3D Elk cutting (video) #13 - Hagerman, New Mexico

[ekdenton]

Hey Greg,

I am happy to hear your okay and the operation went well. I'm praying for a speedy recovery for you!

[Greg J]

Thanks Guys.

Abdomen is pretty tight. No heavy lifting for a couple of weeks.

Nows a good time to catch up on some reading. Currently reading "CNC Programming Handbook" by Peter Smid. It's quite riveting.

[smreish]

...also a good time to watch all the Mach 3 Online tutorials. Very helpful!
Sean

[Gerald D]

Hi Greg

Hope that everything is healing well and that Karen has stopped nursing you?

[Greg J]

Just got home from another week in the hospital and another surgery.

Had major complications and abscess. Worst week of my life. Didn't eat anything for a week. Had first food this past Saturday. I'll spare the details.

So glad to be home and recovering for real. Extremely weak and will take awhile to gain strength back. You can't believe how nice it is to check in.

Getting tired. I'll get back to the beast soon.

Oh yea, while in the hospital, my buddy said that if my spirit didn't start getting better, he was going to hang a picture of the MM in the hospital room.

[Robert M]

Sending down to you & Karen from are great white north, all my best positive vibesss.
Wishing you a better long term recovery and Karen some rest !

[Doug_Ford]

Glad to hear you're back home and feeling somewhat better. We've missed getting to read your input.

[sailfl]

Greg,

Hang in there. Sorry to hear you had more health problems. It is hard to do but be patient and give yourself time to recover.

You better teach your wife how to use the MM.

[revved_up]

Its good to hear some positive news, we sometimes take it for granted how fragile life really is. The best of wishes to yourself and your family.

[Roadkill_321]

Hey Greg,

Sorry to hear about the complications, all the best to you and yours down there.

Get well soon!

John

[jbmclain]

Greg, stay out of the hostpital....they will try to kill you.

If those doctors saw the quality of work that you were doing with your MM, they would be jealous.

Take it easy!!
Joe

[domino11]

Greg,
Take it easy and I hope all stays well with you from here on in.

[Gerald D]

Hi Greg and Karen, I must admit that I was a bit apprehensive when you went quiet for 2 weeks. Sorry to hear of the setback, but glad to hear you are on the real path to recovery now. Take it easy.

[Greg J]

Thanks Guys,

It is so wonderful to be home and eating .

I miss my shop and so close on completing the MM. It's amazing how little energy I have. For now, I can only walk out to the shop and look at the beast. Still, just looking at the MM lifts my spirits.

Thanks again,
Greg and Karen

[Greg J]

Finally back working in the shop. You have no idea how great it feels to be working on the MM and listening to a baseball game in my shop.

Anyway, I've got the gantry trued and riding the rails very nice. All 4 V-rollers are in contact. Thanks Gerald, I couldn't have done it without your help.

I clamped 3 corners using C clamps and wood blocks. Since the Channel had angled edges, a small wood shim on the lower edge of the clamp made the clamps hold strong. On the corner requiring adjustment, I used another C clamp and made small adjustments. Overall, I move the corner 1.779" for a 0.253" adjustment. That was too much, so I just went to the corner needing adjustment and made the correction. Very simple and straight forward.

I had to add weight to the table because the table was flexing. I used weights from my tractor (Doctor said I can only lift 20 lbs, and the tractor weights have handles for the gantry crane). I added 200 lbs (90 kg) to the corner that I was making adjustments and its diagonal. 400 lbs total.

I hope that helps anyone that has twist in there gantry.

gantry1.jpg

[Gerald D]

Hi Greg, great to have you back!

[Greg J]

Thanks Gerald.

Tonight I'll repaint the gantry, enclosure door, and touch up the table. Tuesday evening, I'll get my butt in gear and start finally assembly. Shouldn't take too long. Maybe start wiring by Thursday.

[Jason Marsha]

Hi Greg glad to hear you are back to work. Is that a picture of Gerald in the background?

Jason

[Gerald D]

Nah, it is his dartboard.

[domino11]

Gerald,
Do we all need a dartboard in our shops? What is the official size?

[Gerald D]

postage stamp size, painted full blue to hide that face!

[Gerald D]

On the opposite wall, Greg probably has a pic of his prize cow

[Greg J]

Actually, I didn't get inspiration, so I accepted entertainment.

[Greg J]

Have everything wired up, but troubleshooting.

When I press the on switch, the contactor does not engage (at least that's what I think it is). All E-Stops are in normal condition. I've gone over the wiring schematic numerous times. Everything seems fine. Just have the blinders on.

I'll get it figured out, but any suggestions are helpful.

[smreish]

Greg,
Does the system fire up when you manually depress the contactor in the center of the relay?
If so, it's a wiring issue in your e-stop / pushbutton loop.
If it doesn't, then it's an issue with your power feed into and out of the contactor to the power supply/transformer.

Good luck.

Send a pic, I might be able to help if I can see most of the wires.
Sean

[ekdenton]

Hey Greg,
thanks for stoping by Sat., to check out the MM.

Sounds like something very simple, you will get it...
maybe try checking voltage from the source to the contactor relay, sounds like that relay is not getting voltage to operate the contactor. If that is what is happening you may need to go over the wires behind the pushbuttons going to the relay, light, and the estop circut.

I printed a copy of the wiring page and checked each wire and highlighted it if it was correctly wired. That is an easy way to troubleshoot if there are alot of wires the same color and it starts gets confusing.

Hope you get it!!

[Doug_Ford]

Greg J,

Your problem sounds exactly like the problem I had with my contactor. Are you absolutely sure it is hooked up correctly? Reread my posts about my contactor and look at the photos I took. There are connections on the rear of the contactor that I and someone else missed. I think it may have been Sean.

Good luck.

[Greg J]

Thanks Guys,

I'll double check everything tonight when I get home.


Ed,
Thanks for the hospitality and you've got one nice MechMate.
I think that qualifies as the first meeting of the Southern Rockies / Desert chapter of the MechMate Builders Association (MBA). I always wanted a MBA.

[smreish]

Doug.....yep - it was me.
The CN 9, 11, 22 and 25 contactors all have the A1/A2 coil contacts UNDER the relay. VERY easy to miss and inadvertently wire the coil contact to the NC/NO auxiliary contact on the far right hand side of the 3 pole contact block.

A mistake that is easily missed. This was the REAL reason I asked if you can manually engage the contactor by pushing the block in.

[ekdenton]

+1 on that I did the same thing when doing the kitchen table project and had to go to the factorymation website and recheck the wiring diagram for the contactor, and caught my mistake.

Okay on the MBA but do we have to grow beards.....the itching the chaffing