Dust foot and custom clamps done #3 - Conway, AR

[Doug_Ford]

I've been reading the messages on this website for about a month or so to make sure I didn't ask questions that have already been answered. This site is the best.

Thanks Gerald for being so generous with your time and knowledge. Instead of setting up a business and making money off of us, you've chosen to help a bunch of strangers. I'm truly in awe. If you ever decide to visit my area, you have a free place to stay for as long as you like.

There are also a bunch of other people on this site who have been generous with their time and knowledge and I don't want to forget them so thanks to you also.

[Gerald D]

Welcome Doug!

Whenever I get such an offer of free accommodation, I quickly check to see if a nice exotic location is involved. See, this is the nefarious plot behind my "generosity" - I am building a virtual retirement home. One day when I am really old and cranky (and incontinent) I will sell my house and go and live off all you kind folk :D

[Doug_Ford]

Gerald,

I wanted to give you an update on the status of my Mechmate.

Attached is a picture of the X-beams, legs, and bracing that I finished welding and painting. Also, I have attached a photo of my setup for cutting down the side of my angle iron. That was some hard work because I didn't have any help but I finally finished. My last 11 foot stick probably took me only a little over an hour to do.

Although I ordered some oil hardening steel for the rollers, I think I will make them out of mild steel after reading some of your posts on the subject. I'll let you know how they work out.

Thanks again for all of your help. You're a hell of a great guy.

Doug

[Gerald D]

Some nice re-cycling there Doug - looks good! :)

(Like the trestles with the non slip tops and handles too)

[Doug_Ford]

Yesterday, I finished painting my machine. Al the mechanicals are done except for machining the router mounting bracket. Once I get everything reassembled and the Mechmate logo attached - probably two weeks - I'll post pictures.

[smreish]

Doug,
I can't wait to see your finished product. I will be on the fast track build here in florida. I hope to have a completed machine before Thanksgiving.
I am certain I will want to compare notes.
Congratulations on getting to the finish line!
Sean

[Doug_Ford]

Thanks Sean but I started with the mechanical stuff first so I still have to wire it up. A couple of months ago, I checked and it seems like most guys are taking approximately 9-10 months to make their first cut. At that rate, I'll probably start cutting in Feb 08.

[Doug_Ford]

These aren't very good pics. My garage is crowded, the camera is a cheap one and the sun is going down but I promised to post some pictures.

Right now, I'm in the middle of running the cables and wiring up the control box. I tried to do it on the kitchen table like Gerald recommends but I found out that my wife wasn't going to put up with that.

The pinions I ordered were 35 tooth. That caused me to have to countersink the top two bolts and mill the slot so the motor will swing low enough to clear the rack if I need to disengage it.

My control box is only just beginning to get wired. Lots of wires missing so don't critique the quality of my work yet.

[Jay W]

Doug,

That is really looking great! I can only say I wish I was that far along.....

[smreish]

Nicely done! ...and it's blue! Doug, is your machine the 4' x 8' size? It looks so nice, neat and compact. Great to see you uploaded the pictures...I was hoping you would have them up for reference before I got to far along. I was anxious to compare notes on your installation of the geared stepper motors.
Side note:
Did you use 2 runs of 1" or 3/4" conduit to make that corner on the y carriage like JR?

[Doug_Ford]

Thanks Jay and Sean. I built it to cut 4X8 sheets and that's 3/4 inch conduit. Don't cut your's yet until I can see if all the cables fit in it. I'll let you know within a couple of weeks. I can already see that the sharp corners are going to be tough so I'd probably recommend that you bend your's. I wasn't able to bend mine because of clearance problems at the corner of the gantry.

[smreish]

Doug,
Thanks for the quick reply. By the way...did you get your contactor working?

[Gerald D]

Good stuff Doug! :)

Are those pinions really 35 tooth? I seem to count 40+ in the photos. The double-sided tape also looks rather prominent (thick) - that could have been another reason the motors sit low.

I only realise now it is a good idea to countersink the top two geared motor screws even if the motor sits level - as you say, we want to be able to drop the motors for fault-finding. (My lack of experience on geared motors is showing)

I really like the small footprint Antek power supply - it makes the control box much more spacious.

[Doug_Ford]

Thanks Gerald. I was worried about what you might say. I just went out in the garage and counted them and they are 35 tooth pinions. The tape is the 2mm thick stuff. I clamped the racks with G clamps to make sure it held well but it didn't compress much.

When I ordered the power supply from Antek, John remembered you. So did the guys at PMDX when I went there. I like the PS too but I wish I had mounted it a little more toward the edge to give myself more room to work on the PMDX terminals.

With your sharp eyes, you probably noticed what looked like some rough places on the horizontal surface of the X axis rail in the pic with my truck in the background. It is actually smooth. Those are metal shavings from drilling holes to mount the cable boxes. Yes, the control box door was shut at the time so it isn't metal shavings that are messing up the contactor.:)

Sean: I haven't worked on it yet. My garage is dark and cold after the sun goes down so I quit for the evening.

[gmessler]

Looking good Doug.:)

The contactor I have is the Teco cn16. Haven't got it hooked up yet but my a1-a2 resistance is 139 ohms. Hope this helps.

Keep those pics coming.

I can relate to your comment about Geralds eyes. I worry every time I post a picture.;) But then I think about the fact that if there is a problem that he'll catch it before it's too late. It's kind of like long distance quality control. :D

[Gerald D]

Hey guys, don't make me nervous to say what I see - you don't want me to go all soft do you? :) The only thing I noticed that was missing was the licence plate on your truck - you don't have laser gun cops? We have private contractors with laser guns (and other devices) who earn a percentage of the fines they collect.

(The 2mm tape is correct - just looked more obvious in the pic.)

[cncgrinder]

Most states in the USA only require you to have a plate on the back of the vehicle.

[Alan_c]

Very nice Doug

Good progress and neat work (wives just dont understand do they :rolleyes: mine even refers to my project as "the other woman")

[Doug_Ford]

Gerald: I'm holding that space open until you to create a MM license plate.:)

Alan: Thanks. I can understand my wife's objection. In the past, I've had more than my fair share of accidents so she likes to keep me confined to either the garage or the back yard to minimize collateral damage.:o

[Abdul]

Alan,
Ha ha very true about wives,

Dough,
Very nice, neatly done. Appritiate more pics.

[Doug_Ford]

Thanks Abdul. My machine is just a standard Mechmate. Nothing unique about it. Is there anything in particular that you would like me to take a picture of?

[Abdul]

I appritiate pic of control box from top, so much people doing it differently, and I think you are not installing fan also. I love to see blue paint.

[Doug_Ford]

Okay. It will probably be this weekend though before I can take the pic. I am using a fan. It is the black object under the Geckos.

[Doug_Ford]

It's cold here this weekend and my wife took pity on me and let me bring the control panel in the kitchen for a little while so I got a little more done on it.

Attached is the photo from the top that Abdul asked for. Keep in mind that it is a long way from finished. I have pin connectors to add and some other stuff to do after I receive my ratcheting crimper in the mail. And I want to zip tie some of the wires together to make it a little neater.

Also, attached are photos of the router bracket I made over the last week. I should have taken pictures of it before I mounted it on the Z axis. I milled slots to capture the square nuts so I only need an allen head to make adjustments rather than an allen head wrench and a wrench for the nuts.

[sailfl]

Doug,

Your build is looking very good.

I have a couple questions:

It looks like your Main Logitudinal Beams C Channel is about 10" high. Is that correct?

It also looks like you used rectangular tubing for your cross bearings for the table. Are they 2" or 3"?

Why did you decided to use tubing for the cross bearings.

