thnx John, that's clear...
@Ken, my guess is you even open your beers with the CNC nowadays? Nothing wrong with getting off your arse and do some manual lifting every now and then ;-)

Ps. I know what your aiming at, your setup for example is easier to empty...but occupies more space, I like the compact state of this ... guess it depends on how often you have to empty the barrel what one will decide..

I read somewhere you can use a flame torch to go over that acrylic to get rid of the fuz left behind. Test it on another piece first !!! Nice work !!

Ken,
The only thing bolted together is the motor to the blower. The stack of parts seals with gravity and the weight of the motor. I put foam weather strip between the barrel and the first disk.

I'll try that Mike. I was able to get a much cleaner cut using dish soap/water mix and tuning the speed.
John

imo the bad cut is due to melting. So can indeed cool ( water is ok, but air is also ok and les messy ) But yes, more likely tune your parameters ( and use the right bit, you have special bits for pmma )
Flame polishing is more for milled edges to get transparent again, large surfaces are hard to do nicely.

Note on Flame Polishing Acrylic.
Try to use a Clean burning fuel like:
Hydrogen or propane.
Acetylene - like used in a standard torch setup will leave nasty carbon inclusions in the edge.

Also, fan the torch with the clearest part of the flame and quickly for decent results.

The acrylic should be sanded to about 120 or better for best results.

....carry on.

A barrel packed with saw dust is heavy.... Just highlighting a practical factor.
One can have a compact foot print while having easy access at the same time if one put enough thoughts into it. I was lazy to think, lucky that I have enough space to indulge my laziness... :D

##PS, if I am a hard working person, I wouldn't had use CNC & power drills... LOL

That's another thing .. but the cool thing about barrels... they roll.
Just clip on the original lid back on, and roll it to the place where is needs to be emptied :)
k.i.s.s.
But John got fancy pancy wheels to make the travel to the dumpster easy.

I use a barrel trolley, gotta be tender with me back. :D

Soon there's going to be nothing more left of you, then a jelly pile of brains Ken :D

Following up on Ken's wisdom I'll figure out a way to lift the motor and swirl assembly enough to roll the barrel out. But for now I'm working on a way to fill the barrel.
Decided to make my first dust foot with a removal body so it could be easily removed to expose the cutter for changing. Also made it with acrylic so I could see what the dust was doing. The side is open to allow the air to enter the side and speed around the same direction as the cutter is rotating.
Once installed a door on the side will control the amount of air entering. The hole around the tool will need to be adjusted.
Then adding bristles around the tool opening.
Want to make it so the body can clip on to the top plate. Then it can be changed to make it work.

Decided to have some fun instead of working on the vacuum system.

After seeing Darren #101's gear I had to make one.

Cool, nice patina, only too perfect to be real, maybe stain it with some black particles And a few lighter smears ?

Typically when I start free handing stuff it gets messy and I have to repaint. I'll give it a try. It does need some scraping where it was pulled off the shaft and where the teeth mesh.

If you have AutoCad, there is a AutoLisp free online called TrueGear. It runs as any lisp does and design many different gears. I used it where I work at since they have Cad. Not much use there for me, but I have used it to draw gears for cutting.

Thanks Pete,
I used SolidWorks to create multiple gear sizes from 10 to 70 teeth then created a 2D dxf file to import into Aspire. Have yet to try an stl file from SolidWorks directly into Aspire.

Very cool gear.

Thanks Darren

Decided it was time to do the spoil board. Set it up to use the gantry to carry the board across the table.

Also heard it was good for the environment to go green so I tried that too.

Lookin good!

guao your excellent work friend. I hope someday to finish mine, and buy everything but my wife came back pregnant and can not do anything. MechMate guta me much if it were not so expensive and would leave the armaria to take photo lol but good'm working slowly and I am making the holes to bolt the rails angles. hope to get started soon hard to the finish, hopefully stay like this. materials that you have used is equal to the morning put my photo mia probre progress. but there will your greetings and good job ..


Greetings to all community MechMate

att Hevert galue from Venezuela

Thanks Jack and Hevert,

Congratulations on the pregnancy Hevert. You do know that the more you work on the Mechmate the less time there is for pregnancy. ;)

I recently cut a sign 24 x 20. Raster cuts sure do take a long time.

lol hello if you do not have time, I'll dedicate my wife, hahaha mechmate wait hopefully not much. and your very nice work greetings

Sign for my garage. Sign is 14" X 72" (355 X 1829).

Started cutting clock gears and ran into a problem. Haven't had much time to investigate but maybe some one has seen it before. The MDF cuts are smooth on curves but I'm getting gear tooth distortion. The teeth are supposed to be rounded but they should be symmetrical.
I made a test piece with 1/4" X 1/4" teeth to define the problem and it shows up when cutting in the X direction. The red circle is the start/finish and the arrow shows the direction of cut. Top and bottom are reasonable but the sides are not good at all. Its some kind of overshoot. Can even be seen on the inner square cut. Using an 1/8" cutter.

Don't know if it helps but here is the preamble to the file.

( Sq test Pattern )
( File created: Sunday, October 19, 2014 - 04:03 PM)
( for Mach2/3 from Vectric )
( Material Size)
( X= 12.000, Y= 12.000, Z= 0.490)
()
(Toolpaths used in this file:)
(Profile 2)
(Tools used in this file: )
(2 = End Mill {0.125 inch}MDF)
N100G00G20G17G90G40G49G80
N110G70G91.1
N120T2M06
N130 (End Mill {0.125 inch}MDF)
N140G00G43Z0.8000H2
N150S10000M03
N160(Toolpath:- Profile 2)
N170()
N180G94

Looks like mechanical slop.

A few things to check.
_z slide v bearings
_loose grub screws on pinion drive gear
_board moving on table?
_check Mach3 configuration file and see if you set on on ABSOLUTE or Incremental (2nd column, 1/2 way down on page.

Sean,

No play in Z Slide or spindle mount.
Grub Screws were tight last week (will check again tonight)
Board is secure on table.
Have no idea about Absolute or Incremental. (will check tonight)

Thanks, hopefully it will be one of these.

I agree with Sean. You have backlash somewhere. I would definitely check your pinion set screws.

Unload the pinion from the rack and put a pair of channel locks on it.
See if you can move the bugger.

It's almost 90% showing mechanical slop.

Sean, I don't want to sound stupid, but what are you talking about when you say "absolute or incremental"?

Attachment 15101

Toggling these values has different speeds affects on how mach handles curves at velocity.