Doing Some Inlay Work! #69 - Holiday FL USA

[sailfl]

I will be interested in see you ipod control your machine. I might even have to buy one.

Bring on the mail box. I bet it isn't one of those truck killers like my neighbor has.

I should be done with the current larger order by the 29th so I will send you an email.

[sailfl]

I had an opportunity to visit Russell's machine and he has done an excellent job.

The IPod interface is great and I am going to follow him once I get the needed hardware.

[Regnar]

Nils, had a good time with you coming over. You even survived the dogs.

Alright I have been working on the dust collection setup and thinking/coming up with different ideals. My problem is that my ceiling height is low and when the garage door is open well I have only 3 inches between the door and the Z slide.

So this is what I came up with. Nothing is glued right now and that is why the T section is dipping onto the Echain but I was wondering what you guys think before I make it permanent. I think everything should work out but Im not that experienced in these matters. Thanks

[Regnar]

Just noticed that I have the T section pointing the wrong way Good thing I didnt glue it up yet

[bradm]

Glad you caught that T, I was about to comment on it. I think that even in the correct direction, it may create turbulence in the collection, so you might want to consider a simple 90, with a steel rod to extend for support. Actually, that raises the possibility of eliminating the transition to rigid pipe altogether, and to just make a steel support that goes end to end.

I like the way you are working to solve this problem. BTW, if you look at the last picture in my post here you'll see that I repurposed the extra bearings from the skate to make a couple of sliding carriers that allow my DC hose to follow the machine.

One more silly thought: keep your original design, and pressurize the capped end with a feed from an air compressor, and you might dramatically increase the suction performance.

[sailfl]

Russell,

Interesting way you are running the dust collection hose. I like the connectors you used for the hose. The way I have connected my hose to the PVC pipe, I am getting leakage and dust on the floor.

Thanks for the IPod idea. Mine arrives on the 14th.

[sailfl]

Russell,

I had two additional thoughts. I would never glue the PVC pipe. Some time in the future you are going to want or need to open them up - easier if they are not glued.

You want to run a bare thin copper wire through the inside of the hose and pipe which is attached at one end to ground static electricity that builds up with the fast moving air.

[mikefoged]

The Ipod Idea is brilliant, I like It.
would it also work with Iphone instead of Ipod. get my Iphone4 next week and I like to try it out as a hand controler for the mechmate.

[Gerald D]

Russel, if the hose itself cannot twist, you will need a rotating joint between the hose and the T (or at the other end).

[Regnar]

Nils, I will be running a wire in-between the pipes. I also didnt glue but screwed the joints together.

The fittings are just regular pvc fittings. Woodcraft wanted 10 dollars per a connection. A PVC 4" to 3" fitting was only 2.50 but it required me to clean out the inside of the fitting on the lathe. I also didnt like the fit of the woodcraft fittings. They would just slide off and felt cheap.

Mike, the iphone should work the same way. You would even have a few more features that are available to you but not need. I have been trying a few more features like wake on lan. Im still trying to make this work on Linux but it would start up the computer and if you make Mach or Emc part of your startup routine it would make it so you didnt even need to touch the computer until you needed to open a file.

Gerald after screwing everything together I see what you mean. Looks like I need to go shopping again.

[sailfl]

Russell,

I picked up a couple 4 to 3 connectors today. I installed one which I think is all I will need. I screwed my joints together but now I don't think I need to do that.

I will work on the HippoRemote this weekend.

[Regnar]

I cut my first full sheet today. A lot of lessons learned and one of them is coming up with a better solution or just thinking ahead better. Basically my clamping technique sucks. I knocked off one clamp and put myself in some awkward positions while moving clamps around the table. Not good at least in my mind.

While making tabs to hold pieces make them larger and make sure the piece next to it doesnt cut off the tab that you think is still there. This is basically planning and giving myself a little more room for nesting. I allowed for .005 and one corner fell victim to a loose piece. No major damage that a little filler cant fix.

Learned that Home Depot sells cabinet grade plywood in 47x 95 sheet and not the industrial standard. So measure your stock before doing all the CAD work.

Here are some of the pictures from today. Basically I am building a Home Theater Subwoofer. I ordered the sub a while ago and was waiting to complete the machine to build the box. I think it did just fine.

I will upload a video later of it being cut out so you guys can learn from me or just have a great laugh.

[Regnar]

And the video finally posted.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UulnIFliZ7o

[sailfl]

Russell,

The operation of your MM looks great. Great job.

To get better grade of material, you will want to find a lumber yard and set up an account.

[smreish]

Russell,
Call:
Quality Plywood Specialties, Inc


4500 110th Avenue N
Clearwater, FL 33762-4907 map
Phone: (727) 572-0500 They have EVERY type of specialty and cabinet grade/shop grade ply you can think of. Prefinished, Prestained, etc.

If you look at my early, early post's with MM #5, you can see some of the special cabinet laminate that they glued up the laminate on the birch core for me.

They are awesome and only a short drive south of you in Clearwater off FT Harrison.

Tell them I said hi...when I was a young pup I swept the floors in the warehouse on the weekends.

Good luck.

Sean

[fredjr]

Russell. Your machine works real fast . I have moved clamps like that too The vacuum system seems to work real well also. Thanks Jimmy

[Regnar]

Sean thanks for the link. I will stop by Monday after work and check them out. I need to get some PVA backed Veneer so hopefully they have some.

