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  #721  
Old Sat 07 June 2014, 07:05
Surfcnc
Just call me: Ross #74
 
Queensland
Australia
Hi Pete

Just checked back to the MM site and you have been doing some really great precision work.
You are making me feel lazy esp with the dust collection .

Regards
Ross
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  #722  
Old Sat 07 June 2014, 07:11
pblackburn
Just call me: Pete #98
 
South-Central Pennsylvania
United States of America
Ross, if it was not for your assistance I would not be where I am as of today. So the credit is shared, friend, and thank you for the compliment.
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  #723  
Old Sun 08 June 2014, 15:51
pblackburn
Just call me: Pete #98
 
South-Central Pennsylvania
United States of America
Getting ready to cut out material required for a spare touch probe.

Have been looking at making one of these also. Spring loaded plotter pen
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  #724  
Old Sun 08 June 2014, 17:38
darren salyer
Just call me: Darren #101
 
Wentzville mo
United States of America
Very interesting, Pete. Keep us informed on the plotter pen, will ya?
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  #725  
Old Mon 09 June 2014, 21:10
pblackburn
Just call me: Pete #98
 
South-Central Pennsylvania
United States of America
New SS touch probe. This one I opted for all stainless steel. Took a while to find all the pieces at a reasonable price. My aim with this one is to resist rusting. I have used the other one quite a bit since it was made. I bought enough components to make 2 originally with the hopes if it worked well to make a backup.


Cutting out Bearing Spacer

Partially Complete
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  #726  
Old Thu 12 June 2014, 05:05
Drexel
Just call me: John
 
Rose Hill, Kansas
United States of America
Pete #98. Sorry for getting off topic but I was reading one of your post from two years ago (June 2012) and was hoping you would share your experience with the set screws you used to level your X beams. I am at that stage and my X beams are a bit higher on the inside then the outside. The set screw sounds like the perfect answer to this C channel problem but I was wondering how it's worked for you over the long term? Have they moved on you? Did you use locktite or something similar to hold them in place? Any advice would be appreciated.
John
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  #727  
Old Thu 12 June 2014, 12:27
pblackburn
Just call me: Pete #98
 
South-Central Pennsylvania
United States of America
John, the set screws have not moved that I have noticed. You said "to level your X beams", I used it to correct the X rails and not the main beam. So the rest of this I will apply to what I did on correcting the X rail tilt. My main beam was welded to the legs and the crossbearers are bolted to them. I did not want to interfere with the mating surface of the bottom of the main beam to the crossbearer so I elected to correct the problem on the top of the main beam by jacking the rail into the correct position. The forces are also less at the rail as compared to the bottom of the main beam. I did lose some Y travel since my C channel was bent in but I designed a little oversized so it did not hurt it in the end. I originally was going to Loctite the screws but did not in case I had to move them later. Anything under 1/4" and Loctite 242 and 290 is considered permanent. With the draw down from the hold down bolts on the rails it locks the set screw threads down rather well. If you use set screws to level out the rail, the thickness of the rail would be the maximum size of the set screw to use to get maximum holding power out of the thread. I also would recommend if you are using standard thread and not metric to use fine thread to increase the amount of load the threads can bare. In my case, the distance left from the head of the bolt to the edge of the rail dictated the size of the set screw which became a M5. If you are using the set screws to level the beam, I cannot say if they will work their cup point into the steel over time from dynamic forces or not. I hope this helps.
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  #728  
Old Fri 13 June 2014, 10:59
Fox
Just call me: Fox
 
Amsterdam
Netherlands
Buy the right set screws, they come with points flats reverse cones nylon tips balls etc. buy some flat ones ( or grind the tip )
Loctite could (imo should) be used, ( use a thread locker like 243 not a glue like 603 ) and when you need to get them out, just use a pencil torch on the setscrew for short while, anything over 100 degrees will kill the loctite bond and allows for removal. Even 603 joints can be released this way ( but need more heat )
Don't use the lately popular ball nose hex keys when you remove them, use good old fashioned straight tipped ones, as you will strip the heads easily with the ball, they are only intended for turning in an angle before you actually tighten bolts down.

Last edited by Fox; Fri 13 June 2014 at 11:01..
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  #729  
Old Fri 13 June 2014, 11:02
Fox
Just call me: Fox
 
Amsterdam
Netherlands
Quote:
New SS touch probe. This one I opted for all stainless steel. Took a while to find all the pieces at a reasonable price. My aim with this one is to resist rusting. I have used the other one quite a bit since it was made. I bought enough components to make 2 originally with the hopes if it worked well to make a backup.
How is it working out besides rusting ? Good accuracy reliability of the switching components ?
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  #730  
Old Fri 13 June 2014, 18:34
pblackburn
Just call me: Pete #98
 
South-Central Pennsylvania
United States of America
Fox,
The original is working great. I cannot complain even a bit. For an example, I had to clean up the V carve on the goat sign (midway through the painting process). I set up the location in the original orientation for cutting. Used it to touch off the surface and off the other touch probe for tooling to find my offset. Used 5 distinct points to touch off to rotate the round sign back to the original XY datam. Worked like a charm. Without it, that would have been almost impossible. Now, is it a Renishaw or equivilant, No. But the DRO always stops at the exact same point when touching off from the side and for wood, I feel that is more than accurate enough.
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  #731  
Old Mon 23 June 2014, 19:39
pblackburn
Just call me: Pete #98
 
South-Central Pennsylvania
United States of America
Finally got my Frame World EX-2 aluminum for the bedway to mount the tailstock on. They are the length of the MechMate bed. Now I need to calculate out the C3x5 I need to buy to modify the cross bearers. Still have not worked out the removable section of the spoilboard yet. I have a shed to finish if the rain would ever quit.
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  #732  
Old Mon 11 August 2014, 16:09
pblackburn
Just call me: Pete #98
 
South-Central Pennsylvania
United States of America
Starting early.
Attached Images
File Type: jpg HalloweenCandle2.jpg (53.3 KB, 655 views)
Attached Files
File Type: zip HalloweenCandleVectors.zip (25.9 KB, 21 views)
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  #733  
Old Mon 11 August 2014, 21:01
darren salyer
Just call me: Darren #101
 
Wentzville mo
United States of America
Cool.
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  #734  
Old Tue 12 August 2014, 05:19
jessyjames
Just call me: James
 
Reno, Nevada
United States of America
Pete you always amaze me with your knowledge and generosity.
Appreciate what you have contributed to this forum!