Thanks
Nils

[Doug_Ford]

Hey Nils,

Thanks. The main beams are 8 inches high. The rectangular crossmembers are 2"X4" tube. I purchased the main longitudinal beams for another project that I never got around to working on and they were laying in my backyard. I found the 2"X4" tube at a local steel scrapyard the first weekend that I downloaded the plans. They were close in size to the channel Gerald used in the plans so I decided to buy them for 15 cents per pound rather than buy new channel for more money. Plus, their length was almost perfect so I had very little waste. I bought all they had and ended up with 4 extras that I plan to use for my next MM. I'm guessing that a local company had mis-cut them because they were new.

[gmessler]

Wow Doug,

Really looking good! :) Wish I had the time to get back to work on my machine. Did I read that you had made the mount for your router? It looks fantastic. Is that the Milwaukee router? Are you interested in making another mount? :D

[Doug_Ford]

Yes. I made it. Unfortunately, it took me three days and cost me almost as much in raw materials as the ready made brackets!!! I wish I could help you out but....:)

[Gerald D]

Very nice Doug!

Please check that your router bracket does not foul 10 20 451/2 (y-car against the end-stop, z-slide near top).

[Greg J]

Doug,

Nice machine!! Bet you can't wait to start cutting :)

Keep the pic's coming.

[Abdul]

Very Nice and Clean mounts, I am with gmessler for another spare one :)
Thanks for foto, if you could post from top ? To get how much spacing among boards is required for heat or interferences.

[Doug_Ford]

I'm sorry Abdul. I misunderstood what you wanted. I will take the correct picture this time. And I'll include some tape measures in the photo too. However, let me give you a word of caution. I'm probably the last guy on this forum that you should be copying when it comes to electronics. ;)

Greg J, I'm dying to cut something. I even considered turning on the router and pushing the car and gantry around. It seems like there is always something else to work on. Some minor but necessary detail.

I know my brackets are kind of chunky and unsophisticated but I left them with extra material because I thought that I might want to mount my dust collection foot to them if I ever get around to designing it. I'm leaning toward having the dust collector foot raise and lower with the router rather than mounting it at a fixed height.

[Doug_Ford]

Gerald,

I checked the clearance and it is fine as long as I leave the spider mounted in the current holes. If I move it forward, I'll have a problem with clearance. If I move it back one set of holes, I won't be able to route the edge of the sheet. For what I plan to use it for, I don't think I'll have a problem. I can trim the bracket if it presents a problem later. Or I was thinking that I might just design a new one and use the MM to cut it out once I get it running. At least I have a way to hold the router if I choose that option.:)

[Greg J]

Doug,

What sheilded cable did you decide to use?

Is it a foil or wire braid?

[Doug_Ford]

Wire braid from Helukabel. A little on the expensive side. I posted the info in the cable thread.

[Greg J]

Thanks Doug,

Should've looked there first. Still on my first cup of coffee :)

[Doug_Ford]

Gerald,

My wife and I have gotten a good laugh out of your thread titles. Thanks.

Abdul: Here are a couple of pictures of my control panel with some tape measures included so you can see the spacing. Unfortunately, one of them has a lot of wires obscuring one of the tapes. My camera isn't too good so I couldn't tell what it looked like until I loaded it on the computer. Maybe it will be of use to you anyway.

Also, there is another picture of my router bracket without the router installed.

After it was too dark to take a picture, I finished mounting my control box enclosure on the wall. Actually, it isn't on the wall. I temporarily mounted it on my H-frame hydraulic press at the height I will mount it permanently in its new home one day. The control panel isn't installed yet. I just wanted the enclosure in place so I could cut and bend the conduit for my cables.

Yesterday, I received my ratcheting crimper pliers from Harbor Freight. Wow. I was surprised at the high quality. A lot of Harbor Freight's tools aren't something I would purchase if I planned to use them every day but I think these pliers will last a long time. For $9.99, they were definitely worth the money. Tonight, I plan to start crimping on my pin terminals.

[Abdul]

OK, thanks
Its 14.5"x22" approx. I am receiving my Geckos (SALE) very soon. I will do this part first.

[Gerald D]

Doug, I read through this whole thread again, and it seems you are about a week or two away from cutting. Setting up and using Mach3 is probably your next big hurdle. Have you actually had the motors turning with short temporary wires yet? (I can see myself disappearing on holiday when your headaches with Mach3 start)

. . . . I finished mounting my control box enclosure on the wall. Actually, it isn't on the wall. I temporarily mounted it on my H-frame hydraulic press at the height I will mount it permanently in its new home one day.


Something that I havn't spelled out yet; Mount the box about 40mm [1.5"] off the wall so that air can rise up past the back face as well. Either use 4 "stand-offs" or 2 vertical "studs". The air convects vertically....don't put horizontal stringers across the natural air flow.

[Doug_Ford]

Thanks for worrying about me Gerald but you are more optimistic than I am about when I will actually cut something. :) Over the next 10 days, I'll be busy at work so I won't be able to log much time in the garage. I predict February or late January at the earliest before I'm actually cutting. I'm still waiting for a couple of pieces of cable and I can't find a large ground wire that is flexible enough. Plus, I'm slow, methodical, and can't seem to focus on more than one task at a time so I get to the end of a project and realize I don't have the parts for my next project. Geez. You would think I would have learned by now. I have not hooked up my motors yet.

Thanks for the pointers on mounting my enclosure. I had already studied your setup so I used two 2" square vertical "studs" like you. It looks pretty good.

I LOVE my new pin conectors. They work great. The only problem I had was that I didn't pay close attention to the pin sizes when I ordered them so only the 14-16 AWG blue connectors would fit in my Gecko terminals and they were a very tight fit. The PMDX board terminals were larger so I didn't have a problem there.

[domino11]

Doug,
Have you thought about using a heavy copper braid for a flexible ground connection? We use that a lot when we need a good low impedance ground that needs to be flexable as well. How long do you need to run? Braid is much more flexible than say twisted copper.

[Doug_Ford]

Great idea Heath. Thanks. I'll start shopping for it. I planned to buy approximately 40 feet.

[Greg J]

(I can see myself disappearing on holiday when your headaches with Mach3 start)

Aaah, don't forget Gerald, Doug and the rest of us have the reputable Mr. Richards to fill in for those pesky software/electrical/electronic questions. :)

I "dry" fitted my table (before weld up) this evening. My new gantry crane is a back saver. Geez, this is one beast of a machine. Hoping to post pictures soon. If I don't, have a joyous holiday!!

[Gerald D]

And you also have two Mach forums.

On the ground cable, our very first table was done with 3-core power cord with the 3 cores twisted and crimped together in yellow crimps.

[Doug_Ford]

The other day at one of the electrical supply businesses in the area, a salesman told me that I needed MTW grade wire. MTW stands for machine tool wire. Last night, I found it on the McMaster Carr site and ordered 50 feet of AWG 10. I think that's the last thing I need to buy.

[domino11]

Doug,
If you are thinking of using the braid for a ground strap, for a termination, you can just part a hole in the flattened end and then put a fastener with a washer through it and then bolt it on to your ground plate or whatever. if you need a smaller termination you can solder a wire of needed size to the braid (then shrink wrap it for looks etc if you want ) and then use your prefered termination on the wire you want, say like crimp terminations.

[Greg J]

Doug,

Have you decided on a dust collection system yet?

I ordered the ClearVue unit yesterday. My decision was based on the lower cost, adequate performance curves for my shop, and, so far, good customer service.

[Doug_Ford]

Greg,

I'm thinking about building a system using Bill Pentz's instructions for a couple of reasons: 1) I'm cheap and 2) I like building stuff. Usually, I end up spending almost as much and taking 4 or 5 times longer that way but I enjoy the process. Let me know how you like it. I may end up ordering the Clearvue system too.

