Post #16

What were you welding the rails for here? Were the rails bent? Could you explain if they were and how you did the correction? I am not looking forward to bent rails, but it seems like it is common.

Heath, I think they have joins in the 8" channel.

Yup, hand drilling the big beams is easier than getting them into a drill-press.

Well Dennis wanted his "X" rails to be 144" to have 120" of cutting, So he bought two 8"channels. Since he had 8 feet left over, Scott and I decided to make ours 144" as well. We just added the metal left over from Dennis's channels to ours. We were just being thrifty (cheap). Sunday, if all goes well, we should have the tables done and that will include the 2-1/2 x 1-1/2 angles ready to install on the channels. Then comes the gantry.

Dave

This is just a test cut of the rail's. We are going to cut the rail's for real on Sunday. We have 120 feet of rail's to cut. I am going to guess it will take 4 hours to cut them all. That's just a guess, we'll let you know on Sunday how long it really took!

Dennis
http://img19.imageshack.us/img19/256...tcutag2.th.gif
http://img23.imageshack.us/img23/573...railwc4.th.gif

I failed miserably on my time estimation. We only got 4 of the rails cut to height. I got called off by the wife to do more important honeydew’s. One of the tables did get assembled most of the way.

Dennis

We had a good day of work - started milling the v-track rails, some assembly of tables and general organization of parts. Tables will be assembled in a couple more work sessions. Dennis may have missed the estimate but his attention to detail and perfection will make the v-track rails straight, true and inexpensive. Dave is welding things perfectly and will have the supporting bases done for all three soon.

Dennis lines it up...

http://i663.photobucket.com/albums/u...d/IMG_0081.jpg

http://i663.photobucket.com/albums/u...d/IMG_0105.jpg


and some assembly required...


http://i663.photobucket.com/albums/u...d/IMG_0110.jpg

We took a little side track. It was getting to large to slide around so we made a frame with wheels so we could push them around the shop.

Dennis

one on wheels, one welded
 

Dennis's is tacked good and mine is welded an at my house for painting, Scott's should be ready for him to take home tomorrow for paint. Ganterys are next.
My power supply should be here next week, motors too. Belt reducer parts are here and I'll order the geared racks next week. Things are going well considering how little time we've spent on the triplets.

Dave

Looks like you are having a rainy, windy, cold day there today. Not good for painting . . . . gantry welding time! :)

Actually, the gantry and y-car welding is a lot quicker than what it looks. Reckon you guys will do all 3 sets in one day. :)

another one out for painting
 

Scott has his at his house and will start painting soon. Gantery will be next. High school basketball championships will slow our progress a little.

Dave

Gerald

It always rains here. The paint companies make special reducers just for us. If we wait 'till the rain stops to paint, the MM's will be too busy to stop.

Dave

Good weekend progress with the three of us chipping in - the table bases are welded. I am grateful that the base is bolted together due to transporting it 40 miles to home. Just the base (minus the 8" channels) weighed the trailer down pretty good.

http://i663.photobucket.com/albums/u...d/IMG_0135.jpg Dave and Dennis made a rolling frame for Dennis' table

http://i663.photobucket.com/albums/u...d/IMG_0153.jpg Making second base....

http://i663.photobucket.com/albums/u...d/IMG_0160.jpg The third base and getting ready for Home... (sorry for all the baseball analogies - I love puns)

http://i663.photobucket.com/albums/u...d/IMG_0166.jpg Learning to weld - this is the first time I have welded. Sorry Gerald - some grinding will be required...

Hey Scott, we all had to learn welding somewhere! The kids these days have baby angle grinders to clean up........we had to use a file, or a big straight grinder if we could afford one. Believe it or not, angle grinders are relatively new technology; they started at 9" and only a good few years later did they get down to half size.

What with basketball tournaments and shop preparation - work has slowed for now on the three machines. Dave is working on his MechMate shop and I am upgrading the power source for my shop. Weather has been challenging and the trenching was backbreaking but the shop is ready for the MechMate - Oregon has been having some rain, snow and sun - a nice variety...
Gerald - I do have one of the smaller grinders and will clean up the welds. I only want to carry on the fine name of the MechMate in style..

http://i663.photobucket.com/albums/u...d/IMG_0183.jpg Saturday...3/7/09

http://i663.photobucket.com/albums/u...d/IMG_0229.jpg Sunday ...3/8/09

http://i663.photobucket.com/albums/u...d/IMG_0210.jpg ..later that same day and a ton of rocks and gravel being dug up (with the help pf my wife - what a wonderful woman)

http://i663.photobucket.com/albums/u...d/IMG_0215.jpg and the final leg to the shop..100 amp service for all my woodworking needs - and the Mechmate

and now - back to working on the table!

I really enjoy hard work . . . . .I can sit and watch it for hours! :)

That curved spade is a first for me - never seen anything like it.

Do you guys also bury a tape/ribbon about 6" above a power cable? We sometimes use a tape marked "danger, electrical cable below" (or similar) for warning the next guys trenching there.

The curved shovel is actually for removing asphalt shingles from a roof. It just happened to fit nicely in the bottom of the trench for cleaning up loose dirt.

