Now Cutting! - Auckland NZ

[racedirector]

Great job Chris, you'll be like a pig in the proverbial playing with it.

Did I miss something somewhere? Was wondering why so many buttons in your on machine boxes......

Cheers

[litemover]

The bottom are just LEDs. Same amount of buttons on the plan.

[racedirector]

Ah ok. So each LED lights up on a button press then. Cool idea!

[KenC]

I'm just imagining how much hair I'll pull out if I put those light in...
Good work!

[litemover]

Thanks Ken for your help throughout the build. I'm wondering next about pulling my hair out to build a temp waterbed on part of the table for plasma torch and make it a dual head machine.

I still haven't hooked the LEDs up as I've just figured out how to get my prox sensors up and running and have a limited amount of wires left (6 in total, incl prox sensors.) I'm thinking I can get all my prox sensors to run using existing ground, existing +24v to each estop, plus 3 wires, then 3 wires left for LEDs. Then for Z home button I'd need 1 more wire, so just figuring that out at the moment. The LED idea is for them to flash thrice per sec when in estop mode, or cycle pause, and when in go mode, to flash to step data.

The one thing I feel very lucky about is the tolerance of my machine throughout. It's very tight, very accurate, and so it was worth all the "Redos", re-cuts, heat straightening for weeks etc to get that level of precision. If you are building one yourself, accept no less than perfection on the Gantry square, rail cutting, and Y car welding and you will have a precision machine.

Working on some cool designs now, so will post them when I cut them, stay tuned!
Chris

[KenC]

You are most welcome. Just doing my part for the community.
You don't need screen cable for the proximity sensor, it runs on 24V so more tolerant to interference. The best part is its very low current, you can use any wires you can get off home depot or grocery shop.
As for the water bed, you don't have to get too elaborate, you can try things out with a huge baking tray or any kind of shallow trays with at least 76mm depth, fill it with 50mm of water & put it on the table. You can improvise the slats, nothing fancy, they are sacrificial support best made out of metal. BTW, don't forget to protect your table top from water & spark.

[litemover]

Cool thanks! I'll try it out as soon as I get a plasma torch!

[MetalHead]

Lets see some logos !!! !!!

[litemover]

Logos should be coming this week. I've just been busy cutting is all!!!
Super fun machine! Anyone ever use a shopvac for a dust collector? I think I'm going to do that for now, cough!


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[Robert M]

Nicely done, nice detailing....well done !!
Attention to detail....his a common "noun" among MechMate-guys !!

Vacuuming.....
In my opinion....base on...say a few yrs as a woodworker......Shopvac is better then .....well....noting !!
But you'll quickly notice it is truly meet for....the garage !

A fitted dust foot with a minimal dust collector ( say 2hp - +/- 600 cfm) is what you should consider.
Although. MDF is notorious for making dust....vs "wood chips"

Lot's of fun & "curves" ahead when entering the "great" world of CNC-ing !!
Robert

[smreish]

Yes... Shopvac works fine and picks up a good bit of you dust....better than nothing at all.

If you want to give your filter a rest, just have an extra trash can between the vac and the dust pickup to work like a CYCLONE.

http://www.amazon.com/DUST-COLLECTIO.../dp/B001399USU

[Robert M]

Dont get me wrong....I'm quite frugal too !!
hate spending for too much....for what's not neede !

BUT....in dust collection, a believe a minimal $$ allowance should be considered...( see this one ...if not a good cyclone )...considering how dust can harm your health !
:-).....

But....again.....little shopvac is in deed better than....nothing !

[domino11]

If you are on a budget, get a cheap dust collector and make one of these.
Thien Dust Separator
A few here have made them!

[parrulho]

I did it: small shop vac a thien baffle separator. It's work very well for the gross dust.

[darren salyer]

I have a few pics of a Harbor Freight collector with a Thien baffle in my build thread as well. Probably gets 80% of the dust. Would probably get more, but I use down spiral bits a lot. What it doesn't get, is packed in the cutting kerf and not airborne.

[litemover]

Awesome, thanks for the links to the Duc stuff. Man I need it now!

[KenC]

IMHO, any dust control is more important than the limit switches. There is no way one can work safely with wood dust/chip piling all over the place.

[litemover]

So true. Hey Mike, what will my serial number be when I finish the logos? 109?

[MetalHead]

Well that is up to you

111 just got his number so it will be above that one for sure !!!

[litemover]

Ok, thanks Mike, I'd like to get 118 if that is ok? I'll put Logos on this week.

On another note, Is there a way to rotate a program by a set coordinate system, in order to set your system coords perfectly square to the stock sheet on the table? I've been working with patterns in whole plywood sheets without sheering the edges off to offset it and I've noticed that most of the sheets are inherently out of perfect square or some are longer or wider than others by 1 mm to 2mm. With the patterns that I am doing ,it throws the whole pattern out by a couple mm from the far edge in some places by the ends. It would probably be beneficial to just start with a larger sheet of plywood then cut the edge off square in program, but this isn't the case with this run. Any ideas?

Cheers,
Chris

[lonestaral]

You could try G68 (Coordinate system rotation)

[pblackburn]

My 2 cents, a dust collector is essential. Wood workers have a greater risk of paranasal cancer. I opted for a Jet dust collector. I am sure there are similar one available where you are at.

[KenC]

Any dust collector is better than no dust collector.

[pblackburn]

Agreed

[litemover]

Well, I just finished cutting 45 of these panels. I ran the machine for nearly 2 weeks straight with very little break time, 3 four hour sessions per day, not a problem for the mechmate. They turned out really good but then I received a call to get back stateside for a project which I had to leave the next day for. Now I am probably going to start building another Mechmate straight away in the US, almost exactly the same spec but I'm going to probably powder coat the next one.

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get the decals made prior to departing, so it will have to wait another month as I'm away. Unless I have someone else stick them on. We'll see.

The machine is really amazing, and I'm so happy with it's performance. It cuts fast and holds it's steps. The power supply I made is just the right combo, the motors do get hot, but I can still hold them a while before my hand gets too hot. I'm running them a bit higher voltage than what the charts say and it seems to really kick up the torque. Though I don't know how they would behave otherwise with a smaller power supply. A few more volts seems to kick arse.


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[MetalHead]

Are you in the states?

I can mail you some logos.

[litemover]

Yep, I am at the moment. I'll probably need a laser kit, so will let you know Mike.

[MetalHead]

I have both in stock and ready to ship. I will pm you.

[barry99705]

Okay, I'll bite. What's the panels for?

[litemover]

They were for Acoustic/decorative panels for a hallway at the Airport.