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  #61  
Old Mon 04 January 2010, 15:13
riesvantwisk
Just call me: Ries #46
 
Quito
Ecuador
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Here is a quick update from my end.

After a 6 day holiday in Florida in the beginning of Dec and some holiday and family time, I could manage the squeeze in two full days of working.
Last week I welded plates for the feet aswell as finalizing welds on various places that where initially some tack welds and we are getting ready to have the whole system to be painted!

I am starting to be more excited about it, because now it finally will look like a real MM

Oo... and still, my welding is not as good as I would like it to be, but I am having fun with it.


In the mean time at home I have been playing a lot with EMC2. I have been re-compiling a Linux kernel with just the modules and settings that I needed to, aswel as compiling RTAI 3.7 and the latest version of EMC2. I used Debian lenny as my base system and installed xfce4 as my desktop environment leaving me with a much faster and responsive system that looks very appealing. I need to find some cool looking mechmate colored background for my desktop and login screen....

In EMC I set my pulse frequency to 40Khz, which seems to be plenty enough as far as I can see and at the same time I can plug in USB stick, do network communications and such. I have been even tempted to do some programming around Q-CAD, but first I need to finish the machine.

attached a picture of me and Jairo and the machine in it's state of last week.

Ries
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  #62  
Old Mon 04 January 2010, 21:42
Gerald D
Just call me: Gerald (retired)
 
Cape Town
South Africa
Proud parents for sure

I see you have very high x and y rails, and I see the one stop block on the x-rail is low down - I hope you understand all the factors with the high rails. (Have you tried to fit a motor and rack yet?

(Your y-car is the wrong way around, probably just for the picture)
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  #63  
Old Tue 05 January 2010, 00:27
Claudiu
Just call me: Claus #43
 
Arad
Romania
Happy to see news from you, Ries.
Happy new year and good luck.
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  #64  
Old Tue 05 January 2010, 05:50
riesvantwisk
Just call me: Ries #46
 
Quito
Ecuador
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@Claus, thanks!

@Gerarld:
1) The y-Rails are indeed higher then was planned, this was mainly due to bad grinding disk available here in Ecuador so we decided to just leave them high.
We already made provisions so that the stepper will fit (tested) and that we have slightly different stop blocks.

2) I don't see how the Y-Car is wrong I did check if a router could fit and tested if I can reach the whole bed with it. Would it matter if it's rotated 180 degrees?

thanks for the quick peek on my build!

Ries
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  #65  
Old Tue 05 January 2010, 07:04
Gerald D
Just call me: Gerald (retired)
 
Cape Town
South Africa
Ries, in the above photo, I believe your 0,0 position is furthest away from the camera. (Can confirm that by the x and y cable chain brackets).

However, on the y-car, the 45 degree bent lip for mounting the pushbutton box, should be towards the 0,0 side.
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  #66  
Old Tue 05 January 2010, 21:23
riesvantwisk
Just call me: Ries #46
 
Quito
Ecuador
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I think I see what you mean, my 3D brain isn't working at the moment almost 12 here...

However, we can turn the Y car around.

thanks for the look.. something to remember.

Ries
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  #67  
Old Mon 11 January 2010, 18:48
riesvantwisk
Just call me: Ries #46
 
Quito
Ecuador
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Gerarld,

you whew right... I did orient the car incorrectly, however at the same time I discovered that my I car was bend in teh wrong directions...Ooops. Nothing mayor though, I just moved the par that connects the rails to the other side of the Y-Car.

Current status is that the control box houses my old laptop (thank you shipyard Jongert!) and fully tested with EMC2 and my control box is ready... My transformer is on it's way to Ecuador from the USA. Send from Antek to a friend.. he send it to me...
My Z-Plate is ready.. hurraaay! because it took me some time to find one in the first place, not a gauge plate but this one will do for my kinda work, it's stainless steel and hardened aswell. Broke on bit on it
Table and all other parts are ready for painting.

Hopefully by the end of this week I will have it painted, need to say how my freelance programming works goes... Don't want to have to clients waiting

As soon as it's painted, I will post pictures again.

Ries
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  #68  
Old Fri 15 January 2010, 19:18
riesvantwisk
Just call me: Ries #46
 
Quito
Ecuador
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It's blue and ready for wiring - Quito, Ecuador

Unfortunatly I didn't had time for the paintjob myself, but my father in law did find some time to make it all blue.

It's one base layer and 4 layers of blue and I think it even looks close to the original MM blue !

Here is a picture:

since my control box is ready and well tested by powering up/down my laptop and testing all realtime related items in EMC and electronics I am ready to do some wiring. So tomorrow we will start doing just that.

I have also tested the path going from q-cad to EMC2 using a dxf2gcode converter that runs right in the control box aswell as doing this really fancy in pro/engineer and pro/nc, makes me very happy.. although I still need to learn a lot in that area.

But first I need to concentrate on wiring and thinking about the correct order of doing so...

