VisualCam
 

I just wanted to update the progress that was made last week with the problems I was having with the CAM software I was using. I contacted the provider of the software and they were very eager to hear about my suggestions in regards to how their software worked with my machine. They have been marketing mostly to 'Multi-Cam' users as a third party alternative, I believe. Anyway, for a week now they have been sending me revisions of the program to test on my machine! At this time the last revision is doing everything that I want! They told me that they were going to use allot of the changes that they made for me and include it into their software.

This is the "shelf" I had in mind:

Attachment 10592

Gerald,
Couldn't you use an air vent cover like the one below. It's adjustable and magnetic. But you could also use double sided tape to adhere it to the box? If it's only to keep the dirt out maybe use the idea and make a metal one. Might be a lot more durable than the plastic. Just a thought.
Blue

Here is a simple option. I have one of these and they hang on real strong.

http://www.harborfreight.com/12-magn...der-66808.html

The cover of the panel is aluminum. It acts as a heat sink, not too magnetic.:rolleyes:

Vacuum table
 

After having my share of botched parts from moving while being cut I finally decided to add vacuum holddown.

A big thanks to Gary Campbell over at the Shopbot forum for his wisdom on vacuum systems.

I designed my 'black box' based on Gary's with my own modifications. If anyone has questions, post them here and I will try to answer them.

Now for some pics...

Cutting the parts.

Then asssembly...

The control box and another pic of the 'black box'.

Then on to the plenum..

Piping..

I used slide valves for the four zones and added pneumatic cylinders to control 'open/close'..

Loaded my spoil board (Trupan) and turned the thing on. 5" hg with the loose spoil board. Held real well for a skim cut (.020).

Removed the spoil board and applied melamine glue to the plenem. Flipped the spoil board and turned on the vacuum to hold down the spoil board while the glue dried.

Added a 1/4" sheet of 1 sided melamine to stop leakage through the top of the spoil board. I hadn't yet cut the top surface of the spoil board and still had to stop the vacuum long enough to position the 1/4" sheet cause it sucked down hard and fast. 8" hg. Sweet!

Oh.......

I like the pneumatic open and close.

Nice to be sucky.

Couple of questions.
Are all vacuum motors running at the same time?
What did you use for a dust filter?

Four motors (Amtek 117123) are paired. I plan using one pair (primary) to hold material until I get to the onion skin cut. I will then use the other pair (secondary) if needed as I will no doubt loose vacuum.

The white piping in the pics contain a filter (STP SA9053) that i obtained from the auto parts house. Many people feel that the spoil board acts as a filter, which it does, but I went ahead and added the above anyway.

I use a filter in mine.About every 3-4 months I need to clean it out or replace. Simple 10 minutes of insurance.

Are yours wired to come on automatic?
I'm thinking about doing that.

Great looking vac system

Wow, I really like your design, cool concept:cool:

Manual only. Gary Campbell, who is the original designer of the 'Blackbox Vac' started out with a automatic system, but soon found that trying to keep the motors running correctly, especially after cutting into the spoil board became too much of a 'moving target'.

For more info go here...
http://www.talkshopbot.com/forum/sho...Box-Vac-Source

Big thanks to Gary Campbell for the vac and plenum ideas!

I was commenting more on the pneumatics/vac package you had put together, good job