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Found a New Home! #35 - Southern California
Hi everyone. I want to start by thanking Gerald for his brilliance, generosity and commitement to this wonderful machine and website. And also to everyone here who has helped all of us out with every detail needed to build this amazing machine.
I must confess that I am late in posting this build. It took me 3 weeks to build it and get it running (actually 2 weeks to build and a week of staring at the control box, lol) and a year to start a thread on it (sorry Gerald!). I feel its time I give something back for I have gained so much from everyones knowledge here. I have worked a a cnc programmer and machinist in the past making molds for plastic injection and have a general background in mechanics, metal fabrication and welding. The build part was easy and fun. I can now tell you how many different ways you can wire a contactor switch. I definately want to build more of them someday. Its addicting! I have cut three kitchens with the mechmate, made dovetail drawers(3/4" maple, I was very impressed with the quality, made a bunch of signs and quite a few other things now. Gerald, you have a well thought out machine here! It works better than I ever could of imagined! Thanks again! Details- Original "first" design mechmate (I downloaded the plans a looong time ago!) Cutting area- 52"x100" Oriental stepper motors- pk296a2a-sg7.2 wired unicoil (i think its unicoil, its been a year,) Gecko g203v drivers Pmdx-122 breakout board 30 tooth gears with 20dp, 20 degree, .5" rack Antec 38v, 400w power supply Milwaukee 3.5 hp router Control box is made from 3/4" black melamine and is bolted under the side of table Table has been modified- bolt together with 5"x2" swivel casters w/ brakes Laser sights for x,y zero(still need to make the z height touch plate) Parts were cut out with a water jet machine (friend has one at home) Computer is an old dell I had, 2.8ghz with one gig ram, works just fine for the mechmate Shuttle pro controller(cant live without it!) Software- mach3 running on xp pro, cad/cam- mastercam 9, artcam pro 2008 and solidworks 2008. Future plans- dust collector- no, I still havent taken care of that sure does make a mess! vacuum table get rid of router and install spindle 4th axis tool changer would make me super happy(I got spoiled having a 25 tool carousel) I have to resize the photos and I will post them. |
#2
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Heres a few pics..
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#3
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A few things that have been cut so far..
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#4
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Rob, you are one of my favourite type of "MechMaters" - just get away from the forum and do the job!
Thanks for coming around and showing what you have done. I had to change the title of this thread a little to add a serial number to the other forum members: do not post public requests for his Harley-Davidson files |
#5
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Thanks for the serial number Gerald!! And it just happens to be my favorite goaltenders number. Its great to finally watch it rip thru sheets at 400-450 ipm! And a clean cut too!
For those who are still building and have not yet cut and ground the rails you can make it easier if you use cutting and grinding disk made for stainless steel. I had them done in no time once i figured that out. That was the only part I was dreading doing because people made it out to be worse than it is. I worried about nothing, its easy! |
#6
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Update Builder's Log
Rob,
Congratulations on a great build and Serial #35! Nice to see a MechMate hard at work. Love to see more detail on how you used the MechMate to make dovetail drawers...if it's not proprietary. The Updated Builder's Log is here. I took a shot at the build dates. The spreadsheet needs a day of the month to calculate the build time...so if you'd like to change those dates or anything else about the entry, just let me know. |
#7
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Rob,
Congratulations on your build. Could you give us a little more info, and perphaps some pics on how you did the dovetails? They are very impressive. Also I notice you have a really strong workbench there. |
#8
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I did not take any pics of the dovetails or the fixture I made. The dovetail fixture was a last minute thing and temporary so I threw it out when i was done as it was not made to last more than one or two jobs(it was made out of 1/2" melamine). When I get some time I will make another and take alot of pics to show step by step how to do it. Basically I laid out the cut path in mastercam for a 4" and 6.5" tall drawer and ran a dry run to test everything and had to manually edit the g-code a bit and then started to test the cuts on scrap to get the cut depth and slot length just right so it was a tight fit. It took several days to get it all figured out but was worth every second of it. It was quick and easy to cut the parts for a complete drawer. I'll try to get something together this weekend to show everyone if I have time.