Have you figured out what kind of foot you'll use? I'm still thinking about using 6" duct that transitions to a long rectangle for part of it. I've seen the transitions at Lowes and Home Depot. When I finish connecting my cables, I'll start working on the foot.

This weekend, I finished bending the conduit (that connects the control box to the table) and constructing the clamping system that locks it all to the table. I'm pretty happy with it. And then I stuffed it all with cable. This week, I'll finish connecting them all.

What do you have left to do?

[Greg J]

Doug,

My DC system will arrive this week (early Christmas present). I'm taking all next week off and the following Monday (day before New Years). Guess what I'll be doing? Relaxing, watching TV ... NOPE ... I'll be constructing an equipment room external to my shop. :D The DC and air compressor will reside there. I'll be using 6 inch main ducting to the router table. From the main, I'll transition to the shortest possible 4 inch run (flex hose) to the router intake foot.

As for the "foot", I'm keeping it simple. With a minimum of 800 CFM [cubic feet per minute], I really think a minimual skirt will be required. Check out the video on the Clear Vue web site. It shows a CNC router with the cyclon DC.

As for my progress, I spent all day Saturday and Sunday, welding on the table. I've got the cross members welded to the main beam, and the base (legs and cross members) welded up. I wanted to attach (weld) the base to the main beams, but my wife said I was working to hard and to call it quits. I'll weld the base to the main beams Monday and start attaching the rails the rest of the week. :)

[gmessler]

You guys are all killing me.
I've been so busy at work that I haven't been able to work on the Mechmate.:(
It's great to see everybody making such good progress.:)

[Doug_Ford]

Greg M: I'm not moving that quickly. Insomnia has been taking its toll lately and by the time I get home from work, I'm usually too exhausted to tinker in the garage. I probably won't get 4 hours sleep tonight and once I get locked into these sleepless cycles, it takes me several weeks of exhaustion to get out of them.

Greg: Have you checked to see if 6 inch flex hose will fit your car? It appears that it will fit in mine. The way I have my Z axis plate and router mounted leaves me just enough room to fit it all in. Of course, I haven't actually purchased the hardware but I took some measurements. Bill Pentz's site says a four inch restriction kills airflow so I want to keep mine as big as possible. I think a 6 inch round to rectangular sheetmetal transition can be soldered to seal it up and fitted with some additional metal to make a nice DC foot. If it works, I'll post pictures and instructions for others to follow.

I wish I had room to spread out like you. When we moved here, I let my wife talk me into living in a suburb rather than out in the country like I wanted. So I'm crammed into a two car garage with no way to add on.

[Greg J]

Doug,

Maybe I'm missing something (I'll re-read Bill Pentz's site again) but I don't think a short section of 4 inch hose will kill air flow. I'm guessing a 6 foot length of 4 inch flex hose from the router to the 6 inch main.

Again, check out the video. It shows a 4 inch hose at the router.

Give me time to re-read, and if I change my mind, I'll let you know.

[sailfl]

Greg,

Which Clearview system did you buy?

[Greg J]

Doug,

I stand corrected. After reading the duct design section on the clear vue site, it recommends as short as possible run of 4 inch (3-4 feet), but 6 inch diameter is better. Let me think about this some more. :)


Nils,

I went with the LH Combo. Model CV 1800 cyclone and 15 inch blower housing. I'm just a one man shop, so didn't require the MAX model.

[Doug_Ford]

Here are some pictures of how I have my control box mounted and the conduit layout. I installed four pieces of 3/4 inch conduit hoping that I would have enough space in the tubes to pull the cables out with their pin connectors on them. The second picture was taken from up under the table. Those pieces of angle iron are not visible if you are standing beside the table. I plan to paint the mild steel brackets MM blue once the weather warms up. The two aluminum plates in the bottom of the control box are there to seal up the hole I had to cut in order to be able to run the parallel port cable into the box.

[Allegheny]

Doug,

Nice job with the EMT, but you should consider placing threaded bushings on the ends of the conduit. These are little plastic rings that thread onto the very end of the connectors inside the box - they prevent the sharp edges of the conduit/connectors from cutting the insulation of the wire.

McMaster-Carr sells them and I'm sure you can also get them at HD or Lowes.

The stock number for 3/4" bushings for M-C is: 7513K212

Brian

[smreish]

Doug....and you said you did "junky" work. Nice conduit runs. If you decide to move to Orlando, your hired.
Sean

[Doug_Ford]

Thanks Brian. I'll order some.

Thanks Sean. That is my second set of conduit.:) The first set didn't suit me.

[Doug_Ford]

I'm so close to finishing up I can't believe it. Unfortunately, due to my work schedule, I don't be able to touch it for the next 6 days. I knew that would happen!

Last night, I finally set up my shop computer and loaded Mach3. It ran perfectly with Vista. I hope I don't run into problems when I actually try to cut something. The computer was on sale at Office Depot for $249. It has 1GB of RAM, 2.6Ghz operating speed, and a 250 Gig harddrive. No monitor though.

The control box is finished I believe. I want to go over it one more time and double check the tightness of all the terminal screws. I still need to connect three of the motors to their cables and the router to it's cable and that will complete the electrical portion. One of my daughters helped me run a check on the E-stop, pause, and resume circuits using a multimeter and they worked perfectly. Just in case that last sentence was misinterpreted, my arms weren't long enough to press the buttons while I was standing at the control box. I didn't need her assistance in figuring out how to make the connections with the meter. :)

In regard to the mechanical portion, I need to reassemble the Z-axis and check to see that the V-rollers will tighten up and then set it perpendicular to the table surface. I finally found the bearing I needed for the car so I need to press it on the stub shaft and assemble that motor mount to the car. Oh yeah, I still need to fabricate and paint the small bracket that attaches the Z-axis motor's tensioning spring to the car.

Finally, I have to get the Mechmate logo. That's it. Next weekend, I'll have 4 days off. I hope I don't jinx anything but I expect to be cutting something then. This whole experience has been a blast. Thanks again Gerald.

[Gerald D]

Hey, why didn't I see this thread since I got back? There are some nice pictures here! :)

*turns off lawnmower for the weekend and settles in for some reading*

[Doug_Ford]

Thanks Gerald. It has been too chilly to paint those brackets on my conduit but I'll get around to that when the weather warms up a bit. I wish it was mowing weather around here. The wires in my control box are pretty stiff in these temperatures and the other night, I worked until my fingers couldn't feel anything.

[Gerald D]

This thread took me back exactly a year to this post (http://www.mechmate.com/forums/showthread.php?p=1860&postcount=41). My reply to Fabrica (Udaya) is mostly still valid.

Let you into a small secret; we never the closed the hole where the parallel cable enters the box. My excuse was that it was a very scientific test to see the amount of dust ingress. Well, the dust ingress is very little. The big worry is that it doesn't look "professional" to leave it open - so I keep it as a secret ;)

[Doug_Ford]

It's alive!!! :D I couldn't wait any longer. All day at work, I kept thinking about it and reading the Mach 3 manual when I had the chance. Near the end of the day, I decided that I had enough info to finish configuring Mach so I ran home, jumped on my computer and finished it up. Then I told my wife that I was going to see if it works. I carried the computer out into the garage and turned the control box on for the first time ever about 1 hour ago. Then I hooked the parallel port cable to the computer and booted it and started Mach. I didn't have the springs installed so I hit the down arrow and I could see the pinion spinning. The right and left arrows made the gantry motors spin and my wife confirmed that the front side was spinning in the right direction so I decided to install the springs. Man, she's FAST!!!! Since I don't have any experience with CNC gantry routers (just a Hass mill in night technical school) I guess she might be slow compared to everyone else's but she seem FAST to me. :p

After reading JR's post, I decided to bump the speed up to 35,000 pulses and she seemed to operate fine. Of course, I understand that I'm not cutting anything and everything will change when I do but right now, I'm floating on a cloud. The pause and resume buttons worked perfectly. I also loaded the roadrunner code that comes with Mach and she simulated cutting it out. I say "simulated" because I don't have the router or the Z-axis hooked up yet. I still need to fabricate that small bracket and connect the router power cable. I did see the Z pinion spinning when the program told it to.

