Cutting Wing Rib Forms #118 - Oklahoma USA - Page 10

dbinokc · #**271** Fri 25 April 2014, 16:02

I tried a 90 degree vee bit first, but it seemed to hog out too much material and letters with inner areas were getting cut out. That is why I went 60 degree for this one.
I went to the box store and bought some clear coat. I also grabbed some red oak, which is much harder and I hopefully will cut better than the pine.

pblackburn · #**272** Fri 25 April 2014, 17:00

I mostly cut pine and poplar. Oak is just as painful coloring letters if not worse. The grain is more open and the paint will find those little groove and is almost impossible to remove. The key with all it is sealing. As long as the paint can grip what you seal it with you will do fine. Whatever the wood, it is about understanding its properties and how it reacts. I only use carbide bits and clean them after every cut. Soft wood tends to film on your edges and it will cause some issues. I also run my v carves sometimes twice with pine and it helps clean up the lettering. Remember the cutting is the quick part. Finishing is the time consuming part. It can't be rushed.

dbinokc · #**273** Mon 28 April 2014, 19:30

I will have some aligning and gantry untwisting to do.
I noticed that one of the wheels is riding about 1.5mm high when unloaded. At first I thought it was just the V-wheel out of alignment, but it turned out I have some gantry twist. Obviously I should have caught this problem sooner, but I have to deal with it as it is.

Also doing some squareness checks, I am also about 1mm out of square over about 600mm.

For the gantry twist, based on what I have read in the other threads, I will need to do the following.
1. Block up the gantry off the rails and clamp the three resting corners down.
2. Apply down pressure, using a clamp, to the high corner until the twist is removed.

Once the gantry is untwisted, I can recheck the squareness issue. If I am lucky, maybe everything will be square. If not, then I shim the gantry rollers to rotate the gantry until x is square with y.

darren salyer · #**274** Mon 28 April 2014, 20:10

Plotter pen came today.
Seriously nice piece.
Hope to get to the shop pretty soon to play with it.
I'll post results.
DB: we can move this to my thread but the discussion was here, so I came back...
Let me know if its too OT.

dbinokc · #**275** Mon 28 April 2014, 20:20

The thread is fine here. I will be interested to see how well it works for you.
The brass barrelled one I bought from widget works, before I bought my mechmate, has too much slop in it. I was trying to do some layout tests for on aluminum sheet and I was seeing as much a millimeter of variation that I think was due to the pen moving in the holder.

I bought one from http://www.rockcliffmachine.com/product/cnc-pen-holder/ and will see how it works. If that one does not work and you have good results with yours, I will buy one as well.

Is that holder spring loaded?

darren salyer · #**276** Mon 28 April 2014, 20:51

There is no spring with it, But I'm thinking one behind the pen would be a good idea.
We'll see how it works.

dbinokc · #**277** Tue 29 April 2014, 18:33

Got the mechmate logos in the mail from Mike today.
Will have them on soon.

Tom Ayres · #**278** Tue 29 April 2014, 18:43

Yahoo!

dbinokc · #**279** Sat 03 May 2014, 11:05

I took some more measurements to understand why my gantry is not sitting level on the rails. The first thought was that I had twist because the gantry tubes were not level. However I do not think that is the case.

I used a machinist level(.0005 per 10 inches) to take a more direct reading of the twist and see if the readings correspond to the gap(about 1.5mm) I was seeing between the roller and rail. The amount of difference between opposite ends of the gantry was .3mm. Not enough to account for the gap I am seeing. The measurement was done by shimming up at the rail until I got a level reading.

I also checked the level on the x-axis and I am seeing about a .3mm twist as well.

This leads me to think that it is not that the gantry tubes that are out of level, but that I got the end plates out of level when I was welding them. This would lead to the rollers being out of level.

This makes me think that the solution for me would be to file a slot in the holes for rollers rather than trying to bend the gantry to get even contact. If I tried to bend, I would have to shim up my rails by 1.5mm!

I would be interested in any comments on my analysis to see if I am looking at this correctly.

dbinokc · #**280** Sat 03 May 2014, 12:31

The gantry is now sitting on all fours again. The first thing I did was loosen all the gantry rollers and retighten them. I wanted to be sure they were all resting in their lowest position. That really did not make much difference in the gap.

So I went ahead and did a little filing on the hole that was high. It did not take much and now the gantry is now on all fours.

