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  #181  
Old Fri 20 June 2008, 08:21
ekdenton
Just call me: Ed #8
 
Alamogordo, NM
United States of America
Gerald,
I was thinking of the wiring layout that you had drawn to show the layout of the Proxies and the relays (it was a nice drawing). A schematic is good but sometimes a wiring layout like my drawing is also helpfull to understand how it works and making a plan on building the circut.

Since I have mine already built I found some very small (6-7mm round in size) simple to wire NO relays at Radio Shack. I think they were $2 each. With only 4 pins and the voltage pins are marked it would be pretty much impossible to not wire them correct. Might also be possible using those smaller relays to mount it all in one of the pushbutton stations???

Sean, Did you say that you do foam cutting?? I have a neigbor who wants to know if I can cutt some foam sheets into RC model airplanes. I guess the hot ticket with the RC planes now, is foam planes flying 3D stunts. He wants to see if it would be cheaper to purchase full sheets of foam and use a popular purchased plane profile to make duplicates. What kind of bits are best to use for cutting the foam if you want a small kerf that is good and square? The foam will be something called EPP foam?? Thickness is from .125 to .188 inch thick.
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  #182  
Old Fri 20 June 2008, 08:38
Gerald D
Just call me: Gerald (retired)
 
Cape Town
South Africa
Ed, I would stay away from $2 relays for this application. The relays should be a little bit special - they should have gold on their contacts. We only have a puny 5V signal that we want to get through a lot of series wired contacts.
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  #183  
Old Fri 20 June 2008, 09:07
Greg J
Just call me: Greg #13
 
Hagerman, New Mexico
United States of America
Ed,

Check out precisebits.com. They have speciality bits for cutting foam.

On a side note: Got my ClearVue operating and is it nice !!!!! I know Gerald likes to see dust, but, it's not going to happen with this system.
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  #184  
Old Fri 20 June 2008, 10:08
ekdenton
Just call me: Ed #8
 
Alamogordo, NM
United States of America
David that is problably a neater looking drawing of the layout and I remember that one but it is incorrect. I edited it to correct mistakes. Without the changes it looks to me like y and z could either or both have a crash and as long as x was okay you would still have a close loop. I edited it so that if any sensor has a capacitance change from not sensing a rail then the closed loop would open tripping the circut or stoping motion.

You can check for mistakes but I think the edited photo will work better.
Attached Images
File Type: jpg Sensor relay wiring.JPG (44.3 KB, 931 views)

Last edited by ekdenton; Fri 20 June 2008 at 10:11.. Reason: forgot photo
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  #185  
Old Fri 20 June 2008, 10:17
ekdenton
Just call me: Ed #8
 
Alamogordo, NM
United States of America
In other words the relays need to break the loop or circut to stop motion. If you look close at the wiring circut and see that if the y sensor or the z sensor in the first photo stop seeing the rail and trip you would still have motion because there is still a closed loop with the x sensor relay being closed. Then look at the edited one, if any relay trips there is no way you will have a closed circut. Does the changes make sense?

BTW the last photo is showing everything in a non powered state. Once the MM is turned on and everything is active the relays shown in the photo will all go closed, creating the closed loop. I forget if that is called active low or active high but I remember that it is better to have it this way then having the relays NC and open when powered up.

Wiring it with NC relays would then require the wiring to be as the first picture to work and the picture would be shown in a powered up state. But I understand Gerald saying it is better not to wire with the NC relays.

Last edited by ekdenton; Fri 20 June 2008 at 10:27..
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  #186  
Old Fri 20 June 2008, 10:22
Gerald D
Just call me: Gerald (retired)
 
Cape Town
South Africa
ED, your series one is correct - dave had his switches shown in parallel. (will take his pic out now, to avoid confusion)
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  #187  
Old Fri 20 June 2008, 10:33
Gerald D
Just call me: Gerald (retired)
 
Cape Town
South Africa
Quote:
Originally Posted by ekdenton View Post
But I understand Gerald saying it is better not to wire with the NC relays.
Can't figure what you, or I, are saying, or supposed to be saying, when you say the above??

Use NO relays (spring Opens them, electricity Closes them) with very good contacts.

