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  #31  
Old Mon 13 October 2008, 17:49
Riz
Just call me: riz
 
Lowell ma
United States of America
Hi again Brad thanks for the info will be calling tommrow about the steel.One other quick question ? Have you found a shop around the area to do the laser cutting and bending.I been reading about some shops down south I have been trying to contact some of the other guys to get their contact info but have not heard back yet. Thanks again Riz
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  #32  
Old Mon 13 October 2008, 18:28
bradm
Just call me: Brad #10
 
Somerville(MA)
United States of America
I got my parts from jbmclain in Alabama. It'll probably be tough to beat that deal.
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  #33  
Old Mon 13 October 2008, 18:35
bradm
Just call me: Brad #10
 
Somerville(MA)
United States of America
Okay, I'm cutting (Achoo!)

It's been a fun weekend. Errors I've corrected include failing to locktite the grub screws on the pinion gears, and not plumbing the Z axis in both dimensions.

I made a couple of little V bit name signs for the kids, and then fired up the table surfacing. I'd been thinking that I'd surface the table, then start cutting wooden parts for the dust foot. Trust me, you don't want to surface MDF without dust collection. I did wear a mask, but it took less than ten minutes to surface the table, and over two hours to mop up the mess.

Has anyone considered cutting out MechMate logos on their Mechmate?
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  #34  
Old Mon 13 October 2008, 21:01
Gerald D
Just call me: Gerald (retired)
 
Cape Town
South Africa
Well done Brad. Only about 6 weeks from start to finish and you sound like a happy camper.
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  #35  
Old Wed 22 October 2008, 21:33
kn6398
Just call me: Kray
 
Fort Worth
United States of America
Bradm,
What model Milwaukee grinder did you use? I bought two grinder already and returned both becasue it didn't fit the laser cut skate.

Quote:
Originally Posted by bradm View Post

The rail cutting car worked well with the Milwaukee grinder I ended up with. I started out with a left over 4.5A grinder I had lying around, and although it worked, it would have taken ages to finish. The Milwaukee did all 80' (20 + 20, two sides) of rail with one disk, easily.
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  #36  
Old Thu 23 October 2008, 07:02
bradm
Just call me: Brad #10
 
Somerville(MA)
United States of America
I'm reasonably sure it was 6148-6 (the approx $99 one that Home Depot stocks in their stores), I'll verify when I get home tonight. I'm blessed / cursed with 2 Home Depots within 2 miles of house, and I bought it in the second store, since the first had "3 in stock", and the second had "5 in stock" and between the two, they had exactly one in a damaged box. <sigh>.

One of my two grinders would only align with two of the four holes in the skate, but worked just fine. I don't recall which was which.
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  #37  
Old Thu 23 October 2008, 18:05
bradm
Just call me: Brad #10
 
Somerville(MA)
United States of America
Yes, it's the 6148-6. You can't change wheels while it's in the skate, and on my skate, it was originally close enough to the rounded corners of the cutout that I had to grind away about 1/16" before assemble to have the wheel clear.

After that, the performance was great. Note that I ended up using lamp oil(*) to lubricate the rail, which didn't seem to affect the grinding performance, but greatly helped the skate to slide. (*) Liquid paraffin, which to my understanding is highly refined kerosene.
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  #38  
Old Thu 23 October 2008, 22:59
kn6398
Just call me: Kray
 
Fort Worth
United States of America
What hole size is your skate? My skate hole is about 1.71 and I think the lastest version skate has bigger hole size I believe 1.85.
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  #39  
Old Fri 24 October 2008, 12:33
bradm
Just call me: Brad #10
 
Somerville(MA)
United States of America
That's correct, my skate has 1.85" hole. The 6148 grinder bolt holes are in a 1.75" grid. My skate is going to be idle for a long time, so I suppose we could arrange a loan if you wish, unless there's someone in a more adjacent location that could do the same?
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  #40  
Old Fri 24 October 2008, 20:46
kn6398
Just call me: Kray
 
Fort Worth
United States of America
Thanks for the offer but today I went to Homedepot again and brought my lase skate cut and disassembled the grinder cover and measured all the grinders they had on display. I was determine to get the right one and was able to find the bosch 1375 which fit the hole with just some minor grinding on the end to get fit flush through. Even those only two screws would lineup it seem to hold it very sturdy.
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  #41  
Old Mon 03 November 2008, 17:41
bradm
Just call me: Brad #10
 
Somerville(MA)
United States of America
A silly experiment in cutting labels

I owe many pictures, so here's a few. First, the pieces all over the yard getting paint. Then three attempts at cutting some contact paper I glued to a piece of MDF. First with a 45 degree V bit, next with a micro end mill, and finally with a specialized roundover. The latter two both pulled the material
upwards and ate it, so to my surprise the 45 degree V bit did the best job.
None of it was particularly good though, so I'm still thinking up other schemes. Maybe I'll cut a stencil and then paint through it.