I like the idea of laying a ribbon in the trench, Not a common practice that I have heard of. We have a national service that will come out and sot the various utilities underground - power, gas, water, phone, etc. It's free too.

Status Update - March 29th
Another beautful spring day in Oregon - Mechmate work continues with tables ready to go to their respective homes.
Dennis came up with a piano wire set up that helped line up the v-track rails for punching and drilling in the 8" channel.
Now it's time to prime and paint the bases and get them ready for the gantry.

http://i663.photobucket.com/albums/u...d/IMG_0460.jpg Wire setup for rail alignment

http://i663.photobucket.com/albums/u...d/IMG_0470.jpg Gantry cross tubes

http://i663.photobucket.com/albums/u...d/IMG_0475.jpg Rails loaded up and ready to travel...

Things should start moving faster now; Dave has more time to work on the Mechmate’s. This is a picture of him leaving work last Friday. Leaving for the last time ever, he is retired now after 20+ years at a paper mill and 20+ before that at an Aluminum plant.

http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/8095/daveslastday.gif
[URL=http://g.imageshack.us/img27/daveslastday.gif/1/][IMG]http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/daveslastday.gif/

One more shot. Tacked and rolling.

http://img12.imageshack.us/img12/2633/rollingf.gif
[URL=http://g.imageshack.us/img12/rollingf.gif/1/][IMG]http://img12.imageshack.us/img12/rollingf.gif/

Congratulations, Dave, on your retirement. Enjoy!:D

I've been retired 12 years from my primary job and 5 years from a Consulting job...I don't know how I ever found time to go to work?

Happy building! Looks like you three are making good progress.

Regards,
John

Dave, I look forward to that retirement day!

(first time I see a padded turnstile - must be to stop the skin sticking in winter?)

Dennis, the bracket for the x-cable chain is not on the normal side that we are now used to. Did you have a special reason for putting it on that corner of the gantry? Cable chain location & orientation

Gerald,
We dont seem to have them padded here in Canada, but we sure do get winters. :)

Gerald
The short story on the turnstile is that they have only been there about two years. The children that work there don't like not having free travel in and out of the mill, which they had since the mill was built in about 1965. They need a card to go through the turnstile and some have been caught in them and a very few have been trapped in them for a few minutes mostly because of the luggage they take through them. So the company padded the upper half so no one would bang their head. As soon as the did that, the complaints started to come about the plastic cable ties that were used to secure the padding. The temperature rarely get below 25F (-4C ) here on the north Oregon coast.

Dennis put the cable chain attachment there because of the location of his machine. We talked about it before we decided on that location.

I actually googled "padded tunstiles" and discovered that padding at heel height was quite common out there. Out here we have powerful motors on the turnstiles to "force-feed" the labour masses into the workplace at about 2 per second! :D (tongue in cheek)

Ours don't have motors, although if they did 2 per second would be about going in, but not nearly fast enough for the folks going out :D

Wow! My goal is to build a 6'x12' MM. My metal guys flaked out on me so I'm having to locate an affordable metal fabricator in El Paso, Texas. You guys are doing a great job, very inspirational. If someone wants to work with me building my Mechmate.

Aggghhh - painting
 

Painting and assembling begin - I picked a Blue as close to MechMate as possible, Gerald. I have a white trim theme on the rails and the inside work area.
http://i663.photobucket.com/albums/u...d/IMG_0523.jpg Prime material

http://i663.photobucket.com/albums/u...d/IMG_0531.jpg A great day for painting

http://i663.photobucket.com/albums/u...d/IMG_0533.jpg Watching paint dry...

http://i663.photobucket.com/albums/u...d/IMG_0841.jpg Clearing a spot in the shop

http://i663.photobucket.com/albums/u...d/IMG_0847.jpg Getting ready for assembly

http://i663.photobucket.com/albums/u...d/IMG_0857.jpg Getting ready to put the beams up...

Dennis is waiting for me to get my rail to rail dimension so we can weld the gantry at the proper distance for the wheels - 78.125"

Thanks to all for your pictures and examples!!!!

Scott,
That was a really nice day for painting! I thought it always rained in your parts? :) You have some solid progress there.

Heath - The dry spell continues and the painting is getting done... yes - it is very green here but not humid

Now for the moment of truth -

http://i663.photobucket.com/albums/u...d/IMG_0903.jpg Yes - I wanted white on the inside... Gerald - I was looking to illuminate the work area better while maintaining the recognition of the equipment as a MechMate.

http://i663.photobucket.com/albums/u...d/IMG_0912.jpg The base and main gantry tracks will be assembled this week

http://i663.photobucket.com/albums/u...d/IMG_0918.jpg

I was out at the main shop today and dennis has the gantry and trolley put together on his table - and it rolls so smoothly - just a fingertip push and it glides - Gerald - wonderful design. My next big worry is the electronics...

Looking good, Gentlemen!:) Nice looking finish.:)

The electronics are straight forward if you're following, at least generically, the plans so many on the Forum have used. I did some things a little differently, but I stuck to the Forum design for the most part.

Looking forward to the rest of your builds.:D