Jimmy, although the machine can probably go that fast the video is a 2x the speed. I didn't think people would want to sit around for a 20 minute video of the machine cutting wood. Even if its in HD.

The vacuum system is working out great. Even the pvc shower pan liner around the foot is keeping all the dust from leaving the area. It has 3 layers and all the cut lines are staggered.

[Travish]

Looking good Russell! You make for a fast build! Great to see you cutting! Thanks for posting your video even if it was your 1st sheet! I think it is great to share that so people can learn from the result of the approach taken.

Cheers,
Travis

[Regnar]

Hey everyone,

I know it has been awhile since my last update. All I can say is the machine is staying busy. Not to production standards but busy enough that it is slowly starting to pay it self off. Lately it seems like I have been cutting a lot of tool box lids. Not a huge money maker but I get anywhere from 75 to 150 bucks to cut them up or should I say plane them down.

The problem is these guys have maple tops for their tool boxes. They beat them to death or drill a bunch of holes and make them look like crap in no time. What I am doing is taking a 16th to an 8th off the top to bring them back to new. I then up sell a nice carving into the top to make a few extra bucks.

I have done around 12 tops now and in reality its only cost me one cheap endmill and some electricity. What is funny is each time a bring a top in someones sees the work and I load another into the back of the truck.

Here are a few photos of the work I am doing. You will notice in the one photo they didnt want to pay 50 bucks for the planning and they regret it every day.

[sailfl]

Russel,

Great job.

[Regnar]

Made a few signs for work and really put my new dust foot to work.

I haven't mentioned it to the forum but I built myself a rigid dust shoe. I seen it used on a few different machines on the zone. Let me tell you that my collection has increase dramatically. I have very little to no dust escape and can see what is going on around the router bit.

Ok now for the bad. I usually leave a small tab to hold the parts in place. The suction is so much better now that I can break these little tabs and get the piece lodged into the foot and have the whole Y car lift off the table. Easy fix is better tabs when setting the tool paths.

Clamps dont stand a chance if they are in the path. Lately I have been brad nailing the pieces to the table and find it more convenient anyways.

Here is the video of the foot in action. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhP2WyMh1cc

Here is the signs I have been making for work. The wing span is 72" wide. I really need to invest in nice router bits. I think the cuts might have come out a little cleaner.

[sailfl]

I like them all!!

[MetalHead]

Sweet . I'd love to see pics of them painted !!!

[Alan_c]

Russel, does your machine slow down on the arcs and speed up on the straight sections or is that just an effect of the video. The machine is meant to maintain a constant speed (unless some settings are not 100%)?

[Regnar]

Nils and Mike Thanks. This was the first project that I was able to design and make all on my own. Most of the people want another design or a copy of something else.

Alan you are right that I am slowing down in the arcs. If you notice though the final pass is at a constant speed. On my mill I am able to keep a constant speed even when I spiral in to the material. But on the Mechmate I am unable to get the speed constant in the arcs with a spiral feed. I have even switched out computers with each other to make sure it wasnt the computer.

I have tried everything in the book to make spiral feed work but for some reason I can never get the arcs to stay at a constant speed. If you have a few suggestions I am open to try.

[Alan_c]

Russel, check your settings on the "settings" page, down near the bottom, make sure CV Feedrate is on (green LED is lit) and that the value is the same as your normal feedrate (remember to save settings) - this made a huge difference to my machine iro smoothness of movement.

Try running the same file using smooth ramp in place of spiral ramp, I tend to use spiral ramp only on purely circular components - using spiral ramp involves a huge ammount of calculations on the circle - picture the path the cutter tip must follow, changing direction as well as depth all the time, on a straight section it only has to change depth so will move faster.

I just made up a test file with two arcs and two tangent lines connecting them, with smooth ramp the file is 6k and with spiral ramp its 59K - a huge difference in running smoothness, give it a try...

[Surfcnc]

Gidday Russell

Thanks for the video of your new fixed dust foot in action. It seems to be working very well.
For flat sheet work that format appears superior to the long bristle type.
Looks like you have just given me another project for my already long list .

One detail though if you feel inclined to share, it just how you have anchored the 80/20 at the top and how you adjust the height of the dust foot.

Also your MDF signs are looking great and very creative.
If ever you need to undo any really big nuts those spanners are going to come in very handy !!

Regards
Ross

[Regnar]

Alan,
I dont use Mach but with Emc I do use Emc2 with G64P.05. This allows me to crank up the speed but stay within .05 of the designated tool path. G61 is exact stop and G64 is constant velocity with no parameters. I have a feeling that with Spiral Ramping Vcarve is making short segments and the controller cant keep up with the speed set.

Ross,
The height of the dust foot is adjusted with 2 wing nuts. I would like to add a spring or a gas strut to the mix to make raising it easier or at least balanced.

You could also use brushes as well but you would need to make the hole in the plexi larger so your spindle could pass through.

Some close up photos of the setup.

[Surfcnc]

Thanks Russell - nice and clear now from the pics you have added for me.
Also had a look on the CNC Zone and at a few more youtube vids.
Sure works well.

Ross

[Gerald D]

Russel, your gas-spring appears to have the fat side at the bottom. That causes the drop of internal oil to lie at the bottom and not get to the rubber seal at all.