Etching Glass and Cribbage Boards #52 - Fort Ripley MN USA
 

Hey guys,
Wanting to start a new MechMate build in Minnesota. Have previous experience with CNC. Built a 5' x 6' CNC plasma and refurbed a 2' x 4' MDF CNC router. I attached a few pics of what I have done so far, looking for you insight during this build.

P.S. Rad Racer is my brother so should be going quite quickly when the money shows up, lol.

A little more info i guess. If you look at Rad Racers build history you see me, mainly the one covered in Ford blue powder:( Anyways we used the plasma to cut out his cyclone, it is working very good. The design for the plasma was just mine, I wanted to be able to cut 4' x 4' sheet. Rad Racer helped my with all the electronics and I did all the mechanical work (well with a little help). I think I am going to look to sell the plasma to generate money for the router MechMate. Wood is so much cleaner then plasma smoke and powdercoating. I will keep you guys updated.

P.S. Sorry about the mess in the plasma pics, always seem to have too much crap in the shop! :D

Welcome Dave, I dont mind some mess in the shop. Come and see mine some time, it will make you feel a lot better. :)

Nice looking Mach3 screen.. is this customised ? I noticed the STATUS message at the bottom saying 'Too fast for pulley...using Max' . I have the same message...machine is working fine, but maybe the Mach3 guru's can explain and suggest a possible fix.

Thanks Kobus,
The M3 screen is just the MachBlue screen downloaded from Mach3. I think the error msg is something with spindle speed (which I dont use),not configed right.

First cut with old router
 

Ok, it 2am and just got my first 3d project done, lots of figuring out software but here it is.
It is 2.5" x 3" with .100 relief, the letters are about .25" high.
Off to bed til tomorrow so I can play again.

Hey, I recognize that cnc machine.....have you been shopping in my garage again:)

Good looking sign, welcome to MechMate.

Your garage is the best place to shop!

Ordering profile parts
 

Gonna order my profile parts next week from Metalhead. Gotta start sooner or later, actually really looking forward to this build.

Started the new MechMate in Minnesota, USA
 

Well guys I ordered my profile parts from metalhead today and have my steel list to bring to the steel yard tomorrow, need to special order the c channel so hopefully I have it by Friday. Time to start welding the table this weekend.
Looking forward to it after countless hours reading everyones build threads but I learned alot and I know there will be questions, so thanks in advance to everyone and a special thanks to Gerald for the plans and your "upcoming" help.

Welcome Dave.

Sounds like you are well on your way.

Good luck on your build. And don't forget to post pictures of your build progress.:D

Welcome Dave,

You sound well planned. Good Luck. :)

Dave: Welcome to the club. Can you really weld in Minnesota in January? I thought the arc would freeze before completing the circuit!:D Looking forward to your pictures. Joe

Joe, I am further North than Dave, we weld here all the time in the winter. If we didn't, nothing would get done for 6 months. :)

Joe, Even tho it is -28f it is still a nice toasty 65 in my shop :)
Ordered the steel for the table today, it will be here tomorrow (gotta love the supplier in my town). Hopefully start welding Thursday and I promise many pics.

Picked up the steel today.
 

Well I picked up all the steel needed to construct the machine, got a great price from my steel supplier, $685 USD. Cant believe this pile of steel will turn into such an incredible working machine, Thanks again Gerald for the design.

Is that a plasma cutter on the right side of the last pic? The paint colour will pass! :)

It is a cnc plasma cutter, DIY and where do you think I got the idea for the color? ;)

Profile parts are here
 

Profile parts showed up today from Metalhead, awesome quality parts and he also threw in some extra goodies, THANKS again metalhead. Well, laying out the drill hole pattern for the main beams, cross members, y stage etc... gonna be a busy day but excited to get started, hopefully have a good start by the end of the weekend. One bonus thing about my job (well good and bad) is that it is seasonal, I am a heavy equipment operator so here in Minnesota we have to take the winter off until the ground thaws, this gives me lots of time to get this project completed. Well, better get back to the project, I will keep you guys updated

Dave: You are really moving along, Keep this up and you'll be cutting before the pond melts! Thanks for the pics. Joe

Getting everything laid out. Just a rough layout to get centers of main beam and rail

Don't forget, The cross beams are offset towards one end! (Gerald will ding you if you lay them out symmetrically!:D)

those cross members are just there to hold up the main beams while i drill them, they get kinda tippy alone.

Machine starting to take shape
 

After a good day of work here is my progress so far. Starting to look familar :D

You have a nice team of helpers there . . . be finished by Spring? :)

Hope to be done by spring, Rad Racer #25 (Wayne, my brother) is a big help on this project since he is a seasoned Mechmate builder. One thing I do have is time (seasonal worker) so I am hopeful it will be done fairly quickly.

I thought there was a familiar face there! :)

We can see Dave & Wayne in this post

Finished off the Y car this weekend, here are a cpl pics

Aircon, TV and radio all in one pic - that's a nice corner of the workshop! :)

There must be a beer fridge under the bench? :D

I bet the stove is to keep the Pizza warm while …. :rolleyes:

Lets not forget the stove in the background. Maybe if he wants a crispy pizza?

EDIT: Wow I dont know how I missed Roberts post.. Need to get my brain on..

Good idea for pizza, but actually that is just used for powdercoating small parts so I dont have to fire up the big oven :D

Gantry together
 

Well, I got all the drilling and tapping done on most of the machine. Finished the gantry and it is even true :eek: Here are a few pics of the on-going progress. Superior Bearing forgot to ship my order last week so it looks like a few days before I get my roller bearings, was looking forward to seeing it roll back and forth, even if it would be by hand. I also enclosed a better pic of my plasma table I built. Gerald, the corner with the ac/tv/radio is a nice corner but you will see the other corner of the shop with the beer fridge :D

P.S. That last pic is of my MechMate building assistant:D

Nice progress, you have the orientations of the cars the right way around.

The dog's cute. I see that your fridge is guarded.

Or the fridge is being raided. :)

Dave,
The plasma table....are you using a THC controller or just a contact tip on the head?
Sean

Dave,

Looks like your plasma table is about 4'x4'?

Your dog looks like he/she has not gotten any treats lately.

Sean-I am using the THC300 from Campbell Designs, works great once I got it figured out, had alot of noise issues when building this, odd that the plasma generates that much electrical noise :rolleyes:

Nils - The table is 5' x 6' (cutting area), reason for that was I was able to get 5' x 10' sheetmetal real cheap then I cut in half for a 5x5 sheet.

Just using it as a shelf right now :(

Plasma is man-made thunder after all ;)

More parts came in today
 

Received my remaining 2 motors and controllers along with other parts.