Its (More) Alive...
 

Hi all,

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

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

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

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

Attachment 3545

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

Attachment 3539 Attachment 3540
Attachment 3541 Attachment 3542

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

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

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

Just a simple square

Attachment 3543

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

Attachment 3544

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

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

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

Regards,

Jayson.

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

Hi Hennie,

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

Jayson.

Hi Jayson,

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

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

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

Congratulations on a job done well!

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

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

Jayson,

Congratulations on Serial #18, the First Serial Numbered MechMate in Australia. And a fast build too.:eek: Great job!:) The updated Builder's Log is here.

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

Regards,
John

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

Good Stuff Jayson On No 18

Jayson,

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

:)Congratulations :)

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

Jayson.

Jayson,

Thanks for the update. The updated Builder's Log is here.

Happy cutting.:)

Regards,
John

Congratulations Jayson at # 18 :).

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

You did a great job and very fast.

Yuri

Hi Jason

Where did you get the motors?

Congrats!

francis

Hi Francis,

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

http://cgi.ebay.com/NORITSU-2301_W0Q...3A1%7C294%3A50

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

Jayson

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

Attachment 3628 Attachment 3629

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

Attachment 3630

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

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

Jayson.

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

great bee, but the big wings is inverted.
hugs

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

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

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

Thanks Gerald for the dxf files, that is amazing.

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

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

Gary
Townsville
North Queensland !

Hi Gary,

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

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

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

Regards,

Jayson.

Jayson,

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

Are you concerned that they will head your way?

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

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

Hi Nils,

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

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?ai...8&id=564905052

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

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

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

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

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

Thank you.

Jayson.

Gerald,

I just read Yuri's thread...

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

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

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

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


Regards,

Jayson.

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

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

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

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

Gary

Jayson,

Thanks for taking the time to explain about the fires.

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

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

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

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

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

Jayson

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

Now on to something I do have pictures for :)

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

Attachment 3962

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

Attachment 3963 Attachment 3964

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

Attachment 3965 Attachment 3966

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

Attachment 3969

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

Attachment 3970

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

Attachment 3967 Attachment 3968

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

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