 sets of V groove bearings.

I went to my favorit street in taipei to find a welder. the welder I usely go to, didn't want to to the job. I think the x cart was to big for him. I went to the shop where I bought steel profiles before. We started at 10, unloaded the car, Explained in dutch whatI want to do. He can not understand english so then I speak dutch. The welding instructions with the PICTURES were very usefull. At 12 o"clock his wife has provide a meal and after the nap from his helper we started again an arround 3 the x and y cart and the spider were welded. At home a checed the parallelety of the plates were the v-groove bearings are mounted. Y car was within 0.01 mm!!! x car had 0.3 mm. I was very pleased.

Now I could mery the x and y cart on the frame. It was a very nice moment to see the y cart moving over the frame after a small push with my finger.

I installed the cable chain, but was not pleased. The chain was not flat. I disassembled the chain and did some fine tunig of the seperated parts on my table saw. I was a hard job to remove al the yellow plugs from the chain. The chain lays flat on the chainholder know.

In the meawille is Jeroen working on my interface board in the Netherlands. I want to use desk-cnc and jeroen is making an interface board for me. He has finished the layout and ordered some prints in.....china. So in a couple of weeks I expect the board.

I ordered the motors from ted motors. first they orderd the wrong ones. (they findout themselves) then the orderd 1 instead of 5. I first had to try the one if it is OK. There is something to say for this approach but I can not testing yet so I have one motor at this moment. bay the way, they brought the motor to my office,

Then I make a start with my electronics. I bougth proximity swiched. but I have to tell that I am searching them for the last 3 days, I put a bag with the proxis somewhere, but where.... I expect them to pop up sooner or later.

I also ordered my transformer. first I spent some evenings at the forum for the calculations and the experience of other people to connect the pk299 F4.5
I want to connect my motors 35 volt and then they need arround 6 amp each. I ordered the DST86EM83A from ted motors but they are (should be)equal to the pk299. price 2000 ntd
I didn't found ready made powersupplies here in taipei. but I found an area were are 4 shops in one street which are only selling transformers. I printed out the transformer I need and went to the shops. the third shop was YESSS. I ordered at tuesday, should be ready friday. finaly it was friday a week later but I have my transformer. Its over 6 kg and costs 2500ntd (55 euro) I also bougth 2 capacitors 22.000uF and some fuseholders so I can start making my transfomer an make a begin for the controlbox.

For the mechanicaly parts I still have to make 2 things, the gearboxes and the z axis. For the gearboxes I orderd 24 and 72 xl gears. But those gears are a little bigger than the ones I see in the gearboxes treat. I had draw a new layout in outcad for the gearbox but I am not completely pleased with it yet.

For the z axis I am going to use a linear guide and a ball screw. I have these parts and I have to make a motor mount for this unit.

In the meanwhile I started to remove the black layer from my metal parts and put some rust protecion on it. I hope thats what I bought. I should learns some chinese

Today I disassembled my frame and cleaned the glass-room where I builded up my toy. the children toys are also in this room. My sister, brother in law and 3 kids are comming next week so some kids have to sleep there.

I still have to upload the picture of my black wall outled but the pictures are at my other computer

[rischoof]

I could better do some spelling check before I uploaded. maybe my English teacher had right 25 years ago. jonge jonge je zult nooit engels leren. boy o boy you will never learn English...

[Gerald D]

A good story Rik :)

[Gerald D]

In Afrikaans that will be jong, jong, jy sal nooit engels leer nie.

Maar, jou engels is heeltemal voldoende en verstaanbaar. :)

[liaoh75]

Rik, you look like your well on your way. Please let us know how those motors worked out for you. When you get your Machine finished, would you mind if I come to see your setup? I'm particularly interested in your Z setup with linear guides and ball screw. I'm also curious as to your motors with belt drive compared to my OM PK296 7.2s.

[rischoof]

http://www.mechmate.com/forums/newattachment.php?do=manageattach&p=
This is my black wall outlet. the connector from my transformer was cracked and caused some heat.

Thank you Gerard, for the comment on my english.

[rischoof]

Last saterday was a very importing day for the mechmate community in Taiwan. We had the first mechmate owner and all most owner meeting in Taiwan. I feeled like a kid just before his birthday.
So saturday morning I left at 4 o clock in the morning taipei to drive to the south. Way was quite easy, go to highway number 1. left the highway at the "firetruck"' there is a red truck on pillar placed near the highway. Drive to you see a windmill. Yes I am still in Taiwan and not in the Netherlands and then drive a couple of km and than I reached Davids paradise around 8 in the morning.

Normally we give some flowers, but in this case I had some useful parts in my car. I had heard from Davids huge vacuum blower so I thought he could use some heavy electrical stuff.
I had visited David, the only known mechmate owner in taiwan, and as a almost owner it is very nice to see a real full size blue beast and chat with the owner how he get his parts and how he has built his beast.
I was very surprised by the building quality and even more surprised when he showed his vacuum table. That pump he has is that powerful that it sucks through a 5 mm thick mdf layer. No No, there wasn't any small hole drilled in this plate.
When I saw the room where has placed his machine, whow that was big. my one has to come in the "maid"room from 3 x 3.5 meter or something like that.
Also the way he had made his dust collector was nice. just a room, I think twice the size my complete work area. So there is a pipe from his mechmate into this room, and just keep the door closed when you are working. I like this kind of solutions. and once a while you have to dig the room empty.
He shared his router bids secrets and gave me some good advices. I also think that I was able to give him some useful information.
I is a pretty that I didn't see the beast running over the table I didn't had much time that morning so at 10 o clock I had to leave.

I think I still have a smile on my face from last Saturday.
David thanks for showing your machine.

:)

[sailfl]

When more than one Mechmate person gets together there are suppose to be photos. You want to see photos of these gatherings.

[rischoof]

hmmm, I think we didn't make photo's
I will upload some pictures of the interface board for the desk cnc I am going to use. Thursday I will see Jeroen in the Netherlands. He has designed and made an interface board for me. I think your gone see a very big smile on face again.