Whew. I bet I don't get a minute's sleep tonight.

THANKS GERALD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I've been dreaming about this day for years and you made it come true. I really owe you man. Thanks again.

[smreish]

Doug,
What great news! It looks like you have one fine Blue Beast on your hands.
Congrats on making it your MM come alive....Nothing sweeter than watching that gantry fly across the table.
Funny how you mentioned "fast". I attentively watch all the "how fast you can make it go" threads it calculations never really seem to do it justice.
Good luck on the rest of the build! + stay warm in the shop. (now only if those Geckos and steppers would get warmer you might have something :-O
Sean

[Greg J]

Doug,

Congratulations!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

As soon as I saw that you posted, I new you couldn't wait any longer. :)

Can't wait to see your first project.

Happy for ya, bud! :D

[Doug_Ford]

Thanks Sean and GregJ. I forgot to thank all the other people that helped me along the way with great advice. I especially want to thank Mike Richards for being so patient with me.

Next weekend, after I finish working my long hours, I'll be cutting something.

[gmessler]

Congratulations Doug!:)

Great job.....I haven't even had the chance to even look at my machine in over a month. :mad:

Looking forward to your pics and seeing your first cutting.

Okay....GregJ and Sean.....who's next?

[smreish]

Greg M,
It will most likely be Greg J. I have a 2 year old and a newborn to be here any hour now....so, It looks like I will be on hiatus soon-but not for long.
Sean

[Gerald D]

:D:D

[Roadkill_321]

Congratulations Doug! Glad to hear it's alive!

John

[J.R. Hatcher]

Doug do you want to slow it down a bit. I'm over here busting my butt trying to make chips first and this extra pressure is not helping. Just so everyone will know if I make smoke while wiring this thing, it's Doug's fault.:D:D:D:D:D:D Congratulations



Doug I think I hear your wife calling you. She would like for ya'll to go to her mothers for about 3 days........ right now:p

[sailfl]

Doug,

Congratulations!! All your effort and work has paid off!!!!

So where are the PHOTOS. You can't have a new Baby with out the photos and the first cut.

[Doug_Ford]

Thanks guys but I'm not finished yet. Still a few tiny details that have to be attended to. Hopefully, I'll post pictures of my first cut this coming weekend.

[domino11]

Congrats Doug! :D:)
Its great to hear all those completing their Mechmates, some of us are just starting the gathering stage. :)

[stefanv]

Great Doug!! Can't wait till my day comes!!!
Stefan

[zetacnc]

Congratulations Doug!!!

It's nice to see our effort results...

[Greg J]

Hey Doug,

Just curious why you went with the 35 tooth pinions versus 30 tooth.

I think I'll order my rack and pinons, and gas spring tonight.

Thanks,
Greg

[Doug_Ford]

Greg J,

Around the time I was about to order them, I had read a couple of posts on this forum that conflicted. One of the posts spoke about using a 30 tooth and the other a 35 tooth pinion. I think the post from Doc Tanner said he ordered a 35 tooth pinion. His machine seemed to be working correctly and he appeared to have researched the matter and seemed to know what he was doing so I ordered what he did. I'm happy with them so far but I haven't cut anything.

I just returned from a trip last night. This weekend, I plan to conduct some speed tests on my machine. I'll let everyone know how fast the rapids are. I'm thinking I'll try the 45,000 pulses per second setting to see what I get out of her. As they say, speed is addictive.:D

[Greg J]

Thanks Doug,

Look forward to your test results.

Greg

[Doug_Ford]

I applied my logos today and fabricated and painted the Z-axis spring anchor bracket. Unfortunately, I'm still working on the spider plate and I don't want to hook up the router wires until I have the Z-axis plate bolted back into place. It's a long story but last weekend when I moved the welded on nuts, one of them didn't move enough so I had to grind it back off and relocate it. This time it is in the right place but I had to repaint the spot welds again. I also had another set back. The outside diameter of the hold down bearing for the car was too small. Dang it. At least the stub shaft I turned on my lathe was a perfect press fit. I'm still going to try cutting something tomorrow. I'll just use a low feedrate and shallow passes. Will post a pic if it works.

799

[sailfl]

Doug,

Nice logo job..... I like it.

[Gerald D]

Oof... I am far too modest for that huge name & address :eek: Maybe I should make up some 4"x3" serial number decals that I could post out from here?

The outside diameter of the hold down bearing for the car was too small.

Tell me more about this please - is there a mistake somewhere?

[Doug_Ford]

It wasn't your mistake. I couldn't find the exact bearing I needed so I ordered one that had the correct inside diameter and didn't pay close attention to the outside diameter. No big deal. It only cost $6.00 or so and I'll order a new one tomorrow from McMaster.

A data plate would be cool but I thought that I ought to give you some form of recognition for all you've done for me and the other guys on this forum.

[Gerald D]

. . . . some form of recognition for all you've done for me and the other guys on this forum.

That size of lettering is about what is used on a tombstone - maybe wait till I pass on first?? ;)

I couldn't find the exact bearing I needed so I ordered one that had the correct inside diameter and didn't pay close attention to the outside diameter.

Here I have to admit that this also happened to me. :o My solution at that time was to grind a big notch in the shaft behind the bearing . . . . . .

[Greg J]

Doug,

Nice logo work. Did you buy them on-line or at a local shop?

Looking forward to the pictures today.

[Doug_Ford]

A local shop cut the MM logos for $5 total. I placed them on the front surfaces only since the back wouldn't show. The gantry letters are 2.5" tall and the car and box letters are 1.25" tall. The other verbiage was cut by my cousin for free.

My wife and I both agreed that the logos really help to finish the machine off and add a professional look.

[Doug_Ford]

I'm finally finished. Now I just need to figure out how to make it cut something. Looks like J.R. and I will finish and cut at exactly the same time. Below are some more pictures.

789

790

791

792

793

794

795

796

797

[Greg J]

Dang Doug,

I think both you and J.R. should be banned from posting pictures for awhile. :D Great looking machine.

A lot of high standards being set.

[Doug_Ford]

Thanks Greg but mine is just a basic machine. The fit and finish of it doesn't compare to some of the other guys and I don't have any innovative ideas like J.R. but I appreciate your comments.

[Greg J]

Doug,

Give yourself more credit. When your so focused on the project and have the blinders on, you lose sight of the forest.

Think about your knowledge base when you started this adventure and what you have learned. Think about all the cool things your going to create with this "basic" machine. Trust me, yours (or any MechMate) is no basic machine.

[Doug_Ford]

My solution at that time was to grind a big notch in the shaft behind the bearing . . . . . .[/QUOTE]

I forgot to mention in my earlier post that I was able to make the bearing work. After I read your post, I relooked at my setup and noticed that all I needed to do was to mill a slightly longer slot in the motor mount plate and voila. It worked. Thanks for the idea Gerald.

[Doug_Ford]

I agree Greg. I can't wait to start cutting something. It is supposed to get down to 16 degrees F tonight and although it's not there yet, it's too dang cold to go out into the garage. I can wait until tomorrow when it warms up.

[J.R. Hatcher]

Doug that's a nice machine I know you are proud, I would be.
On my machine I need to hook up the power wire to the router and add the spoil board. Remember mine hasn't moved yet...:eek:
What thickness is your board?

[Gerald D]

It is a beauty! :D

[Doug_Ford]

Thanks Gerald.