Could I be considered for a provisional Serial Number while I keep playing?
Attached Images
File Type: jpg mmpaint.jpg (145.0 KB, 1130 views)
File Type: jpg mmlabel1.jpg (89.0 KB, 1120 views)
File Type: jpg mmlabel2.jpg (51.8 KB, 1112 views)
File Type: jpg mmlabel3.jpg (102.8 KB, 1116 views)
File Type: jpg mmlabel4.jpg (16.2 KB, 1117 views)
File Type: jpg mmlabel6.jpg (68.0 KB, 1112 views)
File Type: jpg mmlabel7.jpg (100.8 KB, 1119 views)
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  #42  
Old Mon 03 November 2008, 19:43
lunaj76
Just call me: Justin #24
 
Littleton, (Colorado)
United States of America
Send a message via Skype™ to lunaj76
Brad,
Congrats, good work!
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  #43  
Old Tue 04 November 2008, 07:13
domino11
Just call me: Heath
 
Cornwall, Ontario
Canada
Brad,
That logo looks really good. Congratulations on your build.
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  #44  
Old Tue 04 November 2008, 08:56
bradm
Just call me: Brad #10
 
Somerville(MA)
United States of America
Gerald, thanks for the number, thanks for a great design, and thanks for operating a spectacular forum. I'm thrilled with my MM, and I had a wonderful time building it.
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  #45  
Old Tue 04 November 2008, 09:17
Gerald D
Just call me: Gerald (retired)
 
Cape Town
South Africa
Brad, I think I enjoyed your build as much as you did - All that I had to do was to sit back and watch it happen in a very short space of time!
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  #46  
Old Mon 17 November 2008, 11:03
bradm
Just call me: Brad #10
 
Somerville(MA)
United States of America
Just to confirm the correlation in another thread:
Attached Images
File Type: jpg BBB.JPG (84.0 KB, 993 views)
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  #47  
Old Mon 17 November 2008, 11:14
YRD
Just call me: Yuri #17
 
Brasilia - DF
Brazil
I love this engine R.

It would be a 1.150 ?
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  #48  
Old Mon 17 November 2008, 11:59
bradm
Just call me: Brad #10
 
Somerville(MA)
United States of America
Yes, that's a '99 R1100RT. I've taken it from Boston to Washington DC. Maybe next time I'll try to stretch down to Orlando and say hi to Sean.

Last edited by bradm; Sun 30 August 2009 at 18:53.. Reason: Braino on the model number.
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  #49  
Old Tue 18 November 2008, 23:07
Kobus_Joubert
Just call me: Kobus #6
 
Riversdale Western Cape
South Africa
Send a message via Yahoo to Kobus_Joubert Send a message via Skype™ to Kobus_Joubert
Nice bike...I had a R 1100 RT until my son managed to T-Bone a Fiat Uno at 08:00 on a Sunday morning....Son OK, Uno and Bike not so OK...Insurance decided to scrap the bike....does not look like it, but damages were close to book value they said.

BMW1.jpg

After 171 000 km on the clock without a hickup...it came to a sudden death

Last edited by Kobus_Joubert; Tue 18 November 2008 at 23:17..
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  #50  
Old Tue 18 November 2008, 23:16
Kobus_Joubert
Just call me: Kobus #6
 
Riversdale Western Cape
South Africa
Send a message via Yahoo to Kobus_Joubert Send a message via Skype™ to Kobus_Joubert
IMG00161.jpg

This is the Uno.....why is it so difficult for cars to stop at STOP signs ?
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  #51  
Old Wed 19 November 2008, 03:36
Robert M
Just call me: Robert
 
Lac-Brome, Qc
Canada
Send a message via Yahoo to Robert M Send a message via Skype™ to Robert M
Glad your son is OK... Feel sorry for your toy !
Amicalement, Robert
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  #52  
Old Thu 20 November 2008, 16:32
DocTanner
Just call me: Don Ross
 
Blue Ridge, Texas
United States of America
Just finished reading your build.
Not many things more exciting than seeing a MechMate run for the first time.
Congratulations on a nice job and extra points for using Linux.

Donald Ross
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  #53  
Old Sun 30 August 2009, 18:51
bradm
Just call me: Brad #10
 
Somerville(MA)
United States of America
Hmm. I haven't updated this thread in quite a while. Here's what I've been up to:

I upgraded to a chinese water cooled spindle. The flow through the spindle itself involves very small apertures, so it's difficult to get a strong flow, regardless of how large the fittings or tubing outside the spindle are. If you're willing to just waste water, it's pretty easy to get flow using a fraction of standard water pressure, but it definitely bogs down small pumps, ranging from various aquarium models to 1/6 HP sump pumps.