For the proximities, also use NO (metal rail Closes them, free space/holes/faults take them to Open)
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  #188  
Old Fri 20 June 2008, 10:50
ekdenton
Just call me: Ed #8
 
Alamogordo, NM
United States of America
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gerald D View Post
Ed, I would stay away from $2 relays for this application. The relays should be a little bit special - they should have gold on their contacts. We only have a puny 5V signal that we want to get through a lot of series wired contacts.
Gerald, good point not to use cheap parts, I used the mouser Axicom brand:

http://www.mouser.com/Search/Product...Qs5mAEBg%3d%3d

These don't have gold pins but I have had no issues with them they have worked flawless so far.
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  #189  
Old Fri 20 June 2008, 11:24
Gerald D
Just call me: Gerald (retired)
 
Cape Town
South Africa
Those are perfect - they do have the gold-plated contacts. Quote:

Contact Material = Palladium Ruthenium, Gold Overlay
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  #190  
Old Wed 06 August 2008, 09:50
ekdenton
Just call me: Ed #8
 
Alamogordo, NM
United States of America
Gerald, I was cutting some small circles out of light ply today and when I finished and hit the ref home key, my z axis and y axis are moving about 3/4 to 1 inch away from the proximity sensor hole. The x axis is working correct, soon as it comes off the hole it stops.

Any ideas on what might of happened and how I should fix this?
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  #191  
Old Wed 06 August 2008, 11:26
Gerald D
Just call me: Gerald (retired)
 
Cape Town
South Africa
Ed, I have no personal experience of using limit/homing switches yet. Let's hope someone else drops a clue. Have you tried the Machsupport forum?
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  #192  
Old Wed 06 August 2008, 11:27
ekdenton
Just call me: Ed #8
 
Alamogordo, NM
United States of America
Hmmm..... maybe it was just a small glitch or something. I hit ref home again and now it is working correct and all axis are stoping soon as they come off the holes.
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  #193  
Old Wed 06 August 2008, 15:33
ekdenton
Just call me: Ed #8
 
Alamogordo, NM
United States of America
Does anyone know if you can cutt 1/16" rubber on the MM? I just had a customer that is building hydrogen generators and needs alot of rubber gaskets cutt. I told him I would try to find out.

Not sure how to hold it down either, the thought that came to mind was spray one side with super77 and attatch it to a thin ply, but that may be non removeable, I haven't used that stuff enough to know how well it bonds.
Maybe it depends on how much you spray on? Anyone have any experiance in this area?
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  #194  
Old Wed 06 August 2008, 16:55
Marc Shlaes
Just call me: Marc
 
Cleveland, OH
United States of America
Send a message via Skype™ to Marc Shlaes
Ed, the only way I have had any kind of decent luck "machining" rubber is when I sandwich it between two layers of somthing such as MDF. If I were going to try it, I would make a fixture involving a hinged lid held down tightly by the appropriate number of toggle clamps. I don't know how well it would work after the holes are in the lid following the first cut. If that doesn't work so well (and there is enough money in it), sacrifice a piece of 1/2" MDF with each cut and hold the lid and rubber down with toggle clamps all the way around.

That would be my approach. If the gasket is quite large, you might have to augment the edge clamps with some carefully placed screws (such as in the center of large cutouts).

My thoughts. Any other ideas? J.R.? Sean?
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  #195  
Old Wed 06 August 2008, 17:12
ekdenton
Just call me: Ed #8
 
Alamogordo, NM
United States of America
that sounds like it could work. I was concerned that cutting something so flimsy that the tool might try to grab it and pull the whole sheet of rubber to the router, but sandwiched like + the screws, it should keep that from happening. Too bad they don't make double sided tape in full sheet size.
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  #196  
Old Wed 06 August 2008, 17:29
smreish
Just call me: Sean - #5, 28, 58 and others
 
Orlando, Florida
United States of America
...I have had "some" success by doing the sandwich cutting, but usually I use medium tack spray adhesive to keep the rubber (or in my case neoprene) down. When done cutting a little cleanup is required.
The other option is install a rotating cutter knife. You can source and get one that will cut well if you ask for the high angle cutter for Pen plotters that is made to cut sandblasting mask. The masking material, which is like rubber, is nominally 3/16" thick. SUMMA vinyl cutting website is a good source for the cutters. You will need to make a special holder if you have a router with collet. If you have a spindle, you can easily chuck it up if you have a nice selection of collet rings.
Good luck, Sean

Last edited by smreish; Wed 06 August 2008 at 17:32..
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  #197  
Old Wed 06 August 2008, 18:23
J.R. Hatcher
Just call me: J.R. #4
 