J.R., I have a 3/4" spoil board and two more sheets of 3/4" mdf on top of that.

[gmessler]

Lookin good Doug:)

[javeria]

Beautiful Dough! Beautiful!

[sailfl]

Doug,

Very nice work and machine. I like your computer stand. Looks like it was made by Craftsman!

[Gerald D]

Irfan, there is a difference between Doug & dough. You use dough to make bread - we sometimes say someone is as stupid as dough. That is not Doug. :):):)

[javeria]

OOOPS, thnX G' for pointing it out

I am sorry Doug, don't blame me some time its the language though :D

and windows did not point out the error: :)

So its always mistake by Mr. Bill Gates :D

RGDS
IRfan

[Gerald D]

;):)

[Doug_Ford]

I only had a 1/2" bit but I think it's still legible.

Can I get a serial number Gerald?:D

[Roadkill_321]

Awesome Doug! I can't wait to get to that stage myself. Your hard work and fine craftsmanship paid off!

[sailfl]

Doug,

All put together and it actually cuts!!!

Looks Great!

[OBXCNC]

Doug,
Wow I have been lurking on this website a half a dozen or so times a day for 4-5 months. Just learning and watching the process of building this great machine of Gerald's. Your completion has brought me to the point I want to say something: CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!!!! Your build has been impressive, as well as JR's, Sean's and all the rest who are in the process.

[Doug_Ford]

Thanks John, Nils, and Carl. Carl, quit reading and get busy building Bubba. You'll be finished before you know it.:)

[Greg J]

WOW Doug,

Is that cool or what? Very appropriate first project. Frame it!!

Congratulations!!

[J.R. Hatcher]

Good job, well done. A+

[Marc Shlaes]

Inspiring!

[bleeth]

Well Doug: It look's like you're ready to make some dough!!!
(Yankee slang for $) :)

[Doug_Ford]

Thanks guys. I'm still floating on a cloud.

Notice that the board is not aligned with the edge of the spoilboard. I had to move the board to where the cutter was doing the cutting!!! :o Obviously, I've got a lot of learning to do.

[grandpi]

Nice first job.... I hope i will join you in few weeks in the mechmate users team !.

Pierre.

[smreish]

Doug,
congrats on your new baby blue! I'm in baby mode so everythings revolves around "baby" something right now.
I must say, that's some pretty nice cutting mister!
I will try to catch up. I took a couple hours of peace today to the shop and installed the cable chain on the gantry. Cable chain for the x axis and the a slide and I'm about done. Getting closer. Sean

[gmessler]

Fantastic Doug...Great Job!!! Keep us posted on your learning.

[Gerald D]

Great going Doug - it wan't that difficult was it? :)

Suggest you go back to the beginning of this thread and chuckle to yourself as you read it over again :D

[Doug_Ford]

Thanks guys. I really appreciate it.

No Gerald, it wasn't bad at all. In fact, I honestly enjoyed every single second of the process. The best thing is that I know this machine from top to bottom so if (or when) it breaks, I should have a good shot at getting it going again. If anyone has questions, please don't hesitate to ask.

Eventually, I'll get around to posting some specs and performance stats so other builders can know what to expect from a 35 tooth pinion if they decide to go that route. Maybe you, Mr. Richards, or some of the other guys can agree on some standardized tests we can all use.

[domino11]

Doug,
Awesome job on your Mechmate. Dont forget to show us some more of the beasts first jobs. :)

[Alan_c]

Well done Doug, a great job.

[Doug_Ford]

Thanks Alan and Heath. I still need to get a copy of Sheetcam, a 1/4" collet for my router, and some 1/4" bits before I can do much cutting. I remember one of Gerald's earlier posts warned us newbies to use cheap router bits at first. Very sound advice. :) I currently have a 1/2" high speed steel endmill in the router and it's a good thing it wasn't carbide because it would be a stub by now. I've already crashed it into the side of the spoilboard and twice into a clamp. Luckily, it wasn't spinning at the time.

[domino11]

Doug,
Why would you want to use 1/4 inch shank bits? I would feel better with half inch shank bits but with the cutting diameter you require. You should be able to get small cutting diameters in a half inch shank bit?

[revved_up]

Congrats, and thanks for all the good close up pics also makes it alot easier to wrap my mind around this monster :)

[Doug_Ford]

Heath,

The only reason is cost. Enco advertises 1/4" carbide bits with 1/4" shanks for approximately $12. I didn't find any 1/2" shank 1/4" dia. bits but I didn't look too hard and I have to believe they must cost more. I'm expecting to snap a few in half so the cheaper the better.

[DMS]

Awesome Doug, Inspiring and Very welldone.

[Gerald D]

Doug, another thing about starting with small cheap bits, is that they make less sawdust. The high speed steel bits are a waste of money though - we saw them go blunt in seconds, over a distance of a meter [3 ft] in plywood, at which point they went black, made smoke and the y-car jumped off the rails.

[J.R. Hatcher]

Gerald you are thinking to small Doug's serial # should be
S/N 0000003

I kinda like the look and sound of S/N 0000005. Eat your heart out Doug see how nice it rolls off the tongue, go ahead enjoy your S/N 0000003 :rolleyes: when I try to say it, it's a tongue twister, I didn't want the old 3 anyway:p

On the bit note, they make a double flute 1/4 solid carbide, not carbide tipped. They are brittle but take a small cut therefore easy on the machine.

[cobra427mnsi]

Just a quick thought on the solid carbide bits. If, at all possible, buy them from a machine shop or tool/die supplier rather that a woodwork supplier, they seem to be cheaper (not quality but price). That has been my experience, anyway.

Congrats Doug ! Now the learning begins !!

Paul

[Gerald D]

The serial no.s are no indication of the number of machines already built and running. Our machines don't have serial numbers - they have my blood on them! :)

Folk with personal threads here, and who have painted, logo'ed and cut; get the serial numbers. Their threads stay permanently on top (sticky threads).

[Greg J]

Doug,

Couldn't find on your thread or motor thread, what motor you went with.

Did you go with the PK296A2A-SG7.2 or the PK296A1A-SG7.2 ?

Interested in your motor performance. I know you just got the beast operating, so not really expecting motor performance results quite yet. :)

[Doug_Ford]

I went with the PK296A2A-SG7.2

I may have to work this weekend but if I don't, I'll try to at least post how fast she rapids at the different pulse rates.

[Roadkill_321]

You've got a beautiful machine there Doug. The level of craftsmanship around here is hard for me to compete with. :) How has the experimentation been going? Any more photo samples? Hope you're having a great time with your Mechmate.

John

[Doug_Ford]

Hey John,

Thanks but you can easily beat my level of craftsmanship. It's solid, dependable (I hope), and accurate but making it pretty was tough for me. Hopefully, my next one will be better.

It has been too cold down here for me to spend much time in the garage so I've concentrated on learning MagicTracer (a vectorization software), Mach3, and Sheetcam. Sheetcam is a great program and fairly intuitive but there is still quite a bit to experiment with. I found out yesterday that I have to work this weekend (which is going to be relatively warm:rolleyes:) so I won't get to do much. Last night, I reset my step settings in Mach because it was telling me that I was traversing 136 inches in the X-axis and I knew that was incorrect. I checked the settings and sure enough, it was set at the default of 2000 so I used the spreadsheet Gerald gave us to fix it. I know I had set it correctly at some point but I may have forgotten to press the "save these settings" button before I left the screen. I also noticed that when I made the change, the IPM dropped from 1050 to 801. Dang it.

[domino11]

Hey John,
Hopefully, my next one will be better.


Doug,
How many do you want to build? :eek::)

[Doug_Ford]

Heath,

I want two wood cutting MMs and one plasma cutting MM. Of course, wanting and having are two different things.