Keep up the keeping up :-)
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  #735  
Old Wed 13 August 2014, 02:49
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
Quote:
Originally Posted by jessyjames View Post
Pete you always amaze me with your knowledge and generosity.
Appreciate what you have contributed to this forum!

Keep up the keeping up :-)
I'll 2nd that
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  #736  
Old Wed 13 August 2014, 14:37
pblackburn
Just call me: Pete #98
 
South-Central Pennsylvania
United States of America
Will try
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  #737  
Old Wed 20 August 2014, 17:36
pblackburn
Just call me: Pete #98
 
South-Central Pennsylvania
United States of America
Just finished this up. Based on the post I made earlier


CNC plotter pen from design found online at instructables.com. , on Flickr
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  #738  
Old Thu 21 August 2014, 05:47
racedirector
Just call me: Bruce #122
 
New South Wales
Australia
Looks good Pete, please let us know how it performs. I bought one of Kyles but have yet to test it out....
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  #739  
Old Mon 25 August 2014, 18:46
pblackburn
Just call me: Pete #98
 
South-Central Pennsylvania
United States of America
Bruce,
I will. Just finished my year long shed project so I can now move back to the machine.
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  #740  
Old Mon 25 August 2014, 19:10
pblackburn
Just call me: Pete #98
 
South-Central Pennsylvania
United States of America
This is a post about the Gecko 203 Vampire drive and its performance. Where I work at we use industrial AC drivers. I am not found of AC drives of this nature but it is a fairly well known name in industrial applications. Using the drive with their stepper (1100 in oz) controller with the Oriental Motor SCX11 controller, it is used to make adjustments for a process. The driver works great with the only hang up being with lose of power it will fault and takes a 20 sec power off to clear. The maximum turns per sec with the drive around 20 r/m before stalling. We have some machines where they already have a 80 V power supply (67 VDC actual) that the original dc drive is no longer available. So I suggested we try a Gecko drive. We wired it up and tested it with the Oriental Motor controller. The spec sheet for the motor says 50 r/m is capable. With the Gecko, it works fine. Multiple runs of cw and ccw at 50 rev/s without one hiccup. While this has little to do with the Mechmate it does say that the DC powered applications like ours with a Gecko drive will run well and can be pushed hard. It was great to see.
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  #741  
Old Sat 30 August 2014, 16:28
pblackburn
Just call me: Pete #98
 
South-Central Pennsylvania
United States of America

Plot Pen Test , on Flickr


YouTube Video
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  #742  
Old Sat 30 August 2014, 17:46
IMMark
Just call me: Mark #119
 
Columbus Ohio
United States of America
Looks great Pete...can I assume you give the plotter pen set-up thumbs up?
Mark
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  #743  
Old Sat 30 August 2014, 17:50
pblackburn
Just call me: Pete #98
 
South-Central Pennsylvania
United States of America
Yes. It does work well. I was just saying that I can make a large banner with the different color pens. The only down side is they are only available in green, red, blue and black.
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  #744  
Old Sat 30 August 2014, 19:01
IMMark
Just call me: Mark #119
 
Columbus Ohio
United States of America
Yeah, I am sure more colors would be nice. Silly question, do you just install that in the 1/2" collet of your spindle/router?
Mark
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  #745  
Old Sat 30 August 2014, 19:51
pblackburn
Just call me: Pete #98
 
South-Central Pennsylvania
United States of America
Yes. It is held in the 1/2" collet. I do use tape to keep the spindle from free spinning.
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  #746  
Old Sat 30 August 2014, 19:59
IMMark
Just call me: Mark #119
 
Columbus Ohio
United States of America
I wonder what mods it would take to be able to use Sharpies? Pretty much unlimited color range
I think this is on my to-do list! Thanks for posting.
Mark
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  #747  
Old Sat 30 August 2014, 20:03
pblackburn
Just call me: Pete #98
 
South-Central Pennsylvania
United States of America
Sharpies are more tapered. Much more complicated to hold true. I started with the same thought. There is a 0.040" taper on those.
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  #748  
Old Sat 30 August 2014, 20:29
IMMark
Just call me: Mark #119
 
Columbus Ohio
United States of America
Figures, it wouldn't be that easy. Did you by any chance look into other pens/marker brands? That might not be tapered and have more colors? I assume you considered adapting the holder to accommodate the sharpie too? Just thinking out loud...like you said, very nice add on if you could add colors.
Mark
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  #749  
Old Sat 30 August 2014, 20:43
IMMark
Just call me: Mark #119
 
Columbus Ohio
United States of America
Looks like Dick Blick has some markers that are not tapered (looks to be about 1/2" diameter) of course it doesn't say, broad tip on one end and fine tip on the other. 196 colors too?
Will be fun to investigate!
Mark
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  #750  
Old Sat 30 August 2014, 20:44
pblackburn
Just call me: Pete #98
 
South-Central Pennsylvania
United States of America
I would like the addition of the fine point to use with the ultra fine point.
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