Workin for Beer #24 - Littleton, Colorado
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Hello, and thanks to all present and past builders.
I am a cabinet maker and trim carpenter that has dreamed of using cnc technology in my business for 4 years. Thank you Gerald. My brother and I have quietly been building a mechmate with a 5'X8' cutting area. Tadeo, (my brother) is a mechanical engineer and draftsman, he put his skills to work and drew the mechmate in solidworks. This helped us visualize and appreciate the design features of the mechmate. Here is some of our progress so far. I will post more pictures as we progress. Justin http://picasaweb.google.com/Tadeo.Luna/MechmateProgress |
It's looking good...
However. I couldn't help but notice the package you recieved you lasercut and bent parts in... If I had sent a package like that I wouold have killed myself.... The set's that I have shipped out has been packed in two boxes, one with the Y-Car bent plate and a few bit's and pieces, packet in a wooden box, and stiffened inside... The other just wrapped in carboard, and taped with so much tape so it cannot break open. But anyway's, you guy's are getting there.... |
Welcome Justin!
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Welcome Justin and Tadeo.
Table looks good! Photo look good! |
Thanks Guys,
Yes there was shipping damage but the y-car was easily fixed. I would still order from Joe in the future. We received local quotes in the thousands for the laser cut parts. Justin |
Welcome to Mechmate guys.
Your photo album looks great. Keep us up to date on your progress. |
Rail Grinding Pics
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Some more progress.
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A nice shine off that rail! How long did the grinding take? Would you do it again? :)
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Nice work guys. That rail looks almost polished. :cool:
I like the photo album web site also. Great pictures. :) |
Welcome guy's. Nice looking rail grinding. Maybe when we schedule the SW USA MM builders bash We could all get together. :)
I was looking at your photo album and it looks like you may need to tweek the spider to take the twist out of it, so that your vgroove bearings will all make even contact with the zslide. Mine was the same way. Seems that getting an accurate bend on such a thick small piece is as Gerald was saying a little bit of an art. Did you get your laser cutt parts from the Alabama location? |
It should say almost ground. Still have a little bit to do. I am very happy with the results so far. At first I tried to rock the skate back and forth, and that gave me an uneven surface and gauling on the top. It did way better pulling it one way. I would suggest taking your time to set up the skate. Get the top grind plate perpendicular to the grinder body, and adjust the two plates so that most of the bearings are on the rail to start. As I was grinding (with the PFERD cup wheel for stainless(to soft?)) a wear pattern started to appear. So to fix that I just ground the cup wheel so that it was cuped more in the center. Effectively what this did was grind at its outermost diameter. In other words the cup wheel grinds at the two ends, not so much in the middle. Confused yet? I am.
Things I might try next time. 1) Bearings for height adjustment 2) Pre-grinding free hand. 3) Different cup wheels for start and finish passes. 4) Superior rails In my opinion grinding the rails your self and getting great results is very achievable! Not the fastest part of the build but very doable. P.S. I wish that I had machined rail to judge my work. |
Ed,
Yes, the spider was tweaked. I think Gerald has given a fix for that. We were able to re-bend it flat. I am still very happy with the parts out of Alabama. |
Justin, I had my rails "machined" by a friend with an end mill. The results were not the best. I have small "divots" in the rail. Does not seem to effect the cut quality. I'll bet your rails come out better than my machined rails. :) |
Justin,
Looks great, I'm proud of you!! |
Justin,
Have you made any more progress on your machine? I have not seen any recent pictures on your picasa site nor here. The way you were going , looked like you might be cutting by now? :eek: |
Heath,
We have made minor progress will post more pictures this weekend. |
Justin, don't worry too much about Heath's "demand" for pictures - he does that to everybody, but he doesn't post many himself. ;):D
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Justin, Gerald,
Yes, it is true I like to see pictures, I hope to be posting some of my own this fall once my build takes off. :):eek: |
progress pics
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We were able to work on the beast this weekend. I always hope to get more done than we do.
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The title of this thread is "Brothers build Mechmate . . . . "
. . . . . are those the brothers in the last pic? :) Good work! |
Looking good, jip it is pitty that time does not wait for us and also all the other things that we need to do, my wifes other name is Mrs DO-That.
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Justin,
Your beast is looking good. You better be prepared to put a lock on it because it won't be long before those young ones will be cutting while you are at work. |
Those are my two sons with one on the way. Hopefully with the mechmate I won't have to leave the house!
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Nice going, but what is that GREEN THING under the table?
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Is that ... John Deere green?
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Green Machine
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Awe, Yes,
The green machine is a vac that I am going to try and adapt for hold down. It is powder coated John Deere green and is made out of aluminum. Chris in the above post acquired from a client of ours. It was originally for an experimental machine that never got off the ground. |
Weekend progress pics
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We got the chains mounted and have started on the Z axis.
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Nice pictures!
Maybe I made this too tight . . . . . Can't remember what my thinking was there, but it looks like the screw head is going to foul with the chain. Is anyone having an issue over here? |
Because you are using a small radius cable chain, you don't have much other option for attaching it to the y-car. (Mostly we would use a bigger radius chain and attach on top). But, you can drill some holes in your Y-car (near where you have the marked A) and pass the cables inside of the Y-car as soon as they leave the chain.
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Gerald,
Do you think a hole in the car is better than a hole through the bracket and then into the two holes on top of the car? Astheticly I like your idea better. We liked the look of small radius chain and used the same width for both. Might have been better to have used narrower chain for y. |
Okay, that screw head does clear okay.
That part of the Y-car can be drilled for the cables. I might even add some holes there on the laser cuts. The smaller radius cable chain should be okay. It is decided by the minimum radius of the stuff you want to put into it. That might include hoses and thick cables for serious spindles and/or air/sand blasters. |
Kitchen table started help needed!
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We are not getting any movement.
Please, will the voice of experience help! Will post pics of mach screen shots shortly. |
Mach settings
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Mach screen shots.
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Justin,
In the Motor Outputs tab, the "Dir Low Active" should be checked green. I'll check for other things. Greg |
Havn't checked your Mach screens because I am rusty on that, but the following may help . . . .
Have you moved jumper JP1 on the PMDX to the lower GND side for the G203's? Are any green LED's changing on the PMDX when you try and make the motors go forwards and backwards? (The LEDs nearest the DIR pins. ie pin2 on J1) should be "on" for one direction only). The STEP LED will blink too fast to see with the eye. |
Have you checked to see that your port address is correct?
Mach defaults to 0x378 but that is not always correct. Check it in device manager. If not sure what that is then watch the Mach setup videos. Greg |
Thanks for the input we will check all these things and report back.
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Have you checked to make sure all of your wires have continuity. You can touch the heads of the terminal screws at both ends of the wires with the probes of a multi-meter. I usually set the dial so that it beeps when I have continuity.
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Thanks Doug, we will try that also. Can't get to it till this weekend, what a bummer.
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Motor turns with different computer
We made the suggested changes (THANKS GUYS) but still no movement. So we installed mach on different computer and were able to get the motor to turn in one direction very slowly. My guess is that the printer port on the first computer is not strong enough. Can't wait to hook up the big power!
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