[liaoh75]

Rik, I think I got the longer end of the stick in that meeting. Rik brought me some very nice breakers and magnetic contactors. I will have to say I was very happy to meet another Mechmate builder as well. Gerald, I think you started something that will be here for years to come. Rik is a very knowledgeable about a number of things that will benefit his build. I'm dying to see the DeskCNC board and controller and will definitely be visiting when you are finished! Thanks again for the parts, I'm sure I'll make good use of them. I'm sure there will be opportunities for photos in the future guys. I'll bring the camera next time:)

[rischoof]

Yesterday I visited my friend to see the desk cnc interface board he has designed and made for me. It is special designed for use on the mechmate.
I have "some" knowledge about electronics but I am not an expert in it. so I have to trust what other people say about it.
some explanation about the board.
The board can be connected to desc cnc.
I can connect my:
1)proximity switches
2)limit switches
3)emo's
4)relais for spindle, exhaust, vacuum
5) is generating a signal for frequency control
6) there can be a buzzer connected
7) my stepper driver transformer will slowly power up

He knows me longer and he knows my electic knowledge. For that reason he has build in a amazing amount of safty things and diagnostic.

There will be 16 leds which will show the status, and indicate posible errors
sow it will show sensor and cable errors
He has created a document from totaly 30 pages, how to build, test, and use this board.

[rischoof]

10140

[liaoh75]

Hi Rik,
Do you mean your friend made this custom board for you? It looks like a manufactured and mass produced item. You have some very good friends. Did he charge you for it or was it more a pet project? I can't wait to see your setup.

Hope to see you again soon. Are you still doing your DIY wood working classes down south?

David

[rischoof]

David,

He has made a small cnc routing machine. His one is running with servo motors and desk cnc. With the experince from his machine and the input from me for the mechmate, he has designed the board. he let made 15 of these boards. There are some colleges allready interested in the boards.
There were some small issues with the first board. (He had to cut away one pin from a component and he had to bend the soccets from a relay toget them fit in the holes. This is solved in relaise 2. He has placed an order for these boards.
For me he has placed all the components and tested the board. It is made "hufterproof" That means that if I should do something wrong, this is not resulting in damage from the board, me or the machine
The board is nice, but if you see the effort he placed in the documentation. that looks also very nice. If somebody is interested in the documents I can upload it
He is planning to sell the boards. (just the boards without the components)

When I am happy, with the result, I will place an annoucement on the market place from this forum.

At this moment I am in the Netherlands, but when I am back in Taiwan I want to finish my machine. After I have seen Davids machine, I want my one running. Then I can test the board in combination with desk cnc. I want to make wood dust instead of all the rusty metal dust.

When He was in Taipei last year, he showed me the electrical shops in Taipei and I showed him my favorith street, the checheng street in taipei. There has bought some mechanical components for his machine and somethimes I am shipping parts to the Netherlands for him, so we are helping eachother.
And, when we are visiting eachother, we don't bring flowers..only parts.

[rischoof]

It's a time ago that I updatet my building activities.
Yesterday, the postman was my best frend. He delivered the desk cnc software and controller board. I ordered 3 weeks ago. It takes a week to ship from us to taiwan. custums wanted 600 ntd for the shipment.
So I am getting closer and closer to the end.
At this moment I am still painting. the paint result makes me allmost crying.
Whit a brush, I get stripes, with a roller, I get a texture instead of a nice surface Then I bought a airless paint sprayer, thats even more texture than with the roller. The best result I get with the roller and then after it, verry verry quickly touch it with a brush. In the picture the result from the airless sprayer
10413[/ATTACH
I also made some gearboxes. I spent some time reading the forem and there are some nice designs. But the existing designs where not suitable for the xl size gears i wanted to use. So I designed my own ones, bring the files to the lassercutter. asked somebody in the chingcheng street to make the axis and ordered the gears, belts, and screws in the street. I also bought the flanged bearings overthere. The lasercutter did a great job, he made the holes in the plates allmost directly usable for the bearings. they where a little bit tappered so the bearings where fitting from one side and from the other side I had to smooth a little bid with some sand paper.
I bought one meter aluminium tube profile and made the distance bushes. I still have to shorten the bolds in the distance bushes and PAINT it.
[ATTACH]10415
10414
10416
10417
10418
10419
10420


I also have my geco drives nicely mounted on a piece of alluminium
10421
10422

So yesterday may desk cnc package arrived. I unpacked the box and I was surprised by the size of the board. The board will be used in combination with the interface board a colleage of me made for me. the desk cnc board can be mounted on the interface board and connected wiht tree connector cables which were deliverd with the desk cnc control board. so the wiring can starting
10423

[MetalHead]

That is a cool belt drive. Do you have the plans for it?

As far as the paint you have two things to look at.

1. Make sure their is NO oil on the steel (wipe it down with acetone or paint thinner on paper towel or rag) and put on a coat of metal oxide primer. (I guess that is really two things)

2. Put paint thinner in your paint. Test how thin you can get it so it does not run and use a low nap brush or one of those sponge rollers that is used for trim work... (Heck I guess that is two things also :D ). You can test this on a scrap piece of steel. The thiner paint will level better.

So those are the 2 (4) things I can think of that will help your paint issues.

[rischoof]

Hello mike,

I have drawing en dxf files of the plates. I also can make a drawing of the shaft.
I also have the information of the belt, pulleys and bushes.
Maybe you are also interested in the prices I payed here.
My idea is that I first verify that everything is fitting and than post the drawings
or for the ones who are really in a hurry they can have the drawings

the paint.
first I removed the black layer with a grinder from all the steel surface. I tried to find a sand blaster here, but i found only companies with small equipment.
then I put on a rust protective coat (2 layers) after this I sanded the surface smooth and apply the finish coat. The temperature is still hot here when I paint that's at least 32 degrees Celsius. I don't know if they gave me the correct thinner for the paint. The Taiwanese paint is different than what I am used in europe, and the names of the fluids the have here is also different, if there is an english name available. Most is in Chinese last attempt I made the paint really thin, but when I put on with a roller, I had to go immediately use the brush to finish that is within a couple of seconds, after that time it wasn't flushing any more.