[Greg J]

Doug,

Have you had any problems using the Vista OS?

If I leave Mach3 running, not doing anything, the computer crashes. A simple re-boot and everything fine, but it shouldn't happen in the first place.

I'm considering buying XP.

[Doug_Ford]

I haven't had any problems but I haven't logged that many hours in Mach on my machine. When you leave it idling, how long does it take before it crashes? I've probably left mine idling for at least 10 minutes.

[smreish]

Greg,
Please make sure that your settings do the following:
- all power saving features turned off
- all screen savers are off
- all sharing on computer is off
- you have look at and read the vista OS update information on the artsoft website. They do have a troubleshoot q&A
There is an optimizing file to help with bugs.
Good luck,
Sean
BTW....I love XP and Tiger Direct has xpPro for 139 this week.

[Greg J]

Doug,

It was left on for around 30 to 45 min. during the kitchen project.


Sean,

Thanks, I haven't check any of those setting. I'll also checkout Tiger Direct.

[domino11]

Has anyone been using windows 2000 for cnc work? I have heard a lot of people find it more robust than xp for this type of work. Uses less cpu and memory than xp as well. Just a thought.

[Gerald D]

We use win2000 - have no complaints

[Doug_Ford]

I finally got around to doing some rapid traverse tests today. My machine has Vampire Geckos, PK296A2A-SG7.2 motors wired half coil with 35 tooth pinions.

I started with the pulse rate set at 35,000. From a dead stop, she traveled six feet in an average of 5.825 seconds which is 12.36 inches per second. Then I increased the pulse rate to 45,000 and retuned the motors. Under the same conditions, she averaged 4.64 seconds which is 15.51 inches per second.

Something strange happened during the tests though. Sometimes, she would travel 66 inches and then lock up. If she didn't lock up on the first pass, then on the return pass, she would lock up in the first 6-12 inches. I gradually slowed the acceleration rate down and when I reached 25, she quit locking up. Now, I wish I had waited to special order the gantry tubes in a thinner wall size. I used 1/8 inch.

I traversed at least a dozen more times without a lockup. However, I refuse to believe that it was still accelerating after 66 inches and I'm wondering if she was binding up or something. I haven't had a chance to set the Y axis square to the X axis and when I turn her on she clunks so maybe I need to drop the motor and spin the pinion until she starts more smoothly. Maybe the clunk gets her out of square and creates a high torque condition. Maybe the rails are slightly wider at the 66 inch point on my machine and the additional torque required to drive the gantry assembly through that point is enough to stall the motors out. Anybody else have a theory?

[Gerald D]

You make no mention of the Velocity setting in the motor tuning. This is the place where you set the max speed. The computer frequency has to be adequate, but shouldn't be the limitation on the speed.

That start-up clunk is never totally eliminated, but it can be reduced by squaring and engaging the pinion to rack at a different pair of teeth.

[Doug_Ford]

Gerald,

I left the velocity setting on the highest possible which was 1030. I think that's inches per minute. I believe the computer is a 2.8 Ghz Pentium with 1 Gig of RAM. After I reset to the highest pulse rate, I ran the driver test like Art recommends and it appeared to be fairly stable. About as stable as his computer was in the tutorial. If the gantry had stopped at random locations, I would have suspected the pulse rate was too high but it kept stopping at the same two locations. Tomorrow, I think I'll raise the acceleration rate to 50 and try the test from the other end of the table. If it stops at the same location on the gantry, that would seem to indicate a binding/high torque condition at that point. However, if it traverses approximately 66 inches and locks, that would seem to indicate a problem with the computer keeping up. I'll let everyone know what I discover.

[Gerald D]

Apparently, the higher the set frequency of the pulse engine on the PC, the more chance for problems. The recommendation appears to be to set the PC frequency as low as possible. That means you have to calculate the frequency needed to move at your desired top speed. What is your calculated frequency for say 15 inches/sec? (By the way, the speeds you are mentioning already sound quite respectable :))

On the acceleration and effect of mass, suggest you do a little test; clamp 20 pounds of iron on top of the gantry and see how much difference that makes. That will give an indication of what subtracting 20 pounds will do.

The pulse engine of Mach is not very smooth. It gets worse with bad PC's, or with multiple axes running at the same time. One day you will be able to plug a "Smoothstepper" between your PC and your BOB, but it is still under Beta test.

[Greg J]

Hey #3,

I've got a stupid question (I'd hate not to ask). On your shielded cable, did you order the total length and cut it into the segments you needed. There's nothing special about cutting shielded cable, is there?

I saw the $25 cut charge and was wondering if you had the vendor cut all your cables. That would be very expensive.

I'll figure my total lengths tonight and order cable tomorrow. :)

[sailfl]

Greg,

I talked to one vendor and they charge the $25 if they don't have the total size you are looking for and have to cut your needs from a larger spool. You buy total size and cut to your needs.

[domino11]

Greg,
We custom terminate shielded cable all the time at work. We just cut it with wire cutters and then strip back the outer insulation to expose the inner shield. If the shield is braid with no drain wire, we usually solder a drain wire to the braid. If there is an existing drain wire we just trim the braid even with the remaining insulation and connect to the drain wire. Use heat shrink sleeving to cover any soldered wire joints. Thats it. :) If you have any other questions just ask, I could show some pics.
Greg, why dont you try vendors like www.digikey.com or www.mouser.com. They carry a lot of cable and I dont believe they charge a cut fee. Just order the total you need and then cut to individual sizes.

One other note for people ordering cable, a lot of vendors will ship cable in various lengths unless you specify that you want a continuous length or a Minimum length. An example would be this, I order 500 feet of cable and don't specify continuous length. I might get 2 or 3 or more lengths that total 500 feet, if you specify min length then the pieces shouldn't be any smaller than the minimum length. This would be ok in the manufacturers eyes unless you specify continuous or minimum length. Just a note, because we buy a lot of cable where I work.

[Greg J]

Thanks Nils and Heath,

Nope, that answered the question perfectly.

[Doug_Ford]

Doug,
How is that sheetcam coming along? I would be interested to know how well you like the nesting and layout features as well as ease of use.

I still have A GREAT deal of tweaking to do in Mach3 and squaring the machine next week....and longer :D

I love Sheetcam. Fairly intuitive. It is easy to layout several dissimilar pieces and move them around. I don't think it has an automatic nesting capability but it might and I just missed it.

I finally got the Y square to the X this morning so I plan to do a little cutting this afternoon. I didn't get the X absolutely square but it was close enough that I could live with it. Maybe later I'll go back and mess with it. I ended up .007" per 12 inches out of square.

Yesterday, I ordered the Clearvue Dust Collection system like Greg J. When I sat down and looked at how much I would save by building it myself, I decided it just wasn't worth it. I'm ready to cut and don't want to mess around with any other projects right now. The dust collection foot is going to take long enough. I'm still hoping to fabricate a foot using 6" duct work.

Congrats, Sean, on getting your machine cutting.

[Greg J]

When I sat down and looked at how much I would save by building it myself, I decided it just wasn't worth it. I'm ready to cut and don't want to mess around with any other projects right now. The dust collection foot is going to take long enough. I'm still hoping to fabricate a foot using 6" duct work.


Doug,
That was one of my main reasons for buying the completed unit also.

When you say that you are fabricating a 6" duct work, is that all the way to the DC foot? I think you can come off the foot with 4" duct for a foot or two to clear the Y car, and transition to 6". Just curious, don't mean to tell you how to design your machine. :)

[Doug_Ford]

Greg J,

Yep. A sheetmetal 6" round to 10"X4" rectangular transition fits into the car. Figuring out the best way to attach it is the project currently on my plate.

[Doug_Ford]

As promised, here is the list of parts I used to build my Control Box.

