Machining Aluminum #122 - Sydney, Australia

[KenC]

Great, now u WILL complete the built.

[Bazza]

Hi Bruce
Another week down and further you go toward completion, a step at a time
Mate, love the attention to measurement accuracy, I'll try to emulate it when I start.
Any firms in Sydney you recommend for steel required for the table?
My Excel sheet has started, the list is large and growing
I can't wait to have a go at this project
Keep up the good work Bruce
Cheers,
Bazza

[racedirector]

Well, things were ticking along nicely until 2 weeks ago. My wife rings me to tell me she had just been made redundant along with her boss. Her company had been bought by a Singapore entity and the slashing and burning had begun.

So for 2 weeks things have been up in the air while we figured things out and are only now returning to normal. Needless to say my build stopped during those 2 weeks hence my missing my goal of having the gantry rolling on the table.

Yesterday I finally finished the sanding down of the rails and today I began making my own eccentrics for the grinding skate. Right at the end of night today I managed to get my glove caught by the drill and while it didn't quite tear my thumb off it was bloody close. So now I have a really sore thumb but I did manage to get the 4 12mm bolts drilled before the mishap. As long as the ole thumb is OK tomorrow I will continue along. Oh, and yes my glove is stone dead, torn to shreds by the winding around the 8mm drill bit.

[darren salyer]

That's all some scary stuff there, Bruce.
Hope everything works out for the Misses, and your thumb heals up quickly.
Good Luck!!

[servant74]

Glad you are still kicking and have all your digits. Gloves are replaceable.

Many of us have been deemed 'redundant' from time to time. Sympathies for you both, but I am sure that these lemons will turn in to lemonade eventually.

[racedirector]

Skate question..... I have one of the "new fangled" skates with the bearings instead on adjusting screws. From what I can make out with searching is the the "axel" for the bearings sits flush with the bottom of the skate, automatically offering the correct height for the job. Is that right or have I got it all wrong?

Cheers

[racedirector]

Ooops, missed those replies, sorry guys. Yup, damn scary stuff with the drill, paniced and didn't even think of hitting the off button, was more interested in ripping my hand out of that glove. The thumb is more squashed than cut as the glove got tighter and tighter!

Thanks too for the thoughts re the redundancy. Luckily my wife was is in a role that is actually still in demand so hopefully she will find something soon. We should be right for a few months before I have to start selling things!

[darren salyer]

When one door closes........etc. etc...

[Fox]

You already got the warning, but please don't use gloves on drill press or lathe and such.. Glad you escaped with minor injuries.... Sorry to hear about your wife... All the best !

[racedirector]

Got a bit done and bought in the past few days. Setup my grinding skate and had at it grinding the rails. My first Y rail is OK as I got used to the skate, it will suffice for now and will see how it goes on the machine. The second one is better and almost done. The X rails are next on the chopping block

Received my 50m roll of wire today, ordered my cable chain and bootlace crimper and crimps yesterday as well. Getting a little bit done most days so the progress is there....

[lonestaral]

Steady away.
Safety first.
Those digits are single issue only.

Yes, had the order of the cashless boot several times during my career.
Chin up and soldier on.

[racedirector]

Wow, just as my thread title changes to "started" I finished up grinding all the rails today. My neighbors are definitely thankful for that

This avo I countersunk gantry end plates, drilled both the clamp strip and gantry tubes and did an initial fitting of the gantry parts all ready to start welding it up on Monday. I bought a 2 meter level and levelled up the machine to give me a good base to weld the gantry up on.

No work tomorrow on the machine, off to the Top Gear Festival tomorrow for my motoring fix

[Tom Ayres]

You're moving along great! It took me 14 pages of chatter on my thread before I got her running. Enjoy your festival.

[racedirector]

Went electrical shopping today and $317 later I have a control box, contactor etc. The only thing missing is the illuminated on/off button which has to come from Hong Kong because shipping one ex US would cost too much. When I am bored by construction I can now start putting the control together. I will be running a 24VDC circuit to run fans, e-stop etc so I can restrict 240V to inside the control box instead of running it around the table.

Not much left to buy now, I am thinking a little paint, primer, rustkill and a couple of sheets of MDF for the spoilboard and I will have everything I need to finish this thing! etc

[racedirector]

Quick Q for everyone, have I got the gantry together the right way for the 0,0 position I have selected?

Quickly threw the bits together to check before welding next week...

[dbinokc]

Two things to watch out for that I did wrong on my gantry. The smaller gantry end bracket with hole in it. Make sure you get it on the correct side. Also be sure which gantry rail gets the hole for the proxy sensor. I got mine on the wrong rail and my rail holes are not symmetric enough. So I cant switch them. For now I am just living with proxy sensor on the wrong side.

[racedirector]

Thanks for the tips DB! The small end with the hole is on the other end of the tube with the big end with cable chain mount. Thinking about the passage of wiring I think that is right. I'll also drill 20mm target holes in both rails just incase

[Tom Ayres]

I got wise with the holes, I put them on both rails just to prevent that from happening.

edit: just caught your reply, great minds think alike.

[dbinokc]

I think you got it. I did not mock mine up like you did, so it was not until I mounted the gantry that I realized my error with the bracket.

[racedirector]

That was sheer fluke guys, I just went down and checked my mockup and it was right, didn't even think about it when I was putting the gantry together!

[racedirector]

Oh, and I didn't like the way I drilled all the clamp strips and gantry tubes so I went and bought new steel yesterday to redo them. Gonna steal 1planeguys method of drilling them this time around, I liked that....

Yea, I could have welded up the holes but couldn't be bothered, only cost $62.00 to rebuy everything. I'll use the other tubes and strip for some other project down the line...

[dbinokc]

That is why I do not gamble. A one in four chance to get them both wrong and I did!

[racedirector]

Got all my rails cut to length and drilled, along with the new nut plates & tubes for the Y's. I am now waiting on my new welder, my crappy one died. I thought bugger it and am getting a Mig this time round that should last me years. The gantry has been setup again ready for welding and my 2 week goal tracking list has been 50% completed 4 days in. The rest of the goal list is welding so now I have to wait for that to materialise but I should still be on track for this months goal to be accomplished on time.

[KenC]

Getting a MIG is a good decision. It took me some time to finally biting the bullet but once having one welding chore has not been the same ever since.

[racedirector]

Quick question before I go buy the 9V AC toroid for my 24V DC E-stop loop. I will be buying a 9+9 1.6a (series) 30VA toroid. Running it in series will give me the required 24V I want. However, I would also like to power my PMDX 122 off the same supply and the question is:

Will I be able to tap one of the 9V legs to give the the 122 supply and still run it in series to supply my 24V E-stop loop?

[jhiggins7]

Bruce,

Take a look at this post.

I built a dual 12 volt and 24 volt power supply using the Antec 0209 Toroid transformer for my MechMate. Works fine. My input voltage was 120 Volts, however.

[racedirector]

Excellent, thanks John - just the sort of thing I was looking for. Will collect the toroid this week and get building the supply.

Edit: I see I actually posted in there too, the old mind forgets things unless they are bookmarked. Definitely bookmarking/subscribing to your thread for future reference.

[racedirector]

Picked up my new welder today, a quick 200K round trip Will be doing some practice with it on the weekend and then will be straight onto all the welding tasks I need to get things rolling.

[Fox]

http://www.weldingtipsandtricks.com/...ding-tips.html

[darren salyer]

Sounds like you already have things rolling.
Soon there will be an AHA moment when you look at all the sub assemblies you've completed and think: Man, I'm closer than I thought!!