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-   -   Makin Goblets #131 - New Orleans, USA (http://www.mechmate.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2516)

xraydude Sat 30 January 2010 07:57

Makin Goblets #131 - New Orleans, USA
 
Very excited to begin my build. I have been pouring over the forum and drawings and finally feel confident enough to ask the right questions. Beginning to source out some parts now and am looking forward to start building. Thanks, all, for this wonderful resource.
Ted

jhiggins7 Sat 30 January 2010 08:02

Welcome Ted.

It's a wonderful journey. We look forward to seeing your build progress. Don't forget to document your build with pictures and SHARE them.:D

Gerald D Sat 30 January 2010 08:03

The name xraydude is fascinating...tell us more :)

xraydude Sat 30 January 2010 09:23

John - Photography is one of my passions, so I plan on doing just that.

Gerald - I am an engineer for a medical imaging company that is based in Europe. Our software helps manage and display all types of diagnostic images. Part of our hardware line creates digitized xray images (computed radiography). That hardware also is heavily dependent upon stepper motor driven robotic assemblies, so I am hoping that I can use that experience here in my build.

Gerald D Sat 30 January 2010 09:35

. . . and just last week I was asked for help in converting and older plate mammography machine to digitized. They wanted the strip CCD to move in sync with the collimator slit, using stepper motors. Welcome Ted!

xraydude Sat 30 January 2010 09:56

Wow, Gerald! That would be an awesome project! We are heavily involved in mammo, but not much in image acquisition. Almost all of our mammo images are coming from direct digitizing modalities from other vendors. The exposure is captured directly by a digitizing plate. We do still have some mammo certified wet chemical processors out there and some of our CR equipment is mammo certified for markets other than the U.S, but most of our mammo work is in the software for the diagnostic reviewing stations and the software toolsets that the radiologists use.

xraydude Sun 14 February 2010 13:39

3 Attachment(s)
Got my laser cut/bent parts in from MetalHead last week. They look great.

Attachment 8562

Attachment 8563

UPS decided to re-bend one corner, but I straightened it out.

Attachment 8564

Getting some quotes in for the remainder of the steel right now. Can't wait!:)

xraydude Fri 19 February 2010 08:20

Y-Car welded / painted
 
1 Attachment(s)
Couldn't stand waiting on steel for the table to start assembly, so I went ahead and welded/painted up the y-car. The parts from MetalHead went together perfectly. Dragged my old Millermatic 250 out (had to put a new liner in the gun), made one practice weld and jumped right in. Followed Gerald's welding sequence and everything fell into place.

Attachment 8653

Claudiu Fri 19 February 2010 08:45

Looking great, nice colour...just a few steps to go.:)
...did you countersink the holes for the motor plates?

xraydude Fri 19 February 2010 08:57

Claus - yes, I did countersink the holes. Although, I admit that I only caught that because I went over everything one last time before welding. It is obvious on the drawings, but I have to rein in my enthusiasm. Almost got me! :)

riesvantwisk Fri 19 February 2010 09:50

Ted,

museum quality! you are on your way!

Ries

Gerald D Fri 19 February 2010 09:55

Amazing paint quality - look at the flash reflection on that rough wall! :)

Claudiu Sat 20 February 2010 01:45

Gerald, you have an eye for details...:)

xraydude Sat 27 February 2010 08:20

3 Attachment(s)
Waiting for steel to arrive within the next two weeks. Supplier is waiting on the main beams, so I am moving on to other parts while I wait. I'm thinking of using this former medical device frame for a cart for the PC running Mach. I've stripped off all of the plastic down to the stainless steel frame and will re-skin it with some 3/4 ply and ad forced filtered air cooling to the entire cabinet. Situation is this: I have enough room in there to mount both my PC and a separate enclosure with all of the other electronics (drivers,bob, pwr supply, etc..) This cart came with a rack type PC that I have stripped all of the computer parts out of, leaving me with a 19" x 19" x 6", positive pressure forced air (filtered) enclosure (have to do a little sheet metal work on it). As I have been accused by my wife of collecting stuff to use 'one day' but never doing so, I would like to recycle these things if possible.

So, any inherent disadvantages to having the pc and driver enclosure in the same cart? Are the dimensions of the old pc case enough to squeeze typical components in? (seems a little bit smaller than those nice enclosures I see folks using). My only real motivations are : A) I already have the cart B) I do like to recycle where possible C) I do want to be able to wheel the PC around when needed as I am tight for space D) I am bored waiting on my steel! If I don't stay busy, my wife will find some other project for me to do around the house:)

Attachment 8709

Attachment 8710

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KenC Sun 28 February 2010 03:34

Quote:
Originally Posted by xraydude View Post
If I don't stay busy, my wife will find some other project for me to do around the house:)
now... that is what I call a dire situation!

If you can't squeeze everything into one PC chassis, you can always use another chassis. I see enough space in the cart to house a few PC casing.