I did the base frame that way,and this look acceptable.
I will try a spray can I can buy here. cost of a spray can from 400cc is 2 euro.

I till have to do the y cart. I am removing the black layer of the steel, but inside will be a hard job. So I will look if I can find a sandblaster somewhere in the area.

[Jan de Ruyter]

Use phosphoric acid, chemical sandblasting! Works like a charm and the paint sticks better.

[MetalHead]

One other thing. Was the surface of the steel smooth? I looked back at the photos and it appears the texture is comming through the steel. If the steel was really rusted and you used a grinder to remove the rust it may have left conturs in the steel that are causing the texture. Try using a super stiff wire brush. If you still have pits in the steel and want a smooth surface you will need a body filler and sand job.... Or you can run with that texture and just call it a hammer tone finish :D

[KenC]

The only trick I know for good glossy hand brush job is to use slow drying paint such as Enamel Alkyd paint... You will have enough time to sort out the brush marks... Fast drying paint is just to fast for my non-existence painting skill...

Other things to watch out are degreasing the surface, curing of the previous coats.

But if you expect automobile bodywork finishing quality, sanding between coats is necessary...

Since I was way too anxious to get mine cutting soonest; I accepted textured finishing :p

[Jason Marsha]

It looks like a hammered finish. Here in Barbados the hammered finish paint that comes in the rattle cans costs twice as much as the normal rattle can paint.
So you got your hammered finish at a reduced price.:D

[rischoof]

After sanding the x car with waterproof sanding paper and water, I am walking arround for a week with blue nails. I paint it for the last time with a roller and a brush, and it looks acceptable. Thanks for the reactions for the paint.
I cleaned the tread holes, and assembled the table together.
I measured the distance between the flanges where I have to install the v groove bearings.
I measured it with a gauge I have mounted on a piece of wood. At the other end there is a screw to create a hard surface on the piece of wood to be able to measure. the difference is 0.1 mm. This wil be compensated with the nut i will turn on the correct thickness on my lath.
This evening I am going to place the x card on the frame. Last time I damaged the guiding a little bit when mounting the x card on the guiding. so now I am going to place a plate of wood on the tabel top so I can roll from the plate of wood easily on the guiding. Then i can check if my gearbox is fitting on the rail. I bought some 3m vhb tape to place the rack on the guiding. the tape has no code it only says vhb. It is whith foam. thinkness is arround 1 mm (didn't measure) I will first try it on a small piece of rack I kept from a longer piece.

There is also a picture from the proximity holder.

I am also looking arround for a spindle. I think it will be a chinese 2.2kw spindle. the vfd (frequency controller) is gona be tricky. I taiwan I have 220volt 3 fase, and in europe I have 220 volt single fase. In the discription from the chinese drives the say input voltage 1/3 phase. an other option is boost my 110volt single phase to 220volt single fase. Put I think I have to be carefull with the ammount of amps otherwise I will create more smoke in the basement and I only want to create dust, lots of dust.

Jewa is getting a little bid nervus about my electrical progess. Yesterday I assembled a rail with the breakers for my powersupply.
10453

10454

10455

10456

10457

[smreish]

Rik
Don't worry about turning some special spacer nut.
If you recall in the "gantry squaring section" of the plans, you will find your self using .1 mm shims in alternate corners to get a perfect x - square - to - y relationship.

So, don't waste your time on the lathe...you'll end up shimming anyway.

Sean

[rischoof]

It has been a very long long time that I have updated the forum. but I have made a lot of progess and at the moment I am finishing the wiring and the machine has been powered up allready for testing the axis.
I will not jump directly to final building part, but also write down what happened last couple of.....eh 6 months.
Finaly I found a company which can do the sandblasting. They sandblasted the Y cart. After sandblasting I first sprayed wiht a layer of rust protector and 2 nice layers of blue paint. I bougt an electrical paint sprayer and the result is very nice. :)

http://www.mechmate.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=11655&stc=1&d=1303743246

I bougt a sping with a length from 35 cm and I had to find out the length of the spring to get the required pre load on the motors. I filled a bucket with 15 liters of water and atteched the bucket to the spring. then I measured the distance between the spring attachment from the motor and the gantry.

http://www.mechmate.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=11652&stc=1&d=1303743246http://www.mechmate.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=11653&stc=1&d=1303743246
http://www.mechmate.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=11654&stc=1&d=1303743246

the final length of the spring with a 15kg load should be 135 mm
The motors and gearboxes are placed on the x and y axis. The spacers used inbetween the 2 plates from the gearbox where first machined all to exactley the same length. after assembly and put the bolds on tork, I could feel that there was to much tension on the bearing. to solve this I untided some bolds and adjusted them again till I could feel the tension on the bearings. then I measured the space between the 2 plates on that postion and made a new spacer with the correct length. I think I had some variation in the thickness of the paint layer which coused this problem. but finaly I have 3 very smooth running gearboxes. the teflon washers have a thickness from 1 mm and are made out of a teflon sheet.

http://www.mechmate.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=11658&stc=1&d=1303743246

In the meanwile I orderd my router spindle at deitech in hong kong.http://www.driver-motor.com I orderd a 2.2 kw router watercooled router spindle and a set of different size of collets. those people know where they talk about about and they are answering your questions. so I was satified to buy a spindle from them instead of ebay.

I also designed a spindle mount and delivered the drawings in the ching cheng street. First I had to buy the alluminium in a shop 150 meter to the left and then I could go back to the machine shop. there they made a very nice perfect fitting mount for me. I could not find a picture from the mount but this will come later

http://www.mechmate.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=11659&stc=1&d=1303747365

http://www.mechmate.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=11660&stc=1&d=1303747365

My z axis is also finished. this is a spindle with a linear guiding and ball lead screw. the travel way is about 40 cm. so when I want to place a indexer under the table, it is long enough to reach the workpiece. the backside of the z axis needed to be flatened. this has been done, to my surprice, not on a milling machine but on a planer. The travel way of the planer was a impressive 80 cm. the shop is that big, that if the shopowner want to sit, he has to sit outside his shop. so what you see on the picture is the complete shop including owner

http://www.mechmate.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=11661&stc=1&d=1303747365


The steppermotor is connected with a belt reduction to the ball screw. The setup is without a compensation spring or gasspring. when the motor is not powered the z axis including the 2.2kw router stays in position and is not going down. During the final tests I will see if a gasspring is required.