(From a Local Supplier)
Hoffman Enclosure - Item# CSD24168 - 24"X16"X8"
Hoffman Panel - Item# CP2416 - 24"X16"

(From My Personal Junk Bin)
Capacitor - 1 each - 8400 Mfd 50VDC (for power supply)
Pancake Fan - 1 each - (to cool Gecko Heat Sink)
Wall wart power supply 12VDC 750MA - 1 each (to power PMDX Breakout Board)

Parts Express (For Homemade Power Supply)
400V 25A Bridge Rectifier - 1 each - Item# 050-060
Avel Y236801 500VA 25V+25V Toroidal Transformer - 1 each - Item# 122-655

Gecko
G203V - 4 each

McMaster Carr
4 feet - Heat Shrink Tubing - Flexible Polyolefin 1/8" Expanded ID 1/16" Shrunken ID - Item# 7856 K133
4 feet - Heat Shrink Tubing - Flexible Polyolefin 3/16" Expanded ID 3/32" Shrunken ID - Item# 7856 K143
Heat Sink Compound Silicone-Free, 2 ounce tube - 1 each - Item# 3883 K23
Alloy 6061 Aluminum Rectangular Bar 1/8" thick, 4" width, 3 foot length - 1 each - Item# 8975 K419

Practical Micro Design, Inc.
PMDX-122 Bi-Directional Breakout Board - 1 each

Mouser Electronics
3M Insulated Terminals 22-18 AWG .080 Pin - 100 each - Item# 517-2213
Kobiconn Solderless Terminals Pin Blue 16-14 - 100 each - Item# 159-1617
Kobiconn Solderless Terminals Pin Yellow 12-10 - 100 each - Item# 159-1211
(NOTE: I was not happy with these pin terminals because the pins were a very tight fit for the Geckos and the PMDX. Recommend you seek another source.)

Factorymation
Mushroom E-stop Operator - 3 each - Item# BEG
On/Off Green/White/Rep Operator - 1 each - - Item# BD
Resume Operator - 3 each - Item# BF2
Pause Operator - 3 each - Item# BF3
Normally Open Switch - 7 each - Item# BC10
Normally Closed Switch - 7 each - Item# BC01
Lamp Switch - 1 each - Item# BI DL
Contactor - 1 each - Item# CN22F6 (NOTE: I believe this is one size bigger than you actually need. Factorymation was out of the size I ordered so they substituted one of a bigger capacity. Caution here, I'm not an electrician so use your judgment or seek expert advice - That's not me by the way.:))
22MM Pushbutton Plastic Enclosure 3 Button - 3 each - Item# 590.PRO3K-A
Terminal End Bracket - 1 Package of 20 items - Item# ES1
Terminal Blocks - 1 package of 100 pieces - Item# ER2.5beige
Terminal Block Markers - 1 package of 500 pieces - Item# MT5
Terminal Block End Plate - 1 package of 25 pieces - Item# EP2.5 - 10
Jumper Strips - 1 package of 5 pieces - Item# CC2.5/10
200mm Extension Shaft for Rotary Switch - 1 each - Item# KK31.200C (NOTE: You must trim to fit.)
Solid State Relay - 1 each - Item# SSR225Din - DC
Disconnect Switch 480V 60A Ensto - 1 each - Item# KSR 3.60/U
Disconnect Handle - 1 each - Item# KSH48RY
Steel Din Rail - 1 package of 5 items - Item# 35S-5

[revved_up]

Thanks Doug!!:)

[domino11]

Doug,
That 50V capacitor sounds a little low on voltage for a 25 + 25V transformer. If you hook the transformer up in series, you would have about 71 Volts dc after rectification. You would need at least an 80V capacitor. A 50V cap would probably explode. :eek: If you are going parallel then you would be fine, but that would only give you 35 Volts.
Thanks for the parts list, very helpful.

[Doug_Ford]

Heath,

Thanks for looking out for me. I wired it parallel because I only needed 35 volts. I appreciate your input.

[domino11]

Doug,
No problem, have had many a capacitor explode near me over the years. wouldn't want it to happen to anyone else. I figured you were probably going parallel. :)

[Doug_Ford]

I finally finished building my dust collector. Clearvue designs the system to be mounted on the wall but I have no wall space in my garage. So I built a tower to hold the cyclone. Clearvue also says that a 35 gallon trash can will fit under the cyclone if you have 8 foot ceilings. I have 10 foot ceilings in my garage so I was able to fit a 55 gallon drum underneath it. The drum contained some type of blue dye and had a nice band with a thick seal inside it which helps to make a tight connection between the barrel and the lid.

The DC foot was constructed from sheet metal air conditioning ductwork pieces. It also diverts the blast of air from the router out to the side above the foot. Very light and very rigid. I used 1/8" aluminum rivets and then sealed it with mastic. The last thing I need to do is rivet a steel guard around the bottom.

Thanks to Gerald's brilliant design skills, 6 inch ductwork fits perfectly in the car. The airflow sucked up every tiny particle of dust. It was amazing. Although you can see dust in the background, I made it before the dust collector was finished. After cutting for a couple of hours, I opened the clean out plug at the bottom of the filters and there were a few tiny specks of superfine dust in the plug lid.

[DMS]

Looks COOOL.

[smreish]

Doug.
Nice work. For a quick second I thought you had an Oil derrick in your garage!:D
How many HP is your cyclone? Additionally, do you have a CFM & in/HG rating on your system? It looks like NO dust is getting away from the cutter area - bravo.

Have a great weekend.
Sean

[Gerald D]

DANGER!
REMOVE ALL LOOSE CLOTHES BEFORE ENTERING THIS SHOP

[Robert M]

Very nice work Doug... CNC, DC ;)
Promising stuff !!
May I ask if you could share some more on your inspiring dust foot design ??
It looks quite interesting !!
Congratulations. Thanks

[Doug_Ford]

Thanks Guys.

Sean: It has a 5 hp motor and the company says 1442 CFM. Here is a link to the company's specs for this system: www.clearvuecyclones.com/Specifications.htm

Robert: I've got more pictures of the pieces that I took while I was building it. They're on a CD around here somewhere. I'll try to post them this evening.

Yesterday I cut some 3/4" thick mdf into 10"x11" rectangles and the DC pulled them up into the foot. Had to add tabs to keep them in place. I have the foot optimized for a 1/4" endmill and I'm anxious to see how well it performs when I use a 1/2 endmill to surface the spoilboard since I'm not using a skirt and the foot will be forced to be another inch or two above the cutting surface. I'll let y'all know.

[Hugo Carradini]

Hello Doug.
You really are ending up with a nice machine .
Know you need a big vacuum or that monster is going to swallow everything.:D
I wonder how nicely sophisticate is going to end the MECMATE, when nice craftsman like yourself and many others keep giving new ideas.:):)
Regards to all

[Gerald D]

Well done Doug!

For everyone reading this: As Doug noticed, a big dust collector can lift the work off the table. Also watch the fire risks (http://www.talkshopbot.com/forum/messages/312/29351.html?1207483888). Electrical grounding is vitally important to prevent build up of static electricity and arcing/sparking.

[Doug_Ford]

Thanks for the reminder Gerald. I'm not properly grounded yet.

Attached are more pictures of the different pieces that went into my DC foot.

The squarish looking piece is the front of the foot. I shaped it from thin aluminum sheetmetal. The hole in the middle of it is for the router collet and bit to fit through. The gray plastic piece is the hub from a 3 inch PVC fitting that I turned to a slightly smaller dimension on my lathe. It fits almost perfectly into the bottom of a Milwaukee router.

