Mini Vacuum Table ! #100 - Adelaide AU

[MetalHead]

Yep - You are correct G !!! Congrats on getting #100 !!!

[Gerald D]

Pop the champagne!

[darren salyer]

Thats awesome!!

Congrats!!!

A testament to Geralds abilities as a designer that there are 100 documented machines built all over the world, by people with widely different skill sets.

Well done, sirs!!

[clarson66]

A big Thanks to Gerald for sharing his Mechmate creation with all of us to enable us all to embark on the journey of building their own. It has been a long time in the making this Mechmate and it's has now earned it serial number.
Cheers to all the other users that we looked in on their posts to originally inspire us to build the Mechmate and help us during the build, and although we might not have posted in your build we appreciated being able to look in and gain knowledge enabling us to create Mechmate #100.

Here's to many happy years of making dust!

Cheers Mike, May you carry the mechmate forward for the all the next people wishing to build a Mechmate.

Regards Chris n Leon #100

Yes the Beer is flowing

[Lonedawg75]

omg it is so nice to have built the machine, unfortuantly we had a few months of disruptions .. it is so nice that is all it is working well and we are now looking forward to makin things for the SA world

[domino11]

Congratulations Guys!

[hennie]

You did It!

[jhiggins7]

Well done, Chris and Leon! Congratulations on completing your MechMate and earning Serial #100.

Here is the Updated Builder's Log.

Please let me know the "cutting" dimensions of your MechMate so that we can include them in your Entry.

[sailfl]

Congratulations !

[zumergido]

ok iam going for the Number 1000..
congrats.

[clarson66]

Hi all,
Mechmate #100 is still happily running and I'm finally getting to spend some time working on it. Currently we have fitted the spindle controller so spindle starts n stops with Mach 3 now. Slowly updating and tidying bits up. Thanks to Surfcnc plans, we are in the middle of making and fitting his 4:1 reduction set up. Been getting some work for the Mechmate so some financial reward is finally happening.
Will post some pics when we get underway with the 4:1 upgrade.

Chris

[sailfl]

Congrates on 100

[AuS MaDDoG]

Well done guys !! congrats on the completion of MM #100

Cheers
Tony.

[Gerald D]

Tony and Nils, he got his #100 in June last year already (Nils you already congratulated him at that time).....or am I missing something?

[sailfl]

Gerald,

Nice to hear from you. I try to keep up with all the new builds. It is nice to see that the builds have gotten to 100 + that are registered.

[domino11]

Must have been the old thread bump that confused people.

[AuS MaDDoG]

lol, Im with you Domino 11 that's what did it !! I saw the recent post congratulating and me being the friendly person that I am wanted to congratulate. Not too worry all good and good to hear that Chris and Leon are making some good use of MM.

Cheers
Tony.

[clarson66]

Well the pulleys and belts have arrived, after a fairly big credit. Place we ordered them from charged us nearly double what their website said. Bro picked up the laser cut plates today. Bearings on order from VXB now, ordered some from another Chinese supplier they arrived quick but were very poor quality and not even correct sizing. They nicely refunded my money and now we wait for the VXB to arrive then its assembly time. Will post some photos soon when it starts coming together.

Chris

[clarson66]

Well I'd become quite happy with how the MM has been working that I got a bit side tracked and left the reduction drives in their box. Now happy to say I have x and y made up, installed and tested. Much nicer and smoother cuts at higher feed rates.

Chris

[clarson66]

From the inspiration of Deere #116 a mini vacuum table. Needed to make something quick to hold some wooden boards in place for cutting into cheese boards. 200 x 200 mm and worked a treat.

[pblackburn]

Great job

If you ever need, I have a design I use that is 325mm square using two sheets of 19mm material. Just let me know, I think it is on my thread but if not I can send you the files. It is sized to not restrict the air flow at all of the vacuum until the surface has material place on it to achieve maximum tension. I use it for engraving plastic tags.

[clarson66]

Been a while, Mechmate #100 has been whirring away quietly doing all sorts of odd jobs. In the last couple of years it has moved the Clare Valley in South Australia and lives a quieter life in amongst vineyards now. Have had a couple of vacuum/blowers sitting under the bench and recently had a job come through that would be easier with a vacuum table so I whipped up this prototype to get me through. Will rebuild it again when not in quite a rush to get a job done.

[smreish]

Really well done! Congrats

[clarson66]

Cheers, I'm really impressed with how well it works. The MDF bleeder sheet was warped and as soon as I hit the pumps with a sheet of plastic on top the MDF it pulled it straight down.

[jhiggins7]

Hi Chris and Leon,

Nice work, thanks for sharing.

What Horsepower are your blower/vacuums? Just curious. I have one that bought years ago and was wondering how it might perform as a vacuum hold down.

[clarson66]

They are Kawake Ring Blowers, 1.75kw 240v Aussie. Each one move about 125cfm or 3.5m3 They can achieve a vacuum force as well, I'm getting about -6 inHg. It's not a lot of force but testing has been promissing. Best thing is though they seem to keep going, ran the system for 1 and half hours while the glue dried on the spoil board and they only got 40 degrees celsius. The old vacuum cleaner motor on the test one would probably been in flames by then.

I haven't machined the glossy layer of the top of the mdf yet and in a test tonight it still managed to pull down a warped piece of 3mm ply and held while machining.

[jhiggins7]

Thanks for sharing. Looking forward to your progress.

[AlexTup]

Hello everyone - I have updated the list of the newbies and members attending this weekends event, together with the undecided. Also posted within the thread is the meeting place, together with a link to the Adelaide Zoo, to enable you to print a map if required.

fozzie