BTW, before you squeeze, may I ask is it paramount for you to have a tiny foot print?

xraydude Sun 28 February 2010 07:07

Ken - She caught me. I've been putting down new flooring in her office all night. She can sense when I have free time and always finds something for me to do. :)

No, it is not paramount for reduced footprint. That is only a secondary consideration to having an efficient, functioning control system. I've been following the discussion here, http://mechmate.com/forums/showthread.php?t=292 about enclosures, and there is a lot of good information there. After reading that thread, and what everyone else has done, I suppose that I am leaning towards just wall mount enclosure for electronics as called for in drawings and I'll use my little cart just for the PC. Maybe add some drawers/storage up top to house bits, mills, etc...

xraydude Sun 18 April 2010 15:43

2 Attachment(s)
Finally have the table welded up and flipped over. Had to call in favors and offer free beer to get enough folks to my shop to flip it! I went with .25" wall on everything except the main long. beams which are .419. Very heavy! Getting it up on it's side wasn't too bad. Coming down with it was a little scary, but four of us did it with no real problems. Made the leveling feet out of some 5/8" all thread, some nuts and some old stiff rubberized caster wheels I had.

Only one real mistake occured when I made the same cut on both the ends of one of the cross members. I had to weld the cut piece back on and make the cut again. That is what I get for working at 2:00 am with power tools!:D Once it is painted, I will deny it ever happened!

Attachment 9305

Attachment 9306

Gerald D Sun 18 April 2010 23:33

Smart move to get paint on the bottom before flipping it over.

domino11 Mon 19 April 2010 06:02

Looking good Ted. Yes it sure would be hard to paint under there properly once flipped. :) I remember JR, I believe had to jack his table up high on supports to be able to spray all areas of the table.

KenC Mon 19 April 2010 20:07

A fine progress, painting the bottom while it was still easy is a good move.

xraydude Tue 20 April 2010 14:03

Thanks, guys.... yes, as I get older, I start taking into account things like how long I am going to have to spend on the floor painting upside down. Guess I'm getting better looking AND smarter with age!

By the way, in case anyone is interested, I had to decide on a tool to make the cuts in all of the steel, except for the main beams which I had my supplier cut. I went with the cheap chop saw at Harbor Freight (Item# 1624-5VGA, actually the most expensive one they carry) as I don't plan on needing it for much else after the table build and it takes up a lot less space than a full sized floor model gravity or hydraulic band saw. Well, it did do the job BUT just barely. Burned through two sets of brushes even going slowly. When I went from the standard 1/8 thick blade to a 3/32 blade of higher quality it cut better, but it was still a chore to cut through that 1/4 thick steel. The saw claims 3.5 hp, but I don't think it is really close to that. Anyway, for $100(sale price now...dang it) it got the job done, and the quality of the finished cuts were great but if I had to do it over again, I might go with the bandsaw or higher quality chop saw. Just my opinion, YMMV.

Ted

xraydude Sun 04 July 2010 09:52

2 Attachment(s)
Some progress made. Rails ground, gantry welded up, everything painted and I now have a rolling table. The grinding skate worked well, though it took me a while to get the hang of it when grinding in the angles. My 6 amp Skill grinder made it through with only a little smoke escaping!

My local Fastenal didn't have the M12 'thin' nuts, so I have washers for spacers behind the bearings. Every thing rolls smooth and quiet, though I haven't shimmed the rails yet.

Have to make up the stop blocks or get some from Mike.

I could just stand at the table and push the gantry around for hours. It is hypnotic! :)

Attachment 9938

Attachment 9941

KenC Sun 04 July 2010 21:58

Congratulation for getting this far!
All the heavy & hard labour is over. From here on all you need is patient & good eye-sight than you are home.

Keep it coming!

bolingerbe Mon 05 July 2010 13:14

Looking good when you see a of that blue the end is getting closer.

domino11 Mon 05 July 2010 15:43

Excellent progress!

JamesJ Mon 05 July 2010 16:39

All that hard work is paying off!

shern_0711 Wed 29 June 2011 14:18

Hey xraydude I'm in the Slidell area outside New Orleans. I am doing my research to get ready to build one as well. Maybe you could tell me what local suppliers you use for parts and material.

xraydude Thu 30 June 2011 10:55

RJ, glad to see another local...

For all of my steel, I used O'Neal steel. They are nationwide, but their local shop is in Lafayette (actually Breaux Bridge, I think). They delivered to my shop. www.onealsteel.com

For fasteners/nuts/bolts, etc.. Fastenal in Hammond.

Lasercut parts from Mike (MetalHead).

Working on electronics now, and none of those parts are local sourced.

Ted

shern_0711 Thu 30 June 2011 11:20

Ted,
Thanks I appreciate it. I have a long way to go myself, but I think it will be a cool journey. The metal work won't be a problem for me but when I get where you are and start the electric its going to get interesting...lol.

RJ

xraydude Fri 15 June 2018 21:32

Back at it...
 
Holy smokes, 8 years! Well, maybe I can win the longest build award. :D Thought about selling everything a few times, as I was so busy with work/traveling that I basically used the table for a workbench in my shop for years. Have a little bit more time now and am getting it finished. Believe it or not, I managed to keep pretty much everything together over the years, and just need to wire everything up and finish the Z-axis. I'll post some pics soon.

Ted


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