During Chinese new year I had a visitor from holland. He helped me with the electronics and the cabling of the machine. Targed: running before he was going back to the netherlands. This target was a little to high but together we worked a lot and made an amazing progress. I am very happy with his input and help. ofcause we had also visit the ching cheng street and some other electronic district to look arround for nice parts.
The control consul is set up for easy diagnostics, so all the motor and sensor cables are interchangeable between the axis. each axis has is own proximity and limit sensor. On the front side there are also 25 leds, which are showing me the status of the machine and possible errors
At this moment he is helping me testing the machine and he can remote log in into my system to set the parameters correctly in desc cnc and look if every thing is correct.

here is an picture of the connection plate for the control consule. the plate is 3 mm thick aluminium and all the holes and squares for mounting the connectors are laser cutted.

http://www.mechmate.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=11656&stc=1&d=1303743246


finaly for today I have two questions:confused:. How long must be the distince between the proximity and the limit switch? I don't know how far the axis is moving over its home point before it stops and what is a useable homing speed?

[selbuss]

Hello Rik
Nice to see you back, i finish my MM last summer but have not put on MM logo yet have bin buzy to cncing machines to the universeties in Thailand but use my MM to make different parts in aluminum
Can you tell me the price you have to pay for the spindel from China?

SEL

[rischoof]

I paid 180 euro for the spindle and 6 euro each for the collets I had ordered 2,3,4,5,6,8,10 and 12 mm collets. shipping costs to taiwan 40 euro.
The problem with ebay is that I first had to place an order before I could ask a question. Creating a paypal account was also not possible in taiwan. it was also not possible to order extra collets on ebay.

[selbuss]

Thanks Rik
I pay 350 euro for spindel and VFD last year

[rischoof]

Today, was a very nice day. My spindle turned for the first time in the mechmate. I decided to use a power converter to go from 110 volt to 220 volt to power the frequency controller. I turned the spindle for an hour at 30% of its maximum speed to see the heat production of the spindle, the frequency controller and the power converter. The water cooling was pumping when the command in desc cnc was on, so this was working correctly. I have a flow control sensor mounted in the back line which can activate the emo circuit when the flow is to low, but this is not connected yet. last time I played with homing and moving the axes, I could here a relay switching in the console. I checked all the connectors for bad wiring but didn't see something strange. today the relay was quiet
I placed a piece of paper with the axes direction on y slide so I can see if I have to to in the minus or plus direction to go the direction I want.
I run a small program my collage has made and left on the machine. When I run the program The end limiter was immediately activated so I decided to move the 0 point from the x axis to the left side instead of the right side.
Now I am playing with my dxf converter in desc cnc. My collage In Holland explained the basics. He can remote login on my mechmate and operate it from his sofa +/- 14.000km away from the mechmate.
When I worked 12 years ago for the last time with cnc machines, I had to program them manually with with G codes.
So no dust yet, but I am very close. I checked my starting date June 2009 so that's a while ago.
for making serious dust, I have to move the mechmate from the glass house to the basement. That's also a test that I can disassemble the machine completely. the door from my basement is only 65cm wide, and also to low for walking in straight for me.
I saw that some pictures are not added correctly so I will try to replace them. that will be tomorrow

[rischoof]

adding pictures.
These are pictures from the spring I used for the motor tensensio
first I fill a bucket with 15 liter water. than I connect the bucket on the spring.
I measure how much windings I have for the required lenght, cut the spring and bend a connection eye on te spring.

[smreish]

Archimedes would be proud!
Great "teaching post".

[jehayes]

Rik:

Thanks for the photos. Good to see you're moving along.

Joe

[rischoof]

A small update, I got some comment from Holland for no updates on the forum. so here it is.
Yesterday I mounted the control panel from the frequency controller ,a spindle speed controller and an usb connection on the front side of my control unit. then I closed the back panel from the machine. When I closed the back panel, the monitor and the computer didn't power up. I check for bad contacts bud did't found strange things, the third time I closed the panel successfully.
Up to the next step.
first of all I use desc cnc instead of mach 3
I can home my machine but when I home the Z axis I have fill in 400 as position. If I want to change the value to 100, the machine sees the proximity but passes it. I was trying for half day to correct this, but i didn't succeed. I have to zero the cutter any way so it isn't a big issue.
Up to the next step. running a program. I chose the mechmate logo, placed by Mike on the forum a couple of weeks ago.
When I load the program (with a usb stick nice mounted on my control panel) the spindle was running and shut down immediately, after removing the M6 code for tool change out of the program it runs.
The machine run the program save in the air. I noticed that, the logo must be very small, or the machine was not correctly, I noticed also that it sometimes makes a strange noise during the program, but whit my knowledge I have yet, it is sometimes hard to judge if it is normal or not.
Next step was mounting a pencil on a small linear guiding and fix this to the spindle and draw the mechmate logo on a piece of paper.
The machine was drawing all the letters on the same spot, but the shape of the letters was correct, Hmm. A small moment I thought that the program was not correct but the differences in x position should be big enough to write the logo correctly and the logo was correctly shown on the screen while the machine run the program.
Then the strange sound during running the program was triggering me that the G00 speed was to high and the motors where stolling. after an half an hour playing with the speed and accelerating settings. the machine draws the mechmate logo on the piece of paper how it has to be. again a step closer to DUST

[jhiggins7]

Rik,

Nice update. Nearly complete.

How about showing us some photos of your machine?

