Paul

How did the laser cutting and bending turn out?
Are you happy with the results?

Keyboard and mouse now have a permanent home ;):cool:

Truly an inspiration J.R.

Now back to work for me. :)

JR....Your a perfectionist. I like it that way. Great work.
I can barely see my machine through the dust and debris field at the moment. I hope to clean the shop and move the machine in 2 weeks so I can have a permanent set up. Right now my computer and control box are on a saw horse table in the corner!

Hi J.R.,
Great looking job you did on your mechmate. I have a couple of questions for you. Did you vent or put any fans on the control box that you have the computer in? I know computers like to stay cool. I would like to do something like that to keep mine out of the dust but I would not like to have problems with the heat. On the other hand a fan would probably just draw alot of dust into the box, so I was wondering what everyone is doing about that. Also I was wondering what the pvc pipes under your table are for, do you have a vacume set up to hold your materials down?

Ed the heat is a concern. The heat sink for the geckos has reached 130F. A fan will be nessesary, I will use a cheap auto air filter to keep the dust out, my compressor has used the same system for 25 years with great success. The pipe under the table will be for the vacuum hold down system. thanks

JR,
Your machine is looking awesome. Do you have any more pics of the stuff you have been cutting? What are you cutting mostly?

Heath.

Heath I haven't cut much, some personalised hearts, several wall plaques, a few logos, the dust foot, that's about it. I need cut files of anything that will sell on the open market. Marc is drawing up some things like dressing screens, and fireplace screens and we will cut them from 3/4" mdf.
I like the idea of having a space we could upload and download "use at your own risk cut files". Think of the different items it would have from all over the world:cool:.

JR,

Go to Epilog laser site and they have files that will work with your machine.

http://www.epiloglaser.com/sample_club.htm

JR,

you might like this one www.myDXF.blogspot.com

RGDS
Irfan

Pics of the vacuum hold down system.
Everything was made using the MechMate. The 1/2" plenum board has 4 quadrants (as per Brady's design on the Shopbot forum). Any combination of the quadrants is possible .... any 1, any 2, any 3, or all 4, may be opened, or closed, or the system can be opened to pull its air through the filter (small swimming pool filter). The 4 oblong recesses located on the slide act as the lock and hold it in place using a large ball catch.
We are still using tabs on any part smaller than 2 sq. ft. The good thing is no clamps are nessary if the material is larger than about 4 sq. ft.
The blower is rated at 175 cfm, 94" H2O.
I am satisfied with the hold down system. When we first turned it on I was disappointed, I wanted no tabs no clamps regardless how small the parts were, but then reality set in and I realized .... that ain't gone happen.

JR,

Very nice system. Can you provide more details about the vacuum unit you are using?

Thanks

JR.

Beautiful work. I love those slanted handles. Very elegant looking.

JR,
Your setup looks really good. You must be really proud of your machine. :)

Thanks everyone.

Nils, the vacuum is called a Hitachi Vortex Blower model # VB-022G-U. It is 3 ph, 230 volts, 8 amps. It's a lot quieter than I thought it would be, my 10 gal. HF shop vac makes twice as much noise. Even when the spoil board has some cuts in it one person can't move a 2' X 4' pc of mdf, so other non porous materials should be held down even better, jmho. I would like to ask the manufacturer if a VFD was added would it hurt the blower to rev it up a little :eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::D if not then the RPMs could be adjusted up or down (I think I know the answer to that question already :().

JR

Did you buy it online or a local distributor?

Thanks

Nils I bought 4 of them from a guy in Washington state. They are new old stock in the original shipping crates. If anyone is interested I have 2 to sell and maybe 3. Remember they are 3 ph. 3 hp.

JR

I wouldn't sell the other 2 pumps - I would add them to the first one. Cheaper than a VFD :)

Gerald I'm not sure if adding another pump would increase vacuum ???

It definitely will when there is a movement of air because of leaks and seepages. Here is a graph on that pump:

http://www.ecompressedair.com/pdf/hi...B022GU_dwg.pdf

Attachment 1210

Let's say you had 120 cfm worth of leaks/seepages, therefore the vacuum "pressure" is 37" (water). If three pumps were pulling 40 cfm each, to give the 120 cfm for the leaks/seepages, the vacuum goes up to 85".

(Not exactly true, because the leaks at 85" are more than at 37" - but not that much more)

You might be tempted to put them in series, rather than parallel, but that is risky because the second one will be sucking hot air from the first.

Here is an attempt to explain it a bit further.

Gerald I had a copy of the sheet that graph came from, but I surly did not understand it :o .... thanks for the explanation. I speak every language except Greek and "that's Greek to me" (before someone puts up a challenge I will say it now, "that's Greek to me"):D:p

Plain english: Don't sell your "surplus" pumps!

The potential heat problem is no more. This is an inexpensive swimming pool filter and a 12 volt fan. Everything is running a lot cooler :). Dust is not a problem at all.

Cool! :cool:

That is a good fix,

I had the same idea, but instead of a swimming pool filter I found a Fram round air filter at wallmart that slides perfectly onto a 2-3/8" od tube. I already have my fan mounted on the inside of my box but I havent made my plate adapter yet for the filter. I have my computer in a seperate box, but will use the same setup you have there for my control board so my geckos stay cool.

It would be better to have positive pressure inside the cabinet. In other words, the fan should be between the filter and the cabinet. Then you don't have to worry so much about door seals.

JR , God might have taken lot of time to carve out your brains, good idea, I was thinking of a similar idea to fill our bedroom with dust free air as I have allergies to dust. and there you go applying it to the control panel for the mechmate

Cheers
Irfan

Marc and I have designed this 3 to 1 motor reduction. If time permits I will install one on the Z tomorrow and report how it does.

Now that is some sexy machinery....who has the vertical mill? Very nice work.