#31
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It looks good to me, and the best thing about it is ..... it works.
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#32
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John....
Grinder smoke! I had the same experience last week. You really must find the 1/16 or at lease 3/32 discs...they cut much better. Don't push the grinder so much - if the RPM drops so much that you can really hear/feel it - your pushing to hard. Let the disc cut.... After following my own advice, all went well, and quick on the 2nd rail. Sean |
#33
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Well we had a blizzard here today, so I had a day off. I got the X rails cut down today, I replaced the burned out grinder with a DeWalt. I think I'm just about ready to start welding the table sides together. I welded up the ends of the X channel and welded the foot plates on the legs and called it quits for the day. I hope to get the table welded together by the end of the weekend.
John Mechmate-003.jpg |
#34
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Talking about low-tech, how's this.
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#35
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JR,
In all honesty it was your rig there that I based mine on. It looked to be solid and simple to build. Your grinder looks a bit more beefy than mine. Mine is a DeWalt and has a plastic body, I guess I should have planned ahead a bit more when I was grinder shopping. I am getting the grinder skate laser cut and I think it will only work with a metal bodied grinder that has the four bolts around the shaft to bolt it on. I'm not sure what I'm going to do yet, but with enough metal, bolts, screws, glue, etc. I'm sure I can come up with something. John |
#36
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John,
I went thru the plastic body grinder (mine was a DeWalt also) phase. My experience was too much flex from the plastic body. I would not waste the time and get a metal body that will attach via the 4 bolts. I found a good metal body grinder at the local hardware store for under $20 (as I recall). |
#37
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Mine is an old Skill maybe 20 years +. The one in the skate was a new Hitachi, it has more power than the Skill. Check the amps it pulls, the more amps the more power.
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#38
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I was just at a Home Depot in Dallas.....They have a 2 pack of Dewalt baby grinders on sale for $99. Don't know if it is nationwide but anybody interested might want to inquire....they will all honor sales at other stores.
I never had any problems with my $14 HarborFreight cheapo grinder. Still going strong. I even used it with a wire wheel to take off all the welding "spit".......famous last words though |
#39
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The first grinder I had was a Superior Grinder. Kind of a no name made in China thing. It had a metal "head" on it with the 4 screws holding the bearing retainer for the drive shaft on. It was the one that bit the dust and I will admit that it probably was my fault that it is not working today. I got the DeWalt 4 1/2" grinder packaged together with a DeWalt 3/8" drill on sale for $120.00 CDN at the local Co-op in town here. I would like to find the recommended grinder, (which I think is a Bosch) the next time I go to Saskatoon to do the rails so that I get the best job I can. What are your thoughts on making non-Bosch grinders work with the skate? I haven't seen the actual skate parts yet so I really don't know what modifications I can make.
John |
#40
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john
I was able to use a ryobi ag402 model which is 30$ at home depot. 40$ for the 2 pack if you catch the sale just right. If your using the mamba skate, the bolt pattern works, just a slight clearance slot is needed aft of the gear head for it to seat properly. Additionally, you need to add a7mm spacer on the bolt pattern and I think 30 mm long machine screws to attach it. I can't link things from my PDA browser or I would link you to the grinder thread we covered a few months ago. I asure you, all my grinding was done with the mamba skate and cheap grinder! Good luck |
#41
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Well, I am waiting on the UPS truck anytime now. They will be bringing me my relays and stuff from Factorymation so I can get the control box done and make the motors turn (hopefully). I haven't been able to get much done on the welding end of things. I am working out at my brother's shop and it isn't always empty for me to use whenever I want. So, anyway I have the sides of the table almost complete, I just need to weld in the uprights and cut the angle pieces and weld them in. I was going to squash the top end of the uprights a little before I weld them, because the channel I am using for the main longitudinals has a flange width of a little over 2" and the pipe I am using is about 2.5" OD. Anyway, I attached a pic of what I was up to tonight.
John Sides-of-the-table.jpg |
#42
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Looking good John. Moving those side assemblies around is quite a chore isn't it? They are top heavy and I almost hurt myself the first time I picked up the end of one.
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#43
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I'll agree with Doug,
I did strain "something". I bought ($15 USD) a set of engineered drawings for a 1.5 ton gantry crane. fabricating that gantry was one of the best thing I ever did. Very nice when it came time to flip the base table over. |
#44
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Yeah, they weigh up pretty good. I am trying to imagine how I'm going to get the thing out of my brother's shop and into my garage after it's all welded and painted...