[rischoof]

Lets add some pictures to the forum and I want to show some things which I make different.
first of all I want to show the new bed from my daughter. she wanted a big girl bed. finaly she wanted something wiht hard shapes instead of prinsesses. she made the design and together we made the final drawing, get the wood, cut out the wood, sand it, chose the color and to save her clothes, I did the painting work. all this is made "manualy" and not on the mechmate. the other picture is a storage rack which I made when my oldest son, 9 allready was born. the ideas of these figures I get from magazins where the show how to make window decorations. They sell this magazins in Holland, but I don't see them in Taiwanhttp://mechmate.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=12919&stc=1&d=1327289576 (http://mechmate.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=12919&stc=1&d=1327289576)

[rischoof]

So this is working, Mostimes I have to try several times the uploading from pictures so know the stuff you want to seehttp://mechmate.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=12922&stc=1&d=1327290257
This is my machine. the working area for x is 80 cm and for y is 1.25 cm my Z axis kan travel approx 35 cm and is made wiht linear guidings and a ball screw. the ball screw is connected with a gear 3:1 to the stepper motor. I didn't use a gas spring but i find out that I have to be carefull with my z speed up. so a gas spring will be mounted in the future. So this is a kind of mini mechate. It is designed that it can be extended to x 2.50 and y 1.25. With the long z axis it must be possible to make a rotation axis under the table surface. the frame has a bold construction because It must be able to move the machine "easily" Here I have to move it to my basement, and the enterance door to my basement is only 70cm with.
So first some pictures form my Z axis. there is also a detail from the proximity holders. there is one used as home sensor and one used as limit sensorhttp://mechmate.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=12923&stc=1&d=1327290909
http://mechmate.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=12924&stc=1&d=1327290909
http://mechmate.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=12925&stc=1&d=1327290909
http://mechmate.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=12926&stc=1&d=1327290909

[rischoof]

The story and picutes I was creating was disappeared sudenly so second attempt.
first I will show a additional picture from my z axis. here the linear guiding and ball screw is visablehttp://mechmate.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=12927&stc=1&d=1327291635
http://mechmate.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=12928&stc=1&d=1327291635
Here is an picture of the proximity holder. I had this a little down afterwards to fit it wellhttp://mechmate.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=12929&stc=1&d=1327291861
The stopblock is not welded but mounted with a countersinked M6 screw. reason: when I want to re-grind the top edge i can remove the stopblock and can use the grinding skate.http://mechmate.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=12931&stc=1&d=1327291861
Here is a picture from my motor. the motor connetor is connected to the button box and there are going two sub d connectors from the botton box into the frame. there is an ingoing and an outgoing cable. On the motor is the dust stop visalbe. this is made from a protection plug for pneumatic components. it was a little to small. but with when heated up with a lighter it could be made in the correct shapehttp://mechmate.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=12930&stc=1&d=1327291861
here is a detail from my teflon washer. I could not buy teflon washers in taiwan, but i could buy teflon sheet from 1 mm thickness. I drill a hole on the correct diameter and I cut with sissors the material round, for make it nice round I put it in a lath. In the picture you can see that i made it only on one side nice round and at the other side you can see the sissor cut edges. works fine.http://mechmate.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=12932&stc=1&d=1327291861
here a picture from my suppervisor during the job.
http://mechmate.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=12933&stc=1&d=1327291861
The cable chain had to placed a little higher to let them run parallel. when I mounted the rail at a higher position it made contact with my bearing which run on the underside of the guiding rail. I mounted a piece of wood to correct the possition. the cable chain was not straight when hold parralel it was a little curved, I removed a little material from all segments on the table saw to correct thishttp://mechmate.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=12934&stc=1&d=1327293278
I will save this and then start the story from my control unit

[rischoof]

In my last post I see the link of the pictures but not the picture directly. hmm
Here the story from the control unit.
I am using desk cnc one of the advantages is that I can use an old laptop. this is mounted in the control unit.
http://mechmate.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=12940&stc=1&d=1327295998
When I turn on the head switch the machine starts and the laptop start up after a couple of seconds. at the right side of the head switch is the control unit from the frequency controller. under this pannel is the spindle speed button and the on/of switch from spindle ( no labeling yet)
on the control unit are leds mounted which are showing errors and status from controllers and axis. the labels are now hand writen but will be replaced by some nice printed ones there are also leds which show if the spindle, pump and suction system are running. This has been designed and made by my dutch collegue. He can log in in my system and run it from his sofa 10.000 km away from here. is a nice funtion for trouble shouting and learning. I use the Ipad with skype to show and communicate.

[rischoof]

I am doing 3 times exactly the same, and 3 times my pictures show up in a diffent way. I will show some pictures from the back side of my control unit. there are a lot of cables. each axis has is own motor and sensor cable. I case I have problems with one of the axis, I can switch cables to figure out where the problem is. I also have dummy connectors for my sensor cables
there are two swithches on the dummy connector, one for emo, one for limmit. when the machine is over his limit, a replace the sensor cable by a dummy, move the axis away, and place the correct cable again. On the picture where the leds are shown on the front side of the control unit there is also a usb connector visablehttp://mechmate.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=12945&stc=1&d=1327298097
http://mechmate.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=12945&stc=1&d=1327298097
http://mechmate.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=12947&stc=1&d=1327298097
the front side of the control unit can be removed and most of the electronics are mounted herehttp://mechmate.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=12949&stc=1&d=1327298545
http://mechmate.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=12950&stc=1&d=1327298545
http://mechmate.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=12951&stc=1&d=1327298545

here is a picture from the pencil I mounted on my spindle holder, I am going to make it that way I can mount it with a magnet to the spindle holderhttp://mechmate.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=12948&stc=1&d=1327298373

I hope you enjoyed the pictures, When the first dust is produced, I will let you know. When I look in the previeuw I see only the link of the pictures but not the pictures directly
http://mechmate.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=12952&stc=1&d=1327299162
http://mechmate.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=12953&stc=1&d=1327299162
http://mechmate.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=12954&stc=1&d=1327299162
http://mechmate.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=12955&stc=1&d=1327299162

[rischoof]