Heath, what other info would you like? |
#9
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Rob, I would like to see what the hight of that pick up is.Johan would like to use it in his side of the country no taxi is going to jump in front of him with one of those.I am also interrested in how those drawers were done.
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#10
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Rob,
Was just interested in your jig setup as you mentioned. |
#11
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I am not sure, but tonight I came across this site...
http://cnccut.wordpress.com/category/example-cuts/ This guy is in Johannesburg...look at the 4th picture. I am sure this is a MechMate...or a very close copy... If it is, it just shows that there could be a lot more 'MM' machines out there. |
#12
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Kobus,
Sure looks like a MM. If you look in the upper left corner you can see the diagonal main beam ends. A telltale signature of the MM. ...just wish more hidden MM contributed to the forum. It is part of the "user agreement"! |
#13
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Here is a sign I did for my friends hotrod shop. It is 4 feet in diameter and 1.5 inches thick. Its a carving of his logo, a buzzard.
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#14
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Rob,
Nice job... |
#15
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I needed to cut some mortise and tenon joints so I made a fixture that mounts to the front of the table. The top peice is leftover angle iron I had for the rails that bolts to the front cross support of the table and a few peices of scrap 2x3" tubing I had laying around. I welded a couple of peices of angle iron to the sides and drilled a 1/2" hole and welded a 1/2' nut to the backside so I could bolt the aluminum clamp to it. The clamp is a peice of 1x3" aluminum tubing that I glued some 150 grit sandpaper to the face of to help clamp the peices down, otherwise the would move slightly. On the front I bolted a peice of 3/4" melamine for a work surface. On the backside of the fixture I welded a tube to the bottom that has another peice of tubing that slides in and out(the outer tube has a hole drilled in it and a nut welded to it so I can tighten a bolt agaisnt the inner tube) so I could get the fixture square to the table. The adjustable tube clamps to a crossmember of the frame. This is only part of the fixture so I can cut tenon joints. I am working on a top peice that can be bolted to the table for doing dovetail joints. The vertical fixture is permanant as it takes too long to set up and get everything squared up. I will change the 1/2" bolts for the clamp eventually to maybe an air clamp. They take longer to tighten up than I would like. They were what I had laying around at the time. The entire thing didnt cost me anything, it was all stuff I had laying around. I will have the top fixture for the dovetails done in a couple of days and post some pictures of that part as well.
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#16
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Rob, Beautiful work!
I recon with MM's ability, a permanent vertical position is that is required. Thanks for sharing. Can't wait to see the top piece. Last edited by KenC; Sun 13 December 2009 at 01:19.. |
#17
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Rob you gotta love those "Cell phone" pics.. lol
Great job and idea for that. Should be interesting to see just how well it works for you. I might have to design something similar to that for my second build, documenting this one, this time. BTW, you've got mail. Let me know how it works for you. If you need a camera Rob, for better pictures, I will buy you one.. j/k James |
#18
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Its been a while since Ive been here but thought I would show you my latest project, a poker table.
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Wow, very nice!
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Jealousy. Beautiful work you are doing and sounds like your having a pretty good time doing it. Keep it up Rob and post more pictures when you get a chance.
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#21
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Well number #35 has a new home in Omaha Ne at Prism Signs shop now, it will stay busy with sign work the like.
Dust control is the first thing to get under control so have to biuld the shoe for the machine and add a spoil board. Watch out than, dust is going to be flying Curt |
#22
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Welcome to the Forum Curt. Sounds like you'll be busy with #35.
I checked out your website at PrismSigns.com to see some of your work. Looks like to the link to your PORTFOLIO is currently down. Please keep us up-to-date with your progress. Pictures are always very welcome. |
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