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#45
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John,
I had the same concerns about how to move this beast by myself when needed. That's one of the reasons why I went with rectangular tubing. I bought some pneumatic tires (casters) from Northern Tool so I can bolt on to the bottom tube. Now that I've got the picture downloading figured out I'll post some pictures when the "rig" is finished. |
#46
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John,
Although I haven't actually done it yet, I plan to use an engine hoist to lift one end and then back a car hauler trailer under it. Then, I'll lower the lifted end onto the trailer and back up and lift the rear and shove her onto the trailer. I've actually swapped the MM end for end, by myself, in my garage. To do it, I used a hydraulic jack to raise each leg and then placed a PVC end cap under each foot. The hard plastic PVC allowed me to push it around on the smooth concrete garage floor. However, I have to admit that I was huffing and puffing by the time I finished. |
#47
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Thanks for the input guys, those are both good ideas. On another note, I was wondering about the 5VDC output on the power supply. I was going to power the PMDX-122 with it but was wondering if it would be enough. Yesterday I bought a 12VDC wall-wart power supply to power the 12VDC fan that I am going to mount under the Geckos. I had planned on wiring in a 115VAC plug in on the inside of the enclosure to accept the 12V P/S and was wondering if I could just power the PMDX and the fan with it. It's output is 1.5A 12VDC. Do you think it would be enough to power both?
John |
#48
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I was reading the pmdx manual and it stated that the supply to the board should only be 7 to 12VDC or 9VAC @ 200mA on the J8 screw connector. My 12VDC power supply will supply 1.5A does that mean that I can not use it? The fan uses 12VDC @ .16A, and the board at 200mA, does that mean I have too much power or just ample supply?
John |
#49
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John,
I think that means you have an ample supply but I'm not your best source when it comes to electronics expertise. |
#50
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John, it should work fine. Using only about a quarter of the 1.5amp capacity of the wall-wart.:
Fan 0.16amp (160 milliamp) PMDX 0.2amp (200 milliamp) Total 0.36amp (360 milliamp) Capacity 1.5amp (1500 milliamp) |
#51
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Thanks, I'm not exactly an electrical engineer. But I'm learning.
John |
#52
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The current supply (Amps) of a power supply must be equal to or greater than the current draw of all the devices attached to it. The power supply does not force current into the attached devices, instead, the devices draw current from the power supply as needed.
I try to always have excess current available so that the power supply runs cooler, but excess capacity usually means larger size and greater cost. |
#53
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Well, I tried my hand at wiring today. Tried to get the "Kitchen Table Project" going. I didn't get a chance to wire the motors or power to the geckos, but I have the contactor working properly and the fan and PMDX power are working too. It turns on when I hit the green button and it shuts off when I hit the red one and there's no smoke. It's a start, I'll try to get the motors turning tomorrow.
Mechmate.jpg |
#54
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John, I see a solid state relay, probably for the router. Just be aware that some electronically controlled routers/drills (powertools) will not be turned on by a SSR. They don't give suffiecient load to the SSR in the beginning - a bulb/lamp in parallel cures that. Personally, I prefer another contactor to do the router switching.
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#55
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Hey John,
Let me guess… getting to sleep took more than average time yesterday!! Sure look exiting for you, wishing you as good of result w/motors. |
#56
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John,
Have you tried to place your back panel into the enclosure with all of those components in position? I think you're going to have a hard time when you do. Also, most of the guys raise their DIN rail off the back panel so that wires can pass under it and they move it up more toward the top of the panel. My DIN rail was several inches from the bottom edge and I still had a difficult time inserting the cable wires into the bottom connections of the DIN rail mounted terminals. |
#57
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Thanks for the critique guys. It surprises me that a router doesn't draw enough power to keep the SSR on. The specs on this particular SSR says that the Min. Load Current to Maintain On would be 120 mA. There is also the real possibility that I don't know what I'm talking about. This is the link to the specs on the particular SSR that I have. http://magnecraft.thomasnet.com/item...=prod&filter=0
Thanks for the good wishes Robert, the UPS truck came yesterday so sleep was secondary in my mind. Doug, I haven't yet tried to lay the panel in the back of the box, but according to my measurements it should fit with 2" clearance on the sides and 1" clearance top and bottom. My enclosure has removable panels that I am going to use for extra accessibility to the terminal blocks, etc. I am going to raise the DIN rail up a bit, the picture shows my temporary setup for the "kitchen table project". The panel is not going to be easily removable anyway, as I am mounting a 115VAC receptacle on the side of the enclosure to accept the power supply for the fan and the PMDX board. I am a long way from getting the panel wired the way I want it to be. Thanks for all the comments. John |
#58
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John, If you use your SSR with the Milwaukee router that's recommended in the router thread, it will work okay. That's the setup I have. I can't guarantee any other router will work though.
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#59
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Motors are Turning
OK thanks Doug. I haven't gone router shopping yet so that can be a consideration for later. I HAVE THE MOTORS TURNING! Everything is running smoothly and is nice and cool. No smoke.
I have a question about the signal that turns the router on and off though. I am using the aux. out #14 on the PMDX to control the SSR. I have the correct pin set up in "Ports and Pins" in Mach3, but when I enable "Active Low" there is no response from the SSR. When I disable "Active Low" the light (router) comes on and stays on. It doesn't seem to matter if the program sends an M3, M4 or M5, theres no response. I'm a little confused as to how this works. Any info would be appreciated. Thanks John |
#60
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Look at posts 46 to 55 in this thread
http://www.mechmate.com/forums/showthread.php?t=218 |
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