Smart thinking, I may have to borrow this idea. :)

So last night I heard about an auction happening today of "diy" tools and equipment and after looking over their web page I came across this:

Attachment 14700

Doesnt look DIY now does it, snagged it for R3700.00 (about $340) - 5.5Kw motor 380V 3 phase, 30 kpa, (I think its 400m3 /hour)

now to work out how to rig up a vacuum table :confused: :eek:

Oh and for good measure, I got this one too, less than 1 Kw but should be good for vacuum bagging or such like (only paid R650.00 for it - $59) single phase unit, very good German quality whereas the big one is Chinese.

Attachment 14701

Sweeeeet!!

It seems you ran across a very good deal, cool! Rub some of that good luck off on me :)

Nice Alan.

The 5.5Kw looks suitable for vacuum holddown foir MM

I certainly hope so Ken, after doing some reading I was starting to be concerned that it may not be big enough...

For the price, no harm trying.... I doesn't cost a limp even if it doesn't work perfectly.

Vacuum pump and other stories...
 

I have also been playing with physics and vacuums recently. Built myself a vacuum generator/pump following Joe's woodworker plans but replaced the PVC tubes with a recycled truck vacuum brake vessel.

Attachment 15164
Looks a little bit like a pig, so have named it "varkie" which is Afrikaans for little pig. :)

Attachment 15165
The main reason I needed it was for this job, torsion box table tops, 24x, 1,8m x 600mm. There is now ways I would have been able to do this without the vacuum bags. Not enough space or budget for a full size press, and when I'm done it packs away in a drawer.

Attachment 15166
At only half setting, -50 Kpa (about 15 inches of mercury) there was more than enough pressure to get squeeze out all around.

On a more CNC related note I received my "standby" spindle from China this week. Quite a bit pricier than the first one as the Rand has fallen even further..again :mad: and the shipping has jumped up a lot. The one on the machine is starting to make a bit of a noise so want to be prepared with a standby in case I have to do a bearing service/upgrade and cant afford to have the machine down for any length of time.

Good idea on both counts. The vacuum and the spindle. The spindle bearing replacement is not that complicated but finding reasonably priced bearings can be.

Awesome work, Alan. How much vacuum are you using?

He stated he was running about 15 inches of mercury which is about where I run (15-19)

Aha. Good eye. I completely missed that.

And for those of us that think in other units, 15" Hg is about 7.5 PSI, 0.5 atmospheres, or 51000 paschals, or 204 inches of water. -- these are not exact, but nice rough guesstimates. This is just numbers to help others feel how much pressure it really is being applied. I know looking these up helped me, I thought others might be interested.

Pay attention young Salyer, no sleeping in class please! :)

For people not familiar with vacuum, a conversion table

Maple Clock
 

I have a mate with a 60th birthday coming up next week and he is seriously into his rugby (you know that game that looks similar to US football but without the namby pamby body armour and with real blood :) ) so I decided to make him a clock out of maple with the logos of our local team.

The front is domed to reduce the thickness at the edges to make it less clunky and to try resemble a rugby ball.

Rough machining with a 6mm cutter was 25 min, final machining with a 6mm ball nose, 0.4mm step over was 2 hours. Logos, numbers and stitch line engrave with a 60 deg cutter was about 8 min, center drill and cut out was about 2 min. The rebate and hanger slot on the back was about 10 min. (this was done first, along with registration holes in the waste area for dowels so that when I flipped it over the rebate would be in the right place - matching registration holes in the table surface as well)

The ball nose left quite a rough surface on the maple but it did note take long with 150 grit paper on the orbital sander to smooth it out. In anticipation of the sanding I set the start depth of the engraving 0.25 mm into the surface when projecting the toolpath onto the 3D model, that ensured that I did not lose the fine detail when sanding.


Attachment 15201
Width 500mm, height 300mm, thickness 30mm (I don't think the wavy hands work, but they are the only ones I had on hand right now, will take a ride into cape Town next week and get something more appropriate)

Attachment 15202
trying to show the domed front...

Attachment 15203
maybe easier to see from this angle.

Attachment 15204
Hanging slot on the back and recess for the mechanism (the steps are to make it easier to adjust and change battery)

Attachment 15205
Its his wife's birthday as well so made them a personalised wine glass hanger.

I was originally planning to darken the text with some burnt umber acrylic paint but am now in two minds as I think the slightly darker lacquer in the endgrain of the engraving shows the text easily enough - any opinions?

Very nice work Alan. I personally like the wine glass hanger the way it is, but either way it is a great gift.

Very handsome Alan....nothing to by shy either :p
In my opinion, as a solid wood guy, I ‘m all in favour to leave the maple in its natural state as you did, It make the text highlighted in a nice contrast manner.
Great to have you as a buddy ;)
Love it !

As a fan of the gentleman's game, well done with the clock.
Crisp and clean.
I will put it on my to do list.:)

Nice job Alan!