The story and picutes I was creating was disappeared sudenly so second attempt.
first I will show a additional picture from my z axis. here the linear guiding and ball screw is visablehttp://mechmate.com/forums/attachmen...1&d=1327291635http://mechmate.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=12956&stc=1&d=1327307603
http://mechmate.com/forums/attachmen...1&d=1327291635http://mechmate.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=12957&stc=1&d=1327307603
Here is an picture of the proximity holder. I had this a little down afterwards to fit it wellhttp://mechmate.com/forums/attachmen...1&d=1327291861http://mechmate.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=12958&stc=1&d=1327307603http://mechmate.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=12959&stc=1&d=1327307603
The stopblock is not welded but mounted with a countersinked M6 screw. reason: when I want to re-grind the top edge i can remove the stopblock and can use the grinding skate.http://mechmate.com/forums/attachmen...1&d=1327291861http://mechmate.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=12960&stc=1&d=1327307603
Here is a picture from my motor. the motor connetor is connected to the button box and there are going two sub d connectors from the botton box into the frame. there is an ingoing and an outgoing cable. On the motor is the dust stop visalbe. this is made from a protection plug for pneumatic components. it was a little to small. but with when heated up with a lighter it could be made in the correct shapehttp://mechmate.com/forums/attachmen...1&d=1327291861http://mechmate.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=12961&stc=1&d=1327307834http://mechmate.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=12962&stc=1&d=1327307834
here is a detail from my teflon washer. I could not buy teflon washers in taiwan, but i could buy teflon sheet from 1 mm thickness. I drill a hole on the correct diameter and I cut with sissors the material round, for make it nice round I put it in a lath. In the picture you can see that i made it only on one side nice round and at the other side you can see the sissor cut edges. works fine.http://mechmate.com/forums/attachmen...1&d=1327291861http://mechmate.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=12963&stc=1&d=1327307834
here a picture from my suppervisor during the job.
http://mechmate.com/forums/attachmen...1&d=1327291861http://mechmate.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=12964&stc=1&d=1327307834
The cable chain had to placed a little higher to let them run parallel. when I mounted the rail at a higher position it made contact with my bearing which run on the underside of the guiding rail. I mounted a piece of wood to correct the possition. the cable chain was not straight when hold parralel it was a little curved, I removed a little material from all segments on the table saw to correct thishttp://mechmate.com/forums/attachmen...1&d=1327293278http://mechmate.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=12965&stc=1&d=1327308043
I will save this and then start the story from my control unit
Mon 23 January 2012 11:58

Tried to place pictures in the story.
Here a picture of the router bits have. all bits have a shaft diameter from 12mm and a picture of the height adjustment tool I have. I changed the connector on the spindle. http://mechmate.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=12966&stc=1&d=1327308410
http://mechmate.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=12967&stc=1&d=1327308410
http://mechmate.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=12967&stc=1&d=1327308410

[rischoof]

Today, there has been wood under the router and I allmost forget the smell of fresh cutted wood.
Yesterday I spent time on updating the forum. and making a program. I programmed my son's name and made a name sign for him. a frend of him was visiting him, so I made a name sign for hime too.
Now my machine is finished I want to thank Metal Head, and Gerald, even when he is retired, for this great forum. It is connecting people all over the world.
I also have to thank Jewa for making my electronics in his holliday and giving my good advise.
Looks like this is the second serial number today
http://mechmate.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=12974&stc=1&d=1327406598

http://mechmate.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=12975&stc=1&d=1327406598

http://mechmate.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=12976&stc=1&d=1327406598

http://mechmate.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=12977&stc=1&d=1327406598

http://mechmate.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=12978&stc=1&d=1327406598

[MetalHead]

Great !!! Paint, Dust .... Logos are all that's left !!

[kaartman]

Congratulations Rik, I enjoyed it to follow your build
K

[Claudiu]

Congratulations !
Good looking MM and nice details. Have fun!

[rischoof]

thank you for the congratulations.
I also wanted to show the shops in Taiwan. Yesterday spent on homing the z axis. It moved over its home point. Before I had the problem also, but when home postion for Z was 400 mm it worked. Yesterday not. I also wanted a home position from 100 mm. I checked the home signal, and this was OK. I changed the homing script 50 times and I looked on the desk cnc home page for advise. Adding G92.2 was the answer, and it worked. Don't ask me why it is G92.2.
Today the shops are opened for the first time after chinese new year. I know a shop for motor / scooter helmet prints. there I was asking if he could make the mechmate logo's for me. After dinner they were ready. The shopowner told me that they were made from white foil made in germany, so the blue from the frame should not come through the white. I want to place them by daylight. The letter sizes are 40, 70 and 80 mm
I also went to the shop for buying brush for a dust food, but didn't succeed. the hair was to short and it was mounted in aluminium, so it could not be bended.

Here is a picture of the logos.
http://mechmate.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=12997&stc=1&d=1327678351

[Kobus_Joubert]

You are really getting everything 100%. Well done and enjoy.

[rischoof]

Logos placed on the machine with help. She likes to have a nameplate just like her brother.

[MetalHead]

Cool helper !! Nice build ! You get #92 !!!

[Gerald D]

Nice pictures!

I hope your daughter hasn't got her foot tangled in the cable on the floor in the last picture . . . if you switch the fan on she will hit the ceiling! :)

[darren salyer]

Do Geralds Eyes miss anything?

[jhiggins7]

Rik,

Congratulations on completing your MechMate and earning Serial #92.

The Updated Builder's Log (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AttqjIPMBEXKcExveGc4d3U0V25zQmMyX1U1eUVhU Xc) is here.

Please review your entry and let me know any changes you want to make.

[rischoof]

Thank you John for adding to the building log. the comment field is full. maybe it is useful to mention that I use desk cnc.
For the people intrested: I have a 2.2kw water cooled spindle. I will add some pictures from my cool unit.
Today I made the reward for my daughter. I engraved here name.

[domino11]

Congrats Rik! :)

[rischoof]

Hi Rik,

Great piece of engineering. I am proud of you and it is great to see that so many
"mechheads" encourage your work with such enthousiastic comments.

Make sure the dust does not come into places where you don't want to find dust :) and take care.

We catch up on Skype soon.

Frank Schoofs

[liaoh75]

Hi Rik, Congrats on making that dust! I can't wait to see you in Taipei! Mid March is a good time for me. Let's chat soon. -David

[rischoof]

Hello,
I am just back from Klang, Maleisia. I visited Ken. I want to thank him for his hospitality and I had a great time to look around in his workshop, chatting with him and enjoying the local food.
Thank you Ken
I am getting more and more respect for Geralds design. simple, strong and usefull.