Ries
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  #69  
Old Fri 15 January 2010, 21:07
Gerald D
Just call me: Gerald (retired)
 
Cape Town
South Africa
Hi Ries, would you mind reducing that photo size please? (Or give me permission to do it)
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  #70  
Old Fri 15 January 2010, 23:45
riesvantwisk
Just call me: Ries #46
 
Quito
Ecuador
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Gerald,

sorry about that! It's rescaled to 600 width, I though that the forum would do that for me with external URL's....

Ries
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  #71  
Old Sat 16 January 2010, 03:01
Gerald D
Just call me: Gerald (retired)
 
Cape Town
South Africa
Maybe the forum could be set to re-scale external pic size, but that wasn't the BIG problem . . . . your file size was 2 000 kB and no forum can scale that!
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  #72  
Old Fri 22 January 2010, 21:28
riesvantwisk
Just call me: Ries #46
 
Quito
Ecuador
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It's breathing, humming and moving, seems to be happy to, a new MM is born!

Hey Guys,

We are more then happy to announce that our mechmate is born, is breathing, humming and did made it's first baby steps into some wood working (at 600mm/sec).

First of all I want to thank Gerald for his excellent design, during the build I keep being amazed by it's simplicity but well though of concepts and design. When my motors are 'engaged' the thing is amazingly ridged!!

Second I want to thank all the forum members here for there support towards other builders give ideas help out and find solutions, amazing!

For what we initially did, it worked perfectly, both EMC and MM did work very nice together and I have almost guesstimated correctly (at 5cm over the long axis) the site of the table correctly in EMC's settings.

We had a slow build of around 12 Months (looking back at my first message, and first build image ) but this was well worth, we took the time, no rush for us in-experienced people... We (my father in law and me).

Status right now is since that the baby is born, we need to write the emergency stop still (important!) build also the start/stop buttons. For now I am going to leave out the limit switches, I am not sure if I need them at this point, it seems that when proper homed EMC/MACH protects you quite well, need to have some more experience in that though.
Also we need to tighten up some wires on the MM and control box, stickers!+ number, we need to have a vac (some day) we need to have a cable chain (impossible here in EC!)

Anyways, here is a little video of that we did: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nPUuqPKtYc

PS: turn of the sound, I made a mistake with the music... I am uploading a new one, but first I need to sleep....

Ries
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  #73  
Old Fri 22 January 2010, 22:17
Gerald D
Just call me: Gerald (retired)
 
Cape Town
South Africa
Congratulations Ries! You did everything at the right time......you researched and planned and took it step by step. It must be the Dutch blood that we share
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  #74  
Old Fri 22 January 2010, 22:21
jehayes
Just call me: Joe #53
 
Whidbey Island, Washington
United States of America
Well done Ries. Congratulations (Felicitaciones!) Joe
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  #75  
Old Fri 22 January 2010, 22:25
Kobus_Joubert
Just call me: Kobus #6
 
Riversdale Western Cape
South Africa
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Well done and enjoy.
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  #76  
Old Fri 22 January 2010, 22:26
KenC
Just call me: Ken
 
Klang
Malaysia
Congratulation Ries! Well done!
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  #77  
Old Fri 22 January 2010, 23:47
Gerald D
Just call me: Gerald (retired)
 
Cape Town
South Africa
Oops, I forgot to mention Jairo and Karina, who were the biggest helpers for Ries. Felicitaciones feliz cumpleaños!
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  #78  
Old Fri 22 January 2010, 23:57
Claudiu
Just call me: Claus #43
 
Arad
Romania
Great progress Ries. Congrats for your first cuts and your upcoming number. You did a great job. Claus
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  #79  
Old Sat 23 January 2010, 00:18
sailfl
Just call me: Nils #12
 
Winter Park, FL
United States of America
Ries,

Congrates and well done!!!
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  #80  
Old Sat 23 January 2010, 06:23
riesvantwisk
Just call me: Ries #46
 
Quito
Ecuador
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Thanks everybody!

Jairo was a huge help and I couldn't have done it with out him.
I am also going to teach him to use the machinel. He is a retired metal worker and always in for a challenge, since we met 5 years ago he started to like some woodworking and he seems to like it. It's funny, I speak just a tad spanish, and his english is limited to 5 words, but together we could pull it of using hand and feed signs, and showing examples of ideas using materials.
He always made is drawings on his work using MS Paint, but I am planning to teach him some Q-Cad so he can make better drawings, so that can be fun to...

I will keep posting pictures...

If any of you have questions, please let me know...

Ries
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  #81  
Old Mon 25 January 2010, 06:56
KenC
Just call me: Ken
 
Klang
Malaysia
Ries,
If getting cable chain is difficult, why not make one? Read this from CNCZONE & tell me what you think?
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  #82  
Old Mon 25 January 2010, 19:37
riesvantwisk
Just call me: Ries #46
 
Quito
Ecuador
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Ken,

thanks for that link, it's a good source of ideas.
As it turned out, I cam also up with much similar ideas a couple of months ago. The little sleeve will get removed because I cannot cut that and already had other ideas, just not put them on screen yet...
All in all, I will for sure make my own cable chain...
Here some pictures if what I thought of.

