Now that's what I call a workshop.
That will have to go on my Christmas list.
My own work space is a bit more modest, my back balcony.

Yes get the stops on, this thing gets heavy very quickly.

The steel work is almost done.
Worked on the Z this week, after waiting 3 weeks for the v roller spacers to be turned up by a local shop. So welded on spacers and nuts, arranged a surfacing jig ( old tile and sandpaper) a little felt pen on the spacers and about 20min later all looks pretty good. It took a little while to get the gas strut and stops in the correct positions but I think they now work like they should. My gas strut will not lift the spindle all the way back to the top. But it is my understanding that it is there to stop the Z falling when power to the motor is cut. If so then mine does what it is ment for.
I got my 4th axis ( jet lathe ) mounted at the far end of the bed. At the moment I have the centre of axis level with top of table. Don't know if this is the best hieght but time will tell.
Just a couple of small jobs left before a strip down and paint.

Then Electrics?????

can't wait to see how you integrate the lathe into your machine.

I can't wait to see how I do it as well.
At the moment I have no more of and idea then to say I want to do it. Details yet to be worked out or even on.

You could make it so it rotated out of the way so the table would have the extra length. Nothing more than large taper pins needed for the rotation up alignment then work out the small details of attaching the extended table. Most likely most of your work will be flat and not rotary so I would work with the idea of having the best of both.

Pete when I first laid out the size of machine I add 200mm to the length so the lathe can stay in place permanent and still have a 1200x2400 cut table. The parts I have not worked out yet is the drive system. (motor, belt reduction and control within mach3)

Quick question! What size electrical boxes should I be looking at for the gantry and Z car. Looks like it could be a challenge to fit some of the wiring.

Look for the tall ones, you can stuff a lot of things inside

http://www.tayee-electric.com/attach...iew/611164.jpg

Mine on the Z car houses 4 pushbuttons and a motor connection in one :) along with some switch for led light around spindle

Mich, what all are you going to be including at this junction. I have the usual three buttons on mine. I purchased my setup from Metalhead. The box is just the right size for what I have. If you are using larger gage wire or have additional wires being routed you may want to consider something larger. I have seen pictures in the forum where people are using different size to do this.

I prefer E3PB or E4PB by Hoffman but any steel enclosure would work fine. Some use plastic (abs or poly) but my experience with those is while they are inexpensive they do break easily compared to steel (not unlike comparing the 22mm to the 30.5mm buttons, you can abuse the 30.5, I have seen hammers used for actuating, a 22mm will not take that abuse). A E3PB will give you 1 30.5mm Emergency Stop and 2 30.5mm push buttons on the face then you can use multiple 12mm or 14mm push buttons from places like McMaster-Carr like catalog number 6915K24. Or you can get a sealed box and use an Emergency stop and the 14mm for everything else (ie jog controls, hold, start, etc), your only limit is the capabilities of the number of inputs you can have. If you are using LPT then you will have a very limited number of inputs. Hope this helps. In the end the choice it yours and the minimum buttons I would look for is 3 with a minimum depth of 2.75"(70mm)

BIGGER the better, I put my sensor relays in one of mine. There is never enough room.

Al

Go as big as you can afford, there is never a control penal too big :)

Progress has been slow for the last week or so. Hard to get much done when it is 45deg C.
So all that I have to report is that I now have paint on all main parts. Sorry but this farm is John Deere from front gate to back gate and I just couldn't bring myself to having Ford blue in my shed so John Deere green it is..
It was a tight fit getting the MATE into my wood shed but it is now it its final home and re-assembly is under way. Then I suppose I will have run out of reasons not to work on the electrics...

Looks Great, Love the John Deere green!

Love it Mich, well done. I am going to steal your jockey wheel idea, easier to implement than casters.

The electronics aren't scary at all, you'll have them nailed in no time and be wondering what all the fuss was about :)

Bruce I was well pleased with the jockey wheels today it was the first time I had tried to use them, and was able to manoeuvre it around with ease.
As far as the electrics go, I plan to mount all hardware elements and then with laptop open on the forum (for all the hints and pointers) fully wire in each component one at a time. I was telling sparky the other day, that I would get it working but it may not be pretty, but that didn't matter as no one was going to see it other then me (and the few hundred on this site). He tells me he will, because he wants to make his own..

Awesome color!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

yep need yellow pinstripes

Hurshy the yellow MechMate logos and pin strips are on the shelf. They will go on when all is running and dust is flying.

Cool!!!

Still trying to figure out how this thread has not moved to the 'Construction Started' area yet.

Huh? What do you mean? :)

Deere Mich.
I see that you have moved.
I hope you like your new home.
Nice colour by the way.

What a good day today!
To start with spent the morning at the local woodworkers club, always a good time when mates are playing in a shed. We are in the progress of making a bar.
Then the afternoon working on the Mate. My daughter sorted out and the nuts and bolts, gee hope I can remember where they all go again.

Attachment 14540

Shimmed and aligned and spaced the X Rails. That took a little time! I'm to within 0.5mm which for now I am happy.
Attachment 14541

Made up a rack to spray my springs. I had these made so are not zinc plated or anything so a light coat of paint to keep the rust at bay. Can you guess what colour I chose.
Attachment 14542

Fitted up the racks on X & Y axis. spent a bit of time cleaning to give the 3M VHB tape the best chance of working. Still not 100% on the stuff but it looks to have work for all of you so blind faith in the forum stands for now.
Attachment 14543

Came across one issue today that had past my attention. I had a local engineer bore out the pinions for me. I picked them up a few weeks ago and never paid a lot of attention. A little hard to see but one of them must have spun in his chuck and left it a little rough. I had nothing to lose so spent some time with the diamond files and cleaned up a lot of the burrs. Time will tell if I need a new pinion. what ever happens I don't think I will go back to that engineer.
Attachment 14544

Mounted the prox switches
Attachment 14545

Fitted the spider into the Y car.
Attachment 14546

Repaired a flat tire for my kids. Don't know how many miles that cart has done in the last couple of days.
Attachment 14547

Made some teflon washes from a cutting board.
Attachment 14548

Did a bit of layout work on the control board.
Attachment 14549

And finally mounted the two control boxes. One for the main panel and the second for the VFD. I did a fan and filter system on the smaller box, but neglected to take pictures. Will post them with the next update.
Attachment 14550

Your build is looking great!!!

1. Without pics, your WW club isn't building a bar. :)
2. Blind faith has served me well on numerous occasions during my MM build.
3. Pinion looks fine to me.
4. Glad to see the kiddos wearing helmets. Hopefully they are seatbelted as well.
5. Keep up the good work. You are in the home stretch, and looking great.

The top of the teeth should not pose a problem, just remove the sharp burrs. The pressure angle is where the contact is made. Just do not forget to use a good grease to help prevent wear. I do not understand why they chucked it on the teeth and not the hub. If they needed to turn down the hub, they should have used a mandrel first then bored.

...or the 3 or 4 jaw chuck wouldn't close down far enough and they got lazy.

safety issue: I think that pink table on the drill press is dangerous:eek:

Hurshy one of the local cabinat shops gave me a 3.5m section of the pink counter top. It was lift over from a job (what job would ever require pink) and it had than sat around for years. No one wanted to buy it, don't know why!. As for me if its free I turn colour blind.