First Project Completed! #106 - NL Canada

[jhiggins7]

Thanks Clayton. The Log has been updated. It IS a great feeling.

[cleyte]

Mechmate #106 and its first completed projected. The range hood will be installed tomorrow.

[sailfl]

Clayton,

Congrats on finishing your build and your range hood job. You did a very nice job finishing it.

I have a question with regards to the range hood. I know you made it out wood. Did you have to make the inside out of metal?

Thanks

[cleyte]

Thanks Nils.

The inside is wood. This unit is made from Birch which seems to be the species of choice for most homeowners in this area.

There is a stainless steel exhaust unit that sits inside and fills the area underneath. It is recessed appox. 6" into the hood to hide it from view. It is then piped to the outside using insulated vent pipe. The wood/hood simply hides the unsightly piping and is really just cosmetic.


Clayton

[cleyte]

Some advise needed:

I have purchased two ARO self feed drills to install next to the spindle. If I install a second z slide for this purpose, I will have to move the existing spider away from 0,0 to the third slot in the y car to accommodate dust collection next to the spindle. The dust collection hose would be limited to a max. diameter of 2 1/2". Is there a problem with reducing the dust collection hose diameter from the widely used 4" to 2 1/2"?

Clayton

[danilom]

Yes, you will limit the amount of air that your DC can pull. Depends on the power of your unit, if it works best with 4" I think 2,5" will choke it.

While making a dual spindle MechMate we constructed a dust shoe which goes from the back of the gantry and car not trough the hole as the second half was filled with another Z axis. It limits the thickness of material on table but up to 2" it works ok

[cleyte]

I know that Dimitry has done something very similar to what I plan to do and is apparently having success.

http://www.mechmate.com/forums/showt...st+foot&page=5

[cleyte]

I have completed the dust foot and it is performing very well. I have a small portable dust collector attached to it and very little dust escapes the brushes or is left on the table.

I used it to cut some fluted moulding and I am very pleased with the performance.

[darren salyer]

Very nice!!

[HomeMadeCnc]

Awesome job, now the fun begins!
Cheers

[paulus]

Hi.
Just to get back on claytons question . Get the spec on your blower and check what the pressure drop is on it with a 4 inch intake. Then ask the supplier what will the pressure drop be on a 2 and half inch pipe. If the blowers pressure drop is higher than the 2 and half inch pipe then it will work no problem. The upside for that is a higher velocity witch means you will suck up wood dust at a greater speed.

Paul

[paulus]

Very nice job and machine hope you make buckets of money and lots of fun

[cleyte]

Thanks everyone.

So far I am having buckets of fun .. can't wait for the buckets of money.

Clayton

[cleyte]

Been a while folks .... but have always been here reading and learning. My machine has served me well but I have had this pesky issue for quite some time.

At the start of a job, (usually an entire sheet of MDF from which I cut names, signs etc) I bring the gantry up to the hard stops to square the gantry. I always find that the X1 side will touch the stop first and the slave is approx 1/8" to 1/4" away from the stop. To square I give a good yank on the side that is not touching the stop. I proceed with the job and when complete I find the gantry requires squaring again. I have to repeat this squaring scenario several times a day.

I have checked the calibration in Mach3 to ensure the values are the same for x1 and the slave. I have checked the grub screws and all is good. The motors are the standard sg7.2 geared motors.

With power off, I unhooked the springs and dropped the motors out of the rack. Brought the gantry up to the hard stops and sure enough, the gantry toughed on the x1 side first with about 1/8" gap on the slave side. If I recall correctly, I ran the gantry of the rails at some point and believe that I could have caused it to go out of square from my original setup.

Is it possible that squaring a not so square gantry, can cause enough stress on the motors that they lose steps during cutting?

[bradm]

Well, the first question is whether the gantry or the stops are out of square.

Gerald has a procedure for that: http://mechmate.com/forums/showthread.php?t=231

If it's just the stops, you're all set. If it's the gantry, re-shimming the wheels is in order.

[cleyte]

I believe the stops are square. When the gantry is brought to the stops and a rectangle is cut, the diagonals are equal (or at least within my tolerance for cabinet parts).

The problem arises when as cutting continues during the day, the slave axis tends to move farther away from the stop than the x1 axis. I realize that shimming the gantry is in order. However, I was of the opinion that these motors had enough holding power to keep the gantry square - within reason.

Is repetitive squaring during the day an expected task?

[bradm]

You should not need to square repetitively. However, since the gantry "naturally" goes out of square without the motors, I think you know what you need to do to solve this.

[islaww]

I use a couple different methods to address this issue. And it is common for many of the lesser priced gantry machines to have an out of tolerance when at rest.

With ShopBot control, I roll one side of the gantry into the prox switch, then back off. Then using a small ttl relay, I remove signal from that motor. Then roll the other side into its prox. I use a system variable to adjust that variable to square the gantry.

When using WinCNC, the "alt axis" feature is built in, in fact was the model for what I did for the SB control.

There are surely some here that can make that happen with Mach and UCCNC

[cleyte]

Thanks for the help and suggestions.

I have adjusted the shim washers to improve the "at rest" squareness. I will evaluate the success of the adjustment over the next week.

I have the proximity sensors in position but just never found the time to complete the install. I'll add that to the bucket list.