J.R.'s Leg Levelers
 

Since I saw J.R.'s Leg Levelers I knew I had to have/make them. And I did!
I have included four 3" round disk in last 20 sets I've sent out.
The Manufacture of the rubber part has agreed to sell them to me for about (parts$ + shipping$ =) $1.50 each.

I ordered 120 pieces so let me know if you are interested.

Joe

Well, after about six emails, one $900.00 wire transfer and seven weeks.:confused: Shipping was included in the $900.
My New Chinese 3K water cooled spindle, finally arrived yesterday via US mail.
It came with everything that you see. I didn't think to ask what collet size I could get with it, but came with a ER16 collet.:( Other than that I am pleased on price and quality.
Now I have to make a spindle bracket to hold this beast.

Oops. I was wrong about the collet size. I found the paper work(LOL) on the spindle and it is a ER 20 collet.
My wonderful father in law is going to cut some 3/4 inch brackets for me and maybe a few more.
Ill post the dxf. file and the paper work later.

Laser Cut Part
 

I have quite a few sets on hand. They are still $474.00 plus shipping.
Depending on type of payment, I can even have them out the same day you order.:D

With the kit that I'm supplying, you get the full options laser cut parts, 4 rubber feet and disc, 8 bearings for the rail skate, and 5 Mechmate Logos.

I have shipped out over 80 sets so far. I feel that between the laser and fab guys, UPS, and myself have it down now.:)


Joe McLain


Attachment 4733

Attachment 4741

Attachment 4742

Attachment 4743

Attachment 4745

Follow-Up on Chinese Spindle
 

Joe: How did the spindle work-out for you? I am at the spindle/router decision stage. Thanks

Very embarrassed to say that I finally got it mounted in place.:o
I still have to run the plumbing first before I get it going though, but Ill keep you posted when things get moving further along.

Joe

Hi Joe, I am a little surprised with the ER16 collet. I bought one from china and it looks similar to yours, but mine has a ER20 collet. I paid about $500 without the inverter. Mine is also 3KW. I think there is a lot of copying going on because now I know of three seperate companies making a product that is almost identical. I bought mine on Ebay and was in communication with the seller for more than a month before I took the plunge. Hope everything works out for you.

David

I spoke too soon, It did come with a ER 20 collet.
Now I wish that I would have waited a little longer, I paid $400.00 more than you.:(
You got a great deal!
Do You have yours running?

Joe

Hi Joe,

Yes, mine is up and running and it works like a champ. I would test your spindle with compressed air and soapy water for leaks along the seams as my had a leak but the seller took care of me by sending me a new back end and also some more o-rings (Strange, but they don't use gaskets like most equipment I've seen running a liquid coolant. After that little two week snag, I have no complaints.

I had heard inconsistant things about the HY inverter so I opted not to buy it as a set, instead I was practically given a 5 HP inverter made by Rich Electronics and it works great.

Best of luck with your new spindle.

David

Mr Lasercut&bend has his own machine drawing pictures! #42 - Birmingham, AL
 

That is nice to know.:):) I smoked my spindle, so I'm not able to make dust at the moment.
Ill try to post a video tomorrow.

Gerald hats off on this fine design. My pile of parts grows, so I'll be looking for a SN soon !!!

But here is Joe's Table (Cool Blue !!) Logo'd up and running the famous 1000 lines Mach3 Road Runner !!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9g3V4LlR82I

Another Short One. I'll get another one once we get the Spindle going !!!

Exciting stuff for sure !!! Gota Love that glitter :D !!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ts2goSLVRVM

I had to put together this thread for Joe, he was too modest to do it himself :)

The easy availability of parts from Joe was what got me started. Great to hear his MM is completed. Congratulations!

Cut
 

Good job Joe ! it looks great.

Great Job Joe !!!!!

Do you have some more pics of your build you can post?

Now lets see more Video of #42 doin air laps around the table till the spindle is fixed !!! Congrats !!!!

Joe,

Congratulations on your number and nice fancy paint job.

Joe,
I must say - very nice work. I especially like your variation on the limit/stop block design. Easy and no super fancy bending needed! (it's also corner/hand friendly) Thanks for all the years of parts. I especially am happy with all mine!

Go Bama! Nice win over the Gators. ( I am a Nole!)

Builder's Log Update
 

Congratulations Joe on your MechMate and Serial Number 42. The Updated Builder's Log is here.

I'm especially happy to see you reach this milestone. You have been an especially fine contributor to the MechMate Forum with all the laser cut and bent parts that you have provided to so many MechMate builder's (including me.).

Please let me know the size of your MechMate (maximum cutting size) for the Builder's Log. Also, please review your entry and provide any changes you would like.

Congratulations Joe!
Sorry to hear about your spindle. Whats the story there?

#42
 

Thanks to "ALL" that has helped me along with my build. #42 has a good sound to it.:D
As far as the spindle goes, It's a mystery I'll break into later. Ill post more pictures of it making dust when the other spindle arrives.
Now to learn Mach, Vectric Aspire, and G-Code. Sounds like fun.:confused:

Joe

Congratulations Joe,

Thanks for helping so many get started.

Mike

Joe,

In Mike's thread you mentioned you smoked your spindle, would you share what happened so others might learn from it?

Sounds like he's still waiting for the replacement spindle so he can sort out what happened. Joe, make sure you have your VFD set for the 400Hz the spindle wants, and not the 60Hz that's generally the default when the VFD comes out of the box.

The 60Hz (3 600rpm) sounds like a good place to start - 400Hz (24 000rpm) would be too fast for a beginner and cold spindle?

Gerald, thanks for the clarification. What I was suggesting is that the maximum frequency and the base frequency of the VFD needs to be matched to the maximum frequency of the spindle (400Hz). Of course, you'd want to start out with a run frequency at some small percentage of that maximum speed - 60 Hz sounds fine for water cooled, although some say 100 Hz minimum for air cooled. I haven't laid hands on an air cooled, so I don't know for sure.

If you search cnczone, you'll find lots of stories of people (primarily with the HuanYang VFDs) complaining about hot, smoky, balky spindles when they failed to set this correctly before attempting to spin the spindle.

I'm certainly not a specialist in this area, but there's a lot of anecdotal evidence to suggest that when you tell the VFD that the motor's top frequency is 50 or 60hz when it's really 400hz, the VFD does the wrong thing, even at low speeds. I assume it affects the calculations the VFD makes about the length of the current pulses.

Just to let you know that it did start-up and ran for about 15-20 seconds. When I realized that the Colet wasn't tight, I turned it off.
When hitting the start button the second time, it spun-up for a second and a puffff$$$$ of smoke came out from the bottom.
I can say that when it was running it seemed to be fine.
My bear bottle test was under 40 seconds. Heat not an issue.

Does it take a specialty company to fix a spindle?