For the moment everything seems to be resting nicely. On to the dust foot and getting the logos on.

dbinokc · #**281** Sat 03 May 2014, 17:09

See below.

darren salyer · #**282** Sat 03 May 2014, 18:25

Nice Nice Nice!!!

dbinokc · #**283** Sat 03 May 2014, 21:13

Did some experimenting with dust foots. I actually had bought a dust foot from KentLLC, but it is not going to work with my machine so I am making my own now.

I have not really liked the standard dust foot design with all that open space. I wanted something that draws up directly over the tool bit. Below is a pic of what I cut today. It is made from 3 layers of 3/4 inch plywood. The top is the adapter to fit over the spindle and attach the hose. The middle layer forms the duct. The bottom layer closes the duct and has an opening centered around the spindle. I will need to get some smaller magnets to hold it all together before I test it.

KenC · #**284** Sun 04 May 2014, 00:06

3 layers is too tall for me. My dust shoe is only 1 layers thick. I don't like my spindle body to go through the dust shoe hole, just the spinning part. to keep opening as small sa possible.

lonestaral · #**285** Sun 04 May 2014, 05:29

Looking good.
You have Logos and you have cut.
You must be due a number.

dbinokc · #**286** Sun 04 May 2014, 07:31

Ken,
For my spindle,the two bottom layers extend just to the end of the shaft. I hope the Z-axis never tries to go lower than that.

What I have not figured out is where I can buy some bristle material. I will still need a ring of that around the opening to keep chips from being hurled away.

IMMark · #**287** Sun 04 May 2014, 07:37

Will the Z hard stop prevent it from going that low?
I think the "sweep" material is available from Home Depot, etc. as a sweep for door bottoms? (At least I think I have seen it there, going to be needing that myself). The dust foot design looks nice.
Mark

dbinokc · #**288** Sun 04 May 2014, 07:46

There is a hard stop for bottoming out, but that is just to prevent the slide from going past the guide rollers. Beyond that, there is nothing to prevent the spindle shaft from crashing into the work. Of course, long before that there will be other mayhem like broken router bits.

IMMark · #**289** Sun 04 May 2014, 08:02

I guess, I meant ...could you make a hard stop that corresponds to the dust foot. As a fail safe, so the dust foot can't hit the table?

dbinokc · #**290** Sun 04 May 2014, 08:14

I suppose you could drill an extra hole in the support tube to create an additional hard stop to prevent that. Or add an adjustable electronic stop.

The only way I could see there being an issue in normal operation would be if you were cutting really deep pockets where the end of the shaft could go below Z=0.

For my uses, I do not really expect to run into that problem. If I do, I will have to use a different dust foot design.

KenC · #**291** Sun 04 May 2014, 21:41

Keep experimenting, you will find a position which you don't need any hard stop or limit switches.
my seldom feed my spindle very far into the dust shoe, usually only the collet is inside the dust shoe. & the dust shoe opening is smaller then my spindle body. hence I don't expect my spindle body goes into the dust shoe.
My logic is simple, if my bit is very short, it only means the bit is very small diameter, & wood dust will not be a problem without dust collection. & this works for me. others may have their own ways.
I had my fair share of dust shoe getting caught during cutting...

dbinokc · #**292** Mon 05 May 2014, 19:11

I have logos installed and have shown the machine cutting. Is there something else I need to do to get a number for the machine?

darren salyer · #**293** Mon 05 May 2014, 19:32

Wake Mike up, probably...

pblackburn · #**294** Mon 05 May 2014, 19:38

Time!!!!!!!!!!!! Just kidding. Rest assured Mike will get you one though probably not as fast as you would like.

MetalHead · #**295** Tue 06 May 2014, 04:10

I have AWOKE !! Awaked ... Awaken .... uuuu

!!! Congrats !!! You get #118

lonestaral · #**296** Tue 06 May 2014, 05:46

Congratulations # 118.
Prepare for a changed life.

KenC · #**297** Tue 06 May 2014, 06:01

Al, hope you are not affected by the quake lately.

jhiggins7 · #**298** Tue 06 May 2014, 06:06

Congratulations, DB on completing your MechMate and earning Serial #118.

Here is the Updated Builder's Log with your entry added.

Please look it over and let me know any changes you'd like to make.

dbinokc · #**299** Tue 06 May 2014, 06:40

Thanks Mike. You can go back to sleep now.

Thanks everyone for the help and encouragement.
John, everything looks good with entry.

darren salyer · #**300** Tue 06 May 2014, 07:00

Congrats on #118, sir.
Very well done.