The photo to the right is the DC Foot before it was completely riveted. I used duct tape to hold the sheetmetal in position. Then I coated the seams with mastic. The vertical pipe was created from flat sheetmetal rather than using off-the-shelf 6" ductwork. The reason I did that was so that I could wrap it around the outside of the hub of the transition rather than inserting it into the hub which would create a lip that would catch sawdust, threads, etc.

The next photo is a view of the bracket at the top of the Z-axis. It was flat 1/2" X 1/8" steel that I curved around some 6" PVC pipe. Then I welded a 1/4" threaded stub to the band and drilled a hole in the Z-axis stiffening tube. I also used some 3/4" conduit around the bolt stub to hold it in place.

The bottom photo is a view of the sheetmetal transition before I trimmed it and added the front of the foot. Also, you can barely see where I had to trim the bottom of the car so the foot would fit. The piece I cut out is directly behind the bolt that holds the bottom of the spider plate to the car.

It took me several days to build this foot but I'm very slow. If anyone needs additional information, don't hesitate to ask.

[domino11]

Doug,
Your dust foot looks great. Do you have any pictures of stuff you have been cutting on your machine?

[Doug_Ford]

Heath,

I haven't cut much because the dust was killing me. So far, I've just been goofing around with it. I haven't even surfaced the spoilboard yet.

[domino11]

Doug,
No problem, I have a hard time with MDF dust myself. That stuff is horrible. Great stuff to work with, but the dust kills me. :( What are you going to be doing with the machine when you are going?

[Gerald D]

On the health hazard of MDF dust, please realise that there are different types of MDF with some being a lot more unhealthy than others. Try to find low formaldehyde MDF's like Trupan from Chile. Your lungs, and your cutting bits, will thank you.

[dmoore]

On/Off Green/White/Rep Operator - 1 each - - Item# BD
Resume Operator - 3 each - Item# BF2
Pause Operator - 3 each - Item# BF3


Do these switches need the protective covers?
* APBD (double switch cover for #BD)
* APBF (single switch cover for #BF2/BF3)

Thanks very much for putting together this list of parts!

[Doug_Ford]

Hey David,

I'm assuming you're talking about those clear rubber membranes that go over the top of the push buttons. If so, the answer is no? I did not use them.

[Greg J]

Doug,

Taking me some time to catch up on all the posts, but I'm getting there.

Nice work on the dust collection system and foot. Nothing bigger than a few microns is getting past that system.

My clearvue is still in the box. :(

[Doug_Ford]

Thanks Greg. You're going to love the system. I'm glad to read you are feeling better and getting back to work.

[smreish]

Doug's cyclone - aka - ozark trailer hitch chrome removal system!:eek:
(clearly said with pride and jealousy)

[cobra427mnsi]

Might seem like a silly question, but, can you use some of the vacuum from the dust collector to drive a vacuum hold down? The idea crossed my mind while reading several posts on these powerful dust collectors.

Paul

[myozman]

Paul,

That's a great idea. I would assume that since the vacuum hold down is just holding with negative pressure, in theory it should work. Your vacuum system might have to be beefed up. I would be interested in something like this, one less electrical drain.

MIKE

[Gerald D]

Sorry guys, but doing doing both hold-down and dust collection with one "sucker" is very seldom a success. For hold-down you want minimum flow with max pressure / for dust collection you want max flow with minimum pressure......it is very seldom that these two requirements will meet without big compromises on either side.

[Doug_Ford]

It's powerful but not THAT powerful.:)

[Greg J]

Doug,

In your post #87, (yes, your pictures are quite helpful :) )you show a picture of the "E stop" enclosure box on the cable track side.

You drilled two holes on the bottom (next to the motor) and there are two wires entering/exiting the enclosure.

What are those wires for?

[Doug_Ford]

Greg J,

Those are just the cables connecting to the other enclosure boxes. Those waterproof/dustproof connectors on the ends of the boxes were too small to fit all of the cables in them so I just drilled some new holes.

[Greg J]

Doug,

Can't say enough how much your pictures are helping.

I'm in the shop wondering where the shield ground for the motor cables should go. I run back to the house and see how Doug did it. :)

Thanks.

[Doug_Ford]

I'm flattered and glad I can help but if I were you, I'd be copying JR's work.:)

Let me know if you need a better picture of something. I'll be happy to take more if you need it.

[DMS]

Greg,

You are also helping me, I copied your All I did here was to square the ends of the main channel.
Many other Gr8 builders are also inspiring me. I think very soon I'd be posting pictures (hopefully):)
http://www.mechmate.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=1313&d=1209733571

[Greg J]

Sharma,

imitation is the best form of flattery. :)

[DMS]

We are all imitating Gerald then :)

[Doug_Ford]

I ended up redesigning my dust collector foot after a collision with a clamp trashed it. :o It now looks something like GregJ's foot only ugly and more rectangular. (So I'm not going to post pictures of it.) I also use brushes for the sides. Even though the brushes should allow it to easily pass over my clamps, I wanted them to have a lower profile. I was worried that the thickness of the brushes would cause the Y motor to lose steps as they passed over the highest point of the top of the clamp. Attached is something I came up with.

The red piece is one half of a 3/4" pipe clamp set that cost $5. The pipe was approximately $3 and the silver floor flange was approximately $3. It is extremely rigid and clamps the plywood very tightly. Also, the safe Z height can now be set lower.

[Doug_Ford]

Tonight, the switch on my Milwaukee router fell apart. I worked on it for an hour or so and never could get it to work right so I'm going to install something like J.R. made only mine probably won't be as pretty.:)

[Lex]

Hi Doug,
Now that I see your pipe clamps again. Are they working well? Any problems?

[Gerald D]

"Sliding arm (http://images.google.com/images?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rls=IRFA,IRFA:2006-24,IRFA:en&q=sliding%20arm%20clamps&um=1&sa=N&tab=wi)" clamps, where the head and shank are one-piece bent steel, have a nice low profile.

2292

[Doug_Ford]

Johan: I haven't actually cut with them yet. I was going to cut a full sheet yesterday when I found out the router switch was broken. Hopefully, I'll get it working today. If you haven't noticed, I'm REALLY slow.

Gerald: I considered those but they are pretty expensive compared to my homemade clamps. I'm slow AND cheap.

[Lex]

Strong and very adaptable as well.
Don't feel alone on the speed. I like to do things slow myself. How else can one enjoy it!;)

[hennie]

JA, call me Mr. DIY if we don`t try we won`t know.

[nicoferreira]

Hi Doug.

Now that looks quite professional - 10/10 .

Cheers Nico

[Doug_Ford]

Thanks guys.

I got the new switch wired up but today was one of those days when everything goes wrong. I made 6 trips across town to different stores, bought the wrong stuff, ruined a couple of good things, had to go back to the store, etc. Finally got it wired up at 4 o'clock in the afternoon so I decided I would cut some stuff out. I was making two passes around a rectangle that was 8"X10" and had almost finished the second pass when the Z Axis plunged an extra 1/2 inch and kept cutting. Luckily, I was sitting close by and pressed the pause button. I checked the G code and it was correct. Then I checked Mach3 and the location of the Z Axis was where it was supposed to be. I'm guessing that signals from the unshielded router wire I had used jumped over to the short section of unshielded wire going to the Z Axis motor and caused it to plunge. The wires were only a few inches apart. I'm hoping that's what it was because it took me 3 more hours to rewire it with shielded wire. Hopefully, I can test it one of these nights this week.

[DMS]

Doug,

How do you hold small parts in middle of table. I am having problem holding them away from sides. collision with clamps is also a big issue. Suppose to build some jigs and fixtures.

[Doug_Ford]

Sharma,

I haven't had to hold anything in the middle of the table. The few small things I've cut have been clamped at the 0,0 corner of the table. You are probably right, you'll need to build some fixtures.

[DMS]

Thanks for quick reply