Ries
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  #83  
Old Mon 25 January 2010, 21:01
KenC
Just call me: Ken
 
Klang
Malaysia
I can think of 2 ways around it,
As it is drill holes at the corners. just like how jigsawing square hole by drillinf 4 holes at the corners...
Make recess end a round one & round off the mating edge, may have to increase the length of the recess for a good "bite".

Hope these help.

Last edited by KenC; Mon 25 January 2010 at 21:02.. Reason: correction
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  #84  
Old Tue 26 January 2010, 05:45
riesvantwisk
Just call me: Ries #46
 
Quito
Ecuador
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Ken,

based on what I have been reading on the cnczone forum I will have a nice idea to make this in such a way they I can use one bit to mill it all out. When time permits I will post new pictures, I need them soon anyways.

Ries
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  #85  
Old Thu 28 January 2010, 12:41
riesvantwisk
Just call me: Ries #46
 
Quito
Ecuador
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Did some work yesterday again..

I had a bit of fun yesterday cleaning up more on the table, finished attaching the ground throughout the complete table. And configured the machine to speedup it's work, still taking the speed slow to get confident in and around the machine, it's just scary to let it move really fast..

I also did setup the stop blocks so I can square the gantry using Geralds method by pushing it against the stoppers, then power on the control box. I was off with around 1mm, not bad I must say...

What I also did was setup EMC so then when 1 meter of movement is requested, the machine is also moved by 1 meter, this turned out to be a bit more problematic then I initially thought... I 'think' I am off with around 0.5mm over a length of 1220mm (teh size of my wood in width..) not bad, BUT!

How does one measure 1 meter when you don't have a good tool around to measure one meter in the first place? I do have a couple of metallic tapes (the one that roll up), but they all don't have there accuracy printed on the back. And if I measure two or tree next to each other, they all different.

How do you guys calibrate your machine?

Next, I tried to create some letters in Aspire (the demo version) but got kinda lost on how that system works. I got so far to create a tool path, but there seems to be no (clear) option to create a G-Code file.... Need to dig into the docs to see how that works. Also I am getting confused by there 2D system of designing and the lack of parametric methods, but will figure that out some time..

Next is to buy my bits for the machine, I have currently no idea where they sell that here and I might need to use the cheap tools in the beginning and order something online, any suggestions in this department?

Ries
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  #86  
Old Thu 28 January 2010, 20:09
KenC
Just call me: Ken
 
Klang
Malaysia
I'm watching your progress with great interest. In fact, subconsciously, I followed almost exactly your suggested test procedure of the Kitchen table project .

I recon you can try by visiting/calling local industrial machine & tool supply outlets if they don't carry those milling bits, you can ask them point you the direction. That how I found endmills & other cutting bits & tools.
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  #87  
Old Thu 28 January 2010, 20:22
Gerald D
Just call me: Gerald (retired)
 
Cape Town
South Africa
Ries, you will drive yourself mad looking for an accurate tape measure. You only need to find the same tape measure that your customer will use when he has to decide if he pays the bill or not.

In our case, with racks and pinions from Italy, we trust the rack pitch and calculate the "Steps per mm" from there, with no checks to any tape measure.
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  #88  
Old Thu 28 January 2010, 23:40
Claudiu
Just call me: Claus #43
 
Arad
Romania
Ries, After you create the toolpath in Toolpath Tab, you have to check the toolpaths you want to have as a GCode output. Then go down to the very right button in line before the last one, you will see a little disk. A new screen pops up which says Save Toolpath, here you can check if you want all toolpaths created to be in one file, or choose separately each toolpath. Mostly you choose all toolpath which use the same bit, as we do not have yet an ATC. Then you choose what format your GCode file will have and the place to save it when pressing at the bottom Save toolpath button.. Give it a try and let us know your progress !
Good Luck

Claudiu

Last edited by Claudiu; Thu 28 January 2010 at 23:43..
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  #89  
Old Fri 29 January 2010, 05:46
riesvantwisk
Just call me: Ries #46
 
Quito
Ecuador
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@Gerald:
I currently simply uses the width of the wood, something I can refer to if people ask.. Edimca (The mayor wood working company here) can't be wrong, right??

I will try to find out my Pitch Diameter I looked on the internet, but they talks about PD and module 1, but not how to calculate it when knowing the diameters of the pinion and the number of teeth, may be it's in my mail from the company I bought them from. On the other hand, being 0.5 'off' (from teh wood reference) over a length of 1220mm (0.041%) isn't to bad.

@Claudia, yesterday I spend some time and could figure that odd, maaaaan that's a odd program with buttons at the wrong places, I am missing a good workflow in that program. But in the end I couldn't output anything because I have a trial version. The price of that program is currently to high for me, so I need to find a other solution for my occasional v-carving.

Ries
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  #90  
Old Fri 29 January 2010, 06:19
KenC
Just call me: Ken
 
Klang
Malaysia
Ries, the subject on lead screw pitch, its can be culculated using the result of "Gear Speed Step Frequency Calculator.xl" Which I downloaded here.
Devide the result of "Step/mm" by "Motor step/rev", & you get (Rev/mm).
My MM is not running yet so I can't confirm that. but you can
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