Belt reduction installed, cutting metals - Big Lake, MN
 

here are a few pics of my machine,
I do not have the logos applied yet, since I am a sign guy I guess it mat take
awhile to get those made, these are right after I finished the machine
no new transmissions yet, Gerald if this is the wrong place for this sorry, please move...//chopper

Very Nice, please PLEASE more photos!

IE vacuum system, the machine, non standard details, work done, etc. Looks very clean!

Great attention to detail!

A bit worried about your use of panel/bulkhead connectors - they are vulnerable to being bumped and breaking off. For example, where your parallel cable enters the control box; that could be knocked off with a broom, or kicked.

chopper more or vacuum clamping please ....otherwise a very nice build!

It's a beaut, never mind that its not blue, great neat job on the wiring and that vacuum table demands further details (what material, vacuum pump etc...)

Your legs look a bit small, do you not get movement or vibration when it's working?

Alan, he has nice big braces on those legs (see very top, left) of top pic, dividing the end frames into "triangulated" trusses, so the weight of the leg itself is not so important. It all depends on an end view of the "truss".

Yeah, it is actually scary to see how much these things can shake and vibrate, in the face of a lot of people trying to cut weight! :)

Chopper,

More details on your vacuum hold down system.

The machine looks great. Congratulations.

Did you cut the top of your table for the vacuum with the machine ?
Will you put a sacrifice board on top of that nice pattern, or how does it work ?

Kobus,

The vacuum will suck through the MDF board. The pattern in the vacuum board helps with the holding. It looks like he has 5 zones?

Wow, nice work !!

Look forward to some pic's of the vacuum system. :)

Chopper,

Nice build, great pictures (they show the detail very nicely).

I too am interested in the vacuum hold-down. I've acquired a vacuum blower pump, but haven't constructed the hold-down yet. I too would appreciate more details on your hold-down design. What type and size vacuum are you using? Also, how well does it work?

I think that hold-down had its origins over here.

(Havn't seen a similar system that pre-dated my proposal then, might have made some money off a patent :confused::))

Thanks Nils, I heard that the vacuum can be sucked through low density MDF from Marius, but I did not believe him...now you have confirmed it. What I heard is that you trim the top and bottom layer off the mdf....then is sucks like an Electrolux..:D

Kobus I do cut away the surface of both sides first, but I saw a lifting system where the vacuum had to be turned down so it wouldn't pick up several sheets of 4' X 8' X 3/4" mdf at once.

Chopper,

Nice work. Show us your dust collection system too.

I'm wondering how many other guys have built MMs and haven't posted pics or even mentioned them on this forum.

Chopper,
Looks like a top notch build. You should be very proud. :)

Chopper,
What blower/vacuum system do you use for your hold down? I went to a ShopBot conference, and there were folks doing everything from 10HP regenerative blowers to 'whole house' vacuum units, to little shopvac's. All have their place, and are at different places on the the price/performance/volume scales.

there seems to be a lot of interest in the vacuum system,
that is a work in progress, I have it working but would like to improve it....
I really don't like to give away all my secrets, but the blower I am using was given to me from a friend who had one laying around, the problem I have is I need to upgrade the electric motor that powers the unit the duty cycle on it is short and will trip the thermal protection if run for awhile and quite frankly it has too much power it will pull 10 inches of vacuum on the table, the draw back is it is very noisy system,
it will actually hold the parts that I machine through 1 sheet of trupan and 1 sheet of mdf,stacked on one another... I machined or skinned the sheet of trupan, to allow better air flow
but in hind sight I don't think is was necessary, the mdf was not skinned
most of the time I use the T rails to hold the parts down and use the vacuum when I have to
ok, if you have to know it is a roots blower
//chopper

Doug,
I do not have a dust collection system as of yet,
I have thought about it but really haven't had a need for it yet....
most of the stuff that I do is plastic or aluminum,
so at this point dust is not a problem, we are in the process of building a plasma cutter, and when that is finished I think we will start on the dust collection, probably a unit that will work for both machines, I am also interested in seeing if the two machines will work side by side with out having interference from one another, I think the plasma may give off a lot of electrical noise and interfere with the router...
//chopper

