#31
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Greg,
Congratulation on the #19! |
#33
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Lots of photos to follow!
I got the bed in place, there are two positions, the low position has 14" of Z and the high position has 6" of Z. I think it's beer time here so the MDF will have to wait till tomorrow! btw, does mdf exist in 6x12? The best I could do was 5x12 at around $80/sheet! So I am covering the full base with 3 4x8 sheets and then using the 5x12 down the middle. Have a great weekend everybody! Last edited by bradyaero; Fri 06 February 2009 at 15:32.. |
#34
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Greg B,
To many Gregs..... Your build in looking good. Thanks for the photos. |
#35
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Some Trimming
I decided to use my MM to trim my spoil boards. Here's a quick video of how my machine cuts at the bottom of it's Z.
http://www.crosstrainer.ca/downloads/trimming.mpg Also, my friend Todd made me up some 1/2 bit holders for 3/8th bits! Here's a pic. I spent some time working out the post-processing between RhinoCam and Mach3. (My earlier tests were all G1's so even with CV on thinks weren't as smooth as they should have been). I found K2's Mach 3 post and I was happily generating G2's and G3's and my MM smoothed right out. Also I had to drop my parallel port speed down from 100K as there was a bit of glitching happening when jogging. I'm at 45K and could probably get up to 75K no problem (100K gets an Excellent Rating in the Driver Test but I was noticing some small glitching, I haven't optimized the machine for Mach 3, so there could be some task interference but I don't really think so all is running well now0). |
#36
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Greg,
Would you please post the link to the K2 Mach3 post or send me a PM. Thanks |
#37
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Quote:
Here's their post: http://www.k2cnc.com/Mach2_Mach3_setup.asp Got my bed cut and positioned, will screw it down in the A.M. |
#38
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Greg, we had a beer bottle on the left and now we have racing fuel on the right!
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#39
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The beer to ward off evil spirits, and the fuel to make welding more interesting
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#40
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Accuracy Test
Hi,
Today I completed my circle testing. There's a pic below of some of these tests. I am getting excellent circles now. I decided to cut a test part to see how well it worked. First thing I learned was about burning out HSS bits in MDF I switched to a carbide bit and cut out a pick-guard. when I overlaid the part on the cuts everything fit very well. The final part is in mother of pearl, but I have to wait for my customer to be here to cut it! So my MM is cutting very well, and I now need to figure out how to install hold-down's etc. I might do a grid of holes that can be used to clamp things on. Here's a quick vid of some of the pickguard cutting: http://www.crosstrainer.ca/downloads/pickguard.mpg |
#41
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Greg,
Leko here on the forum found a great solution for holddown for my table. Slatwall. It's available in all sorts of materials - PVC, MDF, etc. and has t-slots on varies centers. Or, since you have a cnc table, by a t-slot bit and make your own! Sean |
#42
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Ahh Interesting,
I'll look into it! Thanks |
#43
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Sean,
Great idea, did you cut your own? How did that go on the CNC? |
#44
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slatwall
t-slot cutter to make your own I used a 2 step milling of a sacrificial MDF sheet on top of the spoilboard. 1/2" mill bit, followed by a T-slot cutter. Then t-slot bolts and hardware from rockler.com |
#45
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With that particular job, you could drill the countersunk screw mounting holes first (when it is still part of the original square blank), then screw the blank down to the table using those holes. Once fixed to the table, all the other cuts can be done safely without the job moving or having to worry about running into a clamp.
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#46
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Alan,
Also a neat feature that MM users may not know, you can actually Identify the clamp areas in your cut file so the the machine won't hit the clamps. Or at the least, the file will pause so you can remove or move the clamp and progress on. ...Even LazyCam has this feature! |
#47
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Sean,
My spoil boards are 3/4 inch. Will this be thick enough for the T-slots? |
#48
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Should be....But you may want to actually want reinforce the t-slots with the slatwall PVC strips made to reinforce the slots. This will allow for you to surface the top flat and still have a "strong" slot for holddown.
Sean |
#49
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Are you running the T-Slots the length of X or Y? What kind of distance are you putting between them?
I like the idea of putting the hold down into the code. That is a nice feature. |
#50
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Are you sure HSS was the problem? maybe it was slow feedrate or cut too deep and the mdf chips (powder?) did not had an easy exit way and stuck to your cutter.
Pablo |
#51
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Hi PEU,
It's probably what you said, slow feed rate combined with high rpm (24,000)! I cut the ends of my spoil boards today with RPM 16000 at a bit higher feed rate and there was no problem. Any suggestions on how to hold down the spoil boards? Spray on glue? I have no idea! |
#52
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I use a roller and Elmer's wood glue.
Put a bunch of temporary screws or weight on top, then when dry, remove screws and weights. Surface the MDF...when the sacrificial board gets to thin, I just add on top again! |
#53
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Woodglue (elmers, titebond etc) spread on with a roller, position board and weigh down with sand bags, timber, what have you...
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#54
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Elmers Wood Glue.... cheap and it works.
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#55
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Got my Limit Switches finished up today. I am using 3 switches wired in parallel, normally open for limits and homing. I used button top bolts for my limit stops. In the future I will probably switch to proxies but for now this is working great.
Here's a quick vid: http://www.crosstrainer.ca/downloads/homing.mpg |
#56
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Had a real nice visit with my buddy Greg yesterday afternoon, here is a pic of us and the machine. Greg on the left and Heath on the right. Big blue thing is of course the Mechmate!
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#57
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Damn Heath, ain't we pretty! Thank god for brains or we'd be sunk
Here's a quick update, I changed over all my pinions to 20 tooth, and upgraded my grub screws to 1/4 28 thread. Pinions are now staying nice and tight. Speeds are excellent, lots of torque, I think the changeover is a great idea (unless you like to jog at 1500 IPM). I finally installed a gas strut for my Z (getting rid of those pain in the a#$ springs). I'm getting a solid 13.77" inches of Z-travel (limit of the strut). As a fun test, I cut out a cub-car for a friend. The model was just a primitive mesh that I imported into rhino and then used rhinocam to process into gcode. One rough pass, then a finish at 45 and finish at 90. My friend went away really happy, especially since another club always manages to out-do them every year, this time they have a weapon The weather is finally getting warmer here, I'm looking forward to some good long runs! |
#58
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Greg,
Not sure if the brains make up for my mug. I would need a PHD. So where are the cut comparison pictures for 20t and 30t pinions? |
#59
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Hi Heath,
Cut quality between pinions is minimal (it probably would show up more with 1/8 and smaller cutters), but with 3/8 to 1/2 cutters, you can't really see any difference; the acceleration factor is the key to smoothness when doing any point to point cutting as we discovered. |
#60
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First, let me say that it has been just fantastic to see the progress that everyone has been making on their MechMates, what a great group of people!
For my latest update, I finally finished my T-Slots. What I did was glue down the first board, and cut the bottom of the slots. I then glued on the upper board and cut my center slots. The standard 3/8 T-Slot bolts fit well, but even better, the leftover cut piece from my aluminum rails fits the slots and they run the full distance of my slots. So I am drilling and tapping holes into the aluminum to use with the standard hold-down kit. That will give me alot of hold down strength. The toughest part was cleaning out all the MDF dust from the slots! Here's a few pics: Last edited by bradyaero; Sun 19 April 2009 at 15:19.. |
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