Something to watch out for with sump pumps: They dump their waste heat into the water (duh!), so it's pretty easy to end up with hot water after a bit of runtime.

If anyone has found an inexpensive pump that works well, please let me know.

I've written a plugin for Sketchup that outputs GCode. I'll be looking for people to test it on their own drawings and objects soon.

I've been thinking about playing with vacuum hold down at some point soon.

Today, I bumped into a rather obvious mistake I made some time ago: I snapped the head off a screw I was using as a hold-down. The break was below surface level of the spoilboard, so I just forgot about it and moved on. Today I resurfaced the table (for the second time since that break), and I found the buried screw shaft, rather violently. It jogged my memory rather effectively.

My Hitachi VFD (purchased separately from the spindle) is wired to report faults back through the G540 to EMC2, so when it detected the increased current draw / sync problem on the spindle from the crash, it shut itself down, and that shut down everything else (that was nice!). I was lucky, the bit survived.

So, the obvious moral of this story is: If you lose part of a fastener inside your spoil board, dig it out immediately.
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  #54  
Old Mon 31 August 2009, 00:25
Gerald D
Just call me: Gerald (retired)
 
Cape Town
South Africa
Thanks for the interesting feedback.
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  #55  
Old Mon 31 August 2009, 00:58
javeria
Just call me: Irfan #33
 
Bangalore
India
Brad - let us know how you have wired your VFD to get to activate teh estop, I have a relay on my Delta and sure know that i can use that - what parameter on you hitachi r u using to - is it the increased current consumption one?

RGDS
IRfan
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  #56  
Old Mon 31 August 2009, 17:29
bradm
Just call me: Brad #10
 
Somerville(MA)
United States of America
Irfan-
Just the run mode one. If it drops out of run mode for any reason (like faults), it will stop EMC2.
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  #57  
Old Mon 31 August 2009, 17:41
javeria
Just call me: Irfan #33
 
Bangalore
India
Ok then even if the VFD is powered down a estop is in place right? does that not form a infinite loop - meaning while switching on if the VFD needs to power up - but we still have the relay on the vfd not letting it off the stop status???

i am hoping you are understanding what I am trying to tell here -

if I have understood you properly - you are trying to say that the estop request is just communicated to EMC but not exactly triggering a hard estop by letting the contactor off?

RGDS
IRfan
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  #58  
Old Mon 31 August 2009, 18:19
lumberjack_jeff
Just call me: Jeff #31
 
Montesano, WA
United States of America
Hi Brad, sign me up to beta test your sketchup script!
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  #59  
Old Mon 31 August 2009, 20:09
smreish
Just call me: Sean - #5, 28, 58 and others
 
Orlando, Florida
United States of America
Brad,
I would be glad to add to your beta testers.
Thanks for thinking of us!
Sean
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  #60  
Old Mon 31 August 2009, 22:09
bradm
Just call me: Brad #10
 
Somerville(MA)
United States of America
Irfan, good question! I actually have a series of contactors for everything heavy in my shop. It allows for one disable key switch, as I have small to medium children running around, and I want to know FOR SURE that my shop is OFF when I'm not around. You wouldn't believe how attractive a green ON button two feet off the ground on a table saw is to a little person. Some of the control logic for those contactors interlinks with the mechmate.

On the mechmate, I have effectively a 'soft' and a 'hard' estop. The soft is low voltage, and disables the G540 and the spindle. The hard drops the contactor out and kills the power. The computer keyboard, and a spindle fault will both trigger a
soft estop, which maintains power. The red buttons on the mechmate trigger a hard estop. So what I described above triggered the soft estop.

More specifically, the VFD is configured to go automatically to run mode when powered on, with the speed controlled by the G540 (default is zero). The G540 enable is controlled by the VFD run mode output. So any spindle fault disables the
G540 (and informs the PC). The PC has a PWM enable for the G540, so it can kill the G540 and with it cause the spindle to go into a controlled decel to zero. So both the PC and the VFD have to be alive and happy before the G540 goes to enabled state.

Now, as for those other contactors: The digital outputs of the G540 operate low voltage relays that trigger the contactor for my dust collector, and future vacuum holddown. That is one of several possible trigger points to turn on dust collection.
The vacuum holddown is going to exceed the maximum available power in the shop, so it is interlocked with my compressor. If the vac holddown goes on, the compressor can no longer be on. I have an overall shop power budget of 40A at 240, 1 Phase.
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