(Do you know about Cape Watchmakers' own parking bays?)

Thanks guys.

Hi Gerald, yes thankfully, parking anywhere else in that area of town is always problematic.

Beautifully done.

Machine doing crazy things.
 

Hi guys, need some help here. The machine has started doing some weird moves. See attached pic. That was supposed to be circular text on a round disk with a recessed centre. As you can see the text looks fine on the first one, but from there it just gets progressively worse until what is supposed to be the profile cut is completely wonky. I am not at the machine, my foreman sent this to me. Apparenly there is no slop or loose mechanical connections.
I suspect it could be the pc giving up the ghost or a software issue (mach 3)

Has anybody experienced any thing similar?

Usually something simple.

Mechanical.
Check all grub screws on pinions and reduction drives.

Electrical.
Check all wiring and connections to motors and circuit boards.
Dust in computer and control box.
Static, throw a bucket of water on the earth spike.
Parallel port cable.
Probably think of some more later.
Good luck.

Check the z axis eccentric vee bearings too.

Mechmate 11 is now sorted, the one thing that I asked my operator to check (as I wasn't at the machine at the time) was for movement on the pinions, of course he assured me it was perfect...well it wasn't. The two grub screws fixing the driven pulley to the pinion shaft of the belt reduction were completely loose :o. two minute repair, after spending 30 minutes checking all connections, blowing out the electrical cabinet, cleaning intake filters etc etc... :( (at least the machine got a good service)

That's a solution that I like to hear, simple and cheap.:D

It just goes to show once again what a robust design the MechMate is. I noticed some posts earlier in the week on an FB group questioning the design of the MM and the fact that nothing much has changed over the years - thats a good thing, constant changes mean constant new problems to solve. The MM design is stable and well proven, dont fix what aint broke (unless you broke it yourself :) )
Sure if you want to spend the cost on fancy expensive linear rails and recirculating ball nuts and screws go ahead but its really not necessary. My machine has been running virtually problem free since 2008 and whatever problems have come up have been simple and easy to fix. I know for a fact that expensive bought machines (whether from Europe or the East) will require a lot more expensive maintenance and call outs from an even more expensive technician and boy when something fails it costs big bucks. Some years back a NUM controller on an SCM machine at work failed, the repair (not replacement!) cost more than my entire MM cost me.:eek:

I agree. Based on what I'm reading about the latest DIY CNCs, I wouldn't change the mechanical design at all. Some electronics and software will always be in a state of constant change and that is to be expected. I probably don't run mine as hard as others do here but I'm very pleased with it so far. Glad to hear your problem was sorted as easy as it was. It makes one stop to think about checking the basics first.

Hi guys :-) ... same old story on the v-wheels against linear guides :-) I remenber and understood what Gerald pointed out once ... Linear guides are much more complicated to mount, if you don't get them perfecly aligned on 3 axis they are going to work badly, I think he told that you need a perfect base (rectified - grinded) to make them working properly or at least a lot of patience :-) ... well somthing like that :o

MM 11 has died!
 

MechMate #11 has died - a fiery and ignominious death. Fire destroyed half the factory including the MechMate - I may be able to salvage the side rails but everything else is twisted and warped or just plain gone :eek: :mad: Suspect it could have been a carelessly discarded cigarette butt. Definitely not electrical as we had no active supply to these premises for over 4 years now already so running on generators, when the factory is closed the gennies are off so no possible power.

Attachment 16521
Collapsed roof over the MechMate

Attachment 16522
Somewhere under there used to be No 11

Attachment 16523
Gantry has sagged from the heat

Attachment 16524
That was once the control panel, only thing recognizable are the transformers

Attachment 16525
The remains of a very expensive Yaskawa inverter

Attachment 16526
Y car

Attachment 16527
I thought stepper motors were built to handle the heat?

Attachment 16528
The only thing left of the computer and monitor cabinet

Attachment 16529
Dell GX280 - wonder if it will boot up?

Attachment 16530
Sagging gantry and cross beams, maybe the sides are still useable

Attachment 16531
The only proof that it was once a proud MechMate

So sad. Lots of heat. Looks like it burned for a while. Thanks for eliminating electrical as the cause.

That's terrible. Good luck with the new build.

So sad and painful, was the Mechmate insured?

Noooo.
A lot of wood make a lot of hot.

Sorry Mate !!
 

Ya, I join the "so sad" group Mate :eek:
Been a while since I sneak peek here....and, sorrow to see this post of yours
Your beast was one who has inspire me to build back then !
great gratitude for all your help back then, thks Mate, wish I could help now !!

Aside this Alan, truly Hopping you not too affected by all this chaos in your neck of the globe.....:eek::confused:

PS....as ANYONE heard or got new from or about Gerald & family ??...are they OK through the chaos !!

Be safe, wishing health & serenity, amicalement, Robert ;)