[KenC]

Rik,
You are most welcome. I too enjoyed every moment of your company.
Again, we enjoyed our company too much that we forgot about the photo session.

Thank you Rik for your visit.

[rischoof]

Today I am going disassemble my mechmate and prepare it for shipping back to Holland. I will show some pictures how I use a inflated skippy ball for lowering and lifting my x slide on and off the v grove guiding without damaging it.
first going to make a crate. lucky, it is not that hot today :)

[rischoof]

When I bought my cable chain, it was not straight. Didn't like it, probebly it was functionel. so I decided to look what was not OK, and to modify it to make OK.
first I had to disassmebe the chain. getting the yellow buttons out, was the hardest task. I removed with my table saw a little material to make the chain straight. first picture shows the place where I removed the material. Second picture shows my table saw set up. the l profie is my guide on the table saw, the red thing has to simulate the position from the saw blade


http://mechmate.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=14023&stc=1&d=1371912110

http://mechmate.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=14024&stc=1&d=1371912558

[rischoof]

Because my previous z spindle was a long one, and the motor mounted on top which made the point of gravety high. Decided made a new impoved z axis.
this is the result.

this was the old one
http://mechmate.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=14028&stc=1&d=1371912954

this is the new one
http://mechmate.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=14025&stc=1&d=1371912956
http://mechmate.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=14026&stc=1&d=1371912956
http://mechmate.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=14027&stc=1&d=1371912956

made in ching cheng street, needs to be finished and allignet, but that will be september - oktober in Holland

[Fox]

Hi rik, thanks for the extra effort of posting this info and helping me out with all kinds of questions!

In regards to your first z Iam really surprised.... I know it was bought locally, and only adapted instead of built from the ground up. Because of the black parts and side shots it's hard to see the actual construction. Is your new z different in construction or uses the same principle ( because that one I understand from the pics ) !? I mean I am puzzled by the 700 mm slide that only has a travel of 300 mm, and the huge weight. Furthermore I want to be sure your flex issues originate in the y car and not the slide construction. Pre made slides come in all shapes and kinds, a z for a cnc cutter obviously gets way more force the a slide used under a plotter or such.

[danilom]

Fox ... 700mm of linear rail minus 400mm between two trucks means 300mm travel
you need some distance between trucks to lower the leverage.

Weight around 20kg is nothing and in my opinion is welcome

[rischoof]

Today we arrived back in holland. We have to wait a couple of weeks till my container arrives with the mechmate.

[Fox]

Hey Rik, welkom thuis in ons 'koude kikker landje' ( = Welcome Home !)

[isladelobos]

Hey Rik.

This is possible the first long traveller Mech Mate? :)
We need pics !!!!

[rischoof]

Back in Holland.
3 months back we arrived in Holland. first wait unit the containers arrived and in the meantime do some work in the house, it's allmost empty.
my garage, before the container arrived.
http://mechmate.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=14362&stc=1&d=1382296791

the big moment. Truck with surprisely 2 containers. we loaded a 40 foot container in Taiwan
http://mechmate.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=14363&stc=1&d=1382296791
pictures from the packed mechmate, and my packed garage
http://mechmate.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=14364&stc=1&d=1382296791
http://mechmate.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=14365&stc=1&d=1382296791

I prommised a picture from my skippy ball which I used for placing the y axis.
I placed the deflated skippy ball (from the kids) on the spoil board and placed a piece of plywood under the y axis. then I start to inflate the skippy ball with a hand air pump. ( this one we normaly use for air matress) the y axis get lifted and can be verry easy placed on the rail, without damaging the rail. I did this opperation without the help from somebody.
http://mechmate.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=14361&stc=1&d=1382297585

[rischoof]

the Mechamate is assembled. this took some more time because I had to adjust and mount my new z axis.
I had to allign the guidings and the ball screw. I also had to connect the ball nut holder to the topplate. first I had to find out the gap, and fill this gap.
I had to made a new flex cable mounting bracket and had to install limit and home switch.
the arm, which sees the home switch is mounted in a 25cm curtain rail profile, and moveble. the limit switch has to "see" a 15 x 20 mm L profile. this profile has over its length, 4.5 mm mounting holes with a pitch from 10 mm. this way it can be moved when necessary. If i want to place a 4th axis under the table, I move the limit switch.
I still have to paint some parts and rout the cables more nice as in the pictures

http://mechmate.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=14367&stc=1&d=1382302047
http://mechmate.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=14368&stc=1&d=1382302047
http://mechmate.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=14369&stc=1&d=1382302047

[rischoof]

after my Z axis was ready, I was ready to start up again. first I had to convert the machine to 220 volt. This means:
-change head connector to european style 220 V connector
-connect the 35Volt powersupply correctly for 220V instead of 110V
-change the breaker from the powersupply
-place a 220 -->110 transformer inbetween the cooling fluid pump
after these changes: power on!
not yet, the controller swithed off, and ALL my warninglites and alarm was on, computer was not starting
trouble shouting time.
I found the home and limit switch from not connected, but after re connecting same problem.
find out that all 4 emergency buttons where activated, but after reset.. same.
find out that I forgot to place the fuse in the 35V power supply--> placed fuse--> problem same
Checked all wires, opened some connectors and placed the cable correct under the stress release and checked if all wires still connected.
then I found a lose wire on the backside of my controlbox. bought a 220V soldering rod, and connected the wire..but.. still alarm
checked all wires again then I figured out I made a shortcut with the pin next the one I just soldered an hour ago. decided to get my GLACES inside. this is the first time I HAD to use my glaces because I could see it clearly. My wife bought some cheap reading glases for me because I could read small size letters any more.

Then my error was over, but computer was not starting up. Find out the powerplug from the laptop was unpluged.
Then the machine was starting up again.