Kobus,
you would be correct, the machine was used to cut the patterns and the T slots into the table, also the holes to run the pipes in from the bottom also were done with the machine, I kinda got the idea from the cnc zone I seen a few done like this there,
I have 4 zones on the machine two towards the front of the machine covering aprox 2 foot square each the third covering 2X4 feet and the fourth covering 4x4 area, the fifth pipe goes to the blower under the table....the problem with the roots blower is it pulls so hard you really can't shut the zones you are not using off, I am working on a way to control this better, (I am thinking about a vacuum valve that bleeds off when it reaches a certain level of vacuum) but it is not on the front burner right now, I have a few other improvements ahead of that...
//chopper

Chopper,

Are you using the MM design as the basis for your plasma cutter? If Gerald doesn't mind, could you document it on this website? I think there are other guys that are interested in having a plasma cutter too. I know I am.

Doug,
the plasma cutter is loosely based on the mechmate,
we will be using the rail system for the gantry and some other similar features,
the plasma cutter is my brothers project, I will take a few pics when it gets a little further along, but it isn't on the front burner right now either so it may be awhile
//chopper

Maybe it's me, but that link is good reading. There is a major weather system in my area (SE NM), so I've printed the link and headed to bed with a flashlight. :)

here are some pics of my machine as requested...//chopper

here are a few more pictures of the rails and the router..//chopper

Looking good, Chopper. Nice work!

Chopper,

Thanks for posting those photos!

Chopper,
Nice work - as always. I even noticed the nice grade 5 and above fasteners on the machine.
Sean

Great looking machine, Chopper. I like how you mounted the eccentrics on the z-plate...I take it that's to keep one side vertical and only require adjustment on the other?

I hacked my spider plate up due to mistakes during my build (had to reweld and redrill my holes), so alignment is difficult. I may need to incorporate your idea if I re-do my z-assembly.

very nice looking MM!

[QUOTE=buibui;31945]Great looking machine, Chopper. I like how you mounted the eccentrics on the z-plate...I take it that's to keep one side vertical and only require adjustment on the other?

good eyes, you are exactly correct, I thought it to be to much screwing around to adjust it square and made the top left and bottom left solid and every thing else adjusts to them makes setting up the Z simple, you just have to make sure that you can shim the spider to square it up if necessary...
//chopper

And that's a lot of washers (shims)- even I have it on mine!

my, bro has a metal fab shop and he needs some 304 stainless cut, and he wanted to know if I could do that for him on the MM, My reply was that a friend of mine just told me about these stainless bits for high speed machining
so we made a trip to the machine shop supply store and found the bits we were looking for, took them back to the shop and tried to cut stainless steel
and much to my surprise it worked this is 304 stainless 1/16 of an inch thick
it was cut as a test to see if it would work, so far so good.... if this works out it will save a lot of work and time shipping them out to get cut.
//chopper

Chopper,

What's next steel? Great job!

Tell us more about this bit ?
Robert ;)

Justin,
been there done that.............1/8 mild steel with very little machine marks, better than I could get off of my bro's mill
these bits are amazing, I just turned my MM into a 4 foot by 8 foot cnc mill

these bits are for the cnc machine world like a haas or equivalent,
also onsrud makes some look up there 83-300 series www.onsrud.com
feeds and speed are listed there, I want to throw out a disclaimer here I have done quite a few things to make sure my machine is tight... and backlash free,
without getting into a pissin' match I just want you to know that these cuts may not be accomplished with out the proper modifications to your machine excessive backlash may cause adverse effects like bit breakage etc.
//chopper

Thanks for this part #
Amicalement, Robert ;)

here are some more pictures. these are MM motor plates, kinda funny a MM making a MM,
these are .250 thick and are really smooth these pics are blown up a bit, you can reference to the quarter, I do not know how you can not believe that the 4 to 1 belt drives do not make a difference after seeing these cuts. I am getting better cuts in steel than most of you can get in wood,
//chopper

Chopper,

excellent cut quality!
Really amazing.

It`s good to know, that with the right tooltip we can even work alu and steel!
Great machine.

Good day