Wilmington, North Carolina
United States of America
Send a message via Skype™ to J.R. Hatcher
When I glue up counter tops I use the red contact cement (spray grade). I use cardboard to catch the over spray, if you walk on the cardboard when it's just dry it will follow you around the shop and it's hard to pull off your shoes and I'm not talking about both surfaces glued, just one. I think this process would work for your application. I think the glue would stay on the surface you sprayed and not transfer to the rubber. You will need to play with it a little to see what works best. I know the faster you stick, cut and remove the rubber from the backer the better off you'll be. Good luck.
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  #198  
Old Wed 06 August 2008, 20:30
Doug_Ford
Just call me: Doug #3
 
Conway (Arkansas)
United States of America
I don't know if you will make enough profit to justify a vacuum pump and table but it sounds perfect for this job.
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  #199  
Old Wed 06 August 2008, 21:36
Greg J
Just call me: Greg #13
 
Hagerman, New Mexico
United States of America
Quote:
Originally Posted by Doug_Ford View Post
I don't know if you will make enough profit to justify a vacuum pump and table but it sounds perfect for this job.
Don't forget that J.R. experimented with a shop vac first, before the full blown vacuum system.

What's the size of the gaskets. Maybe a small vacuum "prototype" for this gasket project.
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  #200  
Old Wed 06 August 2008, 22:51
Gerald D
Just call me: Gerald (retired)
 
Cape Town
South Africa
If you want to experiment with a spinning cutter, think of a very sharp down cut spiral cutter. The "Belin" cutter bits from France are very sharp, polished, cutters. Have heard there are some stockists in the US.
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  #201  
Old Mon 11 August 2008, 08:26
ekdenton
Just call me: Ed #8
 
Alamogordo, NM
United States of America
logo'ed

I finally got my neighbor to make my logos for me this weekend and I got them on my MM. Guess that was the last thing needed to complete it. Someday I might make a fancy dust foot for looks, but it is getting pretty much everything now without a foot so I am not sure why I would need one other than just for looks.

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  #202  
Old Mon 11 August 2008, 08:51
isladelobos
Just call me: Ros
 
Canary Islands
Spain
Send a message via MSN to isladelobos Send a message via Yahoo to isladelobos
Perfect !!!!
you are an artist
The red math good.

Last edited by isladelobos; Mon 11 August 2008 at 09:05..
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  #203  
Old Mon 11 August 2008, 09:13
Gerald D
Just call me: Gerald (retired)
 
Cape Town
South Africa
The red will grow on me yet

Nice little air filter under your control box.
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  #204  
Old Mon 11 August 2008, 14:02
Robert M
Just call me: Robert
 
Lac-Brome, Qc
Canada
Send a message via Yahoo to Robert M Send a message via Skype™ to Robert M
Nice & very sexy…
Congrad, Robert
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  #205  
Old Mon 11 August 2008, 14:35
sailfl
Just call me: Nils #12
 
Winter Park, FL
United States of America
Ed,

Very nice. I hope mine looks as nice.
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  #206  
Old Mon 11 August 2008, 15:29
domino11
Just call me: Heath
 
Cornwall, Ontario
Canada
ED,
Congrats on Number 8! I really liked your use of the mechmate on your tube amp projects.
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  #207  
Old Mon 11 August 2008, 16:22
J.R. Hatcher
Just call me: J.R. #4
 
Wilmington, North Carolina
United States of America
Send a message via Skype™ to J.R. Hatcher
Nice job Ed. It looks just like mine ..... except you ordered your's in red
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  #208  
Old Tue 12 August 2008, 01:28
kaartman
Just call me: Koning #20
 
Abu Dhabi
United Arab Emirates
Well done! Ed, i like the Ferrari Red
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  #209  
Old Tue 12 August 2008, 09:55
hennie
Just call me: Hennie #23
 
Roodepoort JHB
South Africa
Good going ed !
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  #210  
Old Tue 12 August 2008, 13:25
ekdenton
Just call me: Ed #8
 
Alamogordo, NM
United States of America
Snake

Thanks for the kind words guys. I stumbled upon a site yesterday that has some nice wood carving patterns. I bought a few to try with the MM. I think I can design some nice Christmas gifts with these if they work like I think that they will.

http://www.carvingpatterns.com/



I killed a rattler last night that looks like the one Greg is holding in his photo. My dog jumped off our porch and landed right on top of the snake and immediatly jumped to one side when the snake moved. It was so dark I could barely see it. It had 8 buttons or sections on the rattle, not huge but then again they don't have to be. Lucky for my dog that the snake didn't get her.

Normally if I see them in the wild I do not kill them but when they get in my yard and I see them, they die. Actually I usually see alot of gopher snakes and bull snakes around our house , this is the first venomous snake that I have seen in a couple years.

Last edited by ekdenton; Tue 12 August 2008 at 13:33..
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