I decided to change my axis set up, so I reversed x and y axis by switching the puls cables on the controller. I also had to swap x and Y home and limit cable (just switch connectors) then I had to change my homing script, so machine is going to the correct home point (moved from left to right)

adjusted the pulses to run 1mm to the correct value (my old z axis had 2:1 gear ratil) Checked with a gauge if the displacement from z is correct. this was correct.

so this is the status. the machine is ready to make some dutch dust :D

[rischoof]

long time ago that I updated the forum.
I had recently quite some problems with the machine. I was loosing or adding steps.
was not in all cases. I made some pictures with holes and those patterns with 25.000 holes looked very nice and no problem with accuracy. when making 3D molds for making model airplane wings I run into accuracy problems. checked all bolts, the fixation from the gears, the tension of the belt etc. some bolts from the z axis get a little untight so periodic inspection is not that bad
I mounted two dial indicators accuracy 0.01 mm with magnet clamps to the c beams to monitor if the machine was coming back in its home position after the routing job.... it wasn't.
made my nerves. looked that it was more when I used bigger cutters, and use some more cutting power.
changed the acceleration settings, put the acceleration back, so it can not be that it is loosing steps, cut at low speed, still not solved.

Then my computer breaks down.
was not a big thing. the battery from the laptop was that bad, it didn't pas the power from the always connected power supply, and the clock battery was empty.
when I removed the laptop from my control unit, I mentioned that the cable from the frequency controller to the router was very close to the rs 232 cable which runs from the laptop to the desk cnc controller.

when installing the computer back in the control unit, I put it farther away from the frequency controller and routed the cable to the spindle away from the other cables.

machine started up, and I was happy again.
then It looks that my positioning problem was solved. my x y gauges showed less then 0.03mm offset and z (ball screws) within 0.01
when I walk in my workshop, and I see the mechmate, I get a always a big smile on my face

we bought recently a piece of land, for building a new house, and create some more space for my mechmate.
Yes I am very happy with my bolted frame. and with some luck I am going to extend the machine to 125 x 250 cm. I designed the table that way, that it is prepared for it, but first let build the house

[servant74]

As an aside, I found a problem with an old laptop, even when running from 'house power' it still had power problems. I borrowed a used battery from another machine and the issue with power went away. It appears that even if not used, the battery plays an active part of the power circuit in some laptops. Possibly similar to a filter or a big capacitor in helping filter otherwise power that is to 'rough' for the laptop to handle. .... Just my random thoughts.

[Fox]

Adding to that for future mm owners... Laptops have strong power management schemes, sometimes even embedded into their bios by their manufacturers . This can interfere with your pulsestream which make them less desirable compared to a regular pc for controlling your cnc.

[servant74]

If you insist on using a laptop, using http://www.planet-cnc.com/ or SmoothStepper from http://www.warp9td.com/ (http://www.warp9td.com/) or similar.

I think these kinds of devices are going to become more prevalent as hard-core printer ports and energy savings in machines comes harder to find/defeat.

PS: I have used neither of these, but have seen some good reports. They currently seem to only work with Mach3. They might support Mach4 but I don't know about LinuxCNC (I kind of doubt it, but new developments happen all the time!)

[rischoof]

Hello from holland. Last 4 years I billded a new house. To create workspace I let build a basement under the house which is going to be my workshop. In the garage I have an opening in the floor to lower equipment. Mechmate is ready to go downstairs. I didn't disconnect the z from the y cart. With help from my son,I could just lift it. Looking forward to assemble and start using it. Still need a new kitchen in the house. A nice mechmate project

[lonestaral]

Hello Rik.

Sounds like a major job, hope all goes well for you.

I was planning on moving myself later in the year but
I am not sure now because of what is happening in the world.
Just have to see what happens.

Take care.

[rischoof]

hey all,
here some news. I moved the machine down to the basement and re-assembled the machine. Then it would start up.... and I had to spent some evenings on measuring, checking, re-measuring. I had two issues. first the machine was not releasing the safety circuit, and second, the computer would not start up.
The first issue is solved. my safety circuit "needs" an certain resistance to ensure every thing is connected and I have no broken wires. the resistance of some switch buttons and safety buttons seems to be to high. I used moeller a22 contacts and buttons which I bought in Taiwan. they A 22 contact blocks, I could not buy here. so I swapped everything with moeller M22 contact blocks, and the buttons and button frames were also not compatible. So I replaced 4 emo's 8 start / pause, and my machine start up button.
after swapping it started up immediately. the area were I lived in Taiwan was an hotspring area with a lot of sulfur in the air which is corroding electronics. that's what I suspect. Good news is that it looks that it is solved.
The second issue, the computer not starting up, seems to be caused by an empty bios battery. the one in my computer is soldered to the connections. tried to buy a battery with soldering lips on it, but all shops, except supermarket and drug stores, are closed by the corona lock down in Holland. bought cr 2032 battery without the soldering lips, and tried to solder it.. but it exploded. will order on line a battery with soldering lips and install that one. Than I can rout some stuff, instead off talking about routing...
Yvo, who announced himself at the "start building" topic visit me today. and luckily I could show him a working mechmate. (the computer will start after a couple off attempts)
So he had some questions, and he wanted to see some stuff in real life. so we had some nice talks and could show how everything's works. we are friends for at least 35 years, and his parents used to be my nabors till I moved to my new house.
I hope I can by some material during the lock down, to start with my kitchen project. at some shops I can order on line and pick it up. since April I have to work from home here. The situation is not good here, and don't seems to be improved despite the lock down. so to all, stay safe

[rischoof]

Hello all
Some while ago i replaced the computer. I used a very aged laptop which had an 40 gb harddisk. I bougt a used small dell computer which fits in my operating cabinet. And got a big monitor from my brother in law. I installed the desk cnc software from its installation disk and set all the required parameters. Surprised it was not working. During homing it stops and i could not move manualy my axis. After copying the old program from the laptop to the new pc, it was working like it should do.
I have a new controll board from usb cnc laying ready to install but i didnt installed it yet because everything was running.
I still have to finish some stuff in my new house, so my time is limited.
I made 8 storage cabinets and used the machine for making the holepaterns for the shelves and hinges. Also i made some name signs for horses. I got some horse furtelizer for the garden and they got some signs.

[rischoof]

here some pictures of the signs I made.

[jhiggins7]

Very nice work. Thanks for sharing.:)