Please don't think I was discounting a webcam as an option...I ask the questions because I'm interested in it as an option. Definitely has the cool factor in addition to being useful.

Valid point on the use of eye protection around lasers.

Webcam option has its place. but I'm just too lazy to go through the trouble to install one.
Laser cross-hair is just so easy to implement. have a look at my concoction, its as primitive as I can get & still do what it suppose to do.
Its really a great way to recover a loose step moment; reset you datum position & get back to work in a jiffy. Fix hole method is just too tedious with too little accuracy benefit.

How 'bout I start with the 2010 screen set, THEN, worry about the other options as I find needs. Too many things to think about.

Look like a good plan.
You will find out what else you really need in no time.

I think its better to learn one or two things first then build from there. I do appreciate the input though, food for thought.

1st you gotta get familiar with holding down your work without crashing & other hair pulling accidents.

What type of hold down are you using Ken? I see a lot of cam type clamps (on the side) and of coarse the screw method. I feel more comfortable with screws but may not be practical in the long run.

Vacuum hold down; simple F-clamps for small pieces; when all others fail, double sided tape.

Just get your hands dirty. Play with MM & you will see the light.

I love double sided tape for wood carving (by hand), keeps my knives sharp and no nicks in the blades, takes way too long to sharpen. Vacuum hold down is eventually what I'll resort to, but paying for Aspire first is a biggie.

Aspire is money very well spend.
There are more than a few ways to hold-down, don't take my word for it, u gotta find whats best for your particular needs & wants.

My 2 cents based on almost 20 years of using big industrial routers in high production situations.

Set up your machine to use pop up locating pins (pneumatic cylinders) or fixed fences for locating parts.

Home the machine, place your parts against the pins or fence and go. I almost never need to zero my X and Y axis. I'm basically running in machine coordinates.

For one off jobs that require something different, you can quickly cut a locating fixture.

I fully agree Ken.

Gerry, the pop-ups sound good but the basic fence will probably do to start or at least a fixture of some sort. I've got a job that will require several offsets because of the quantity and the cut out part has to be flipped. This may end up being a continuous run of several thousand a year. I'm assuming the same would apply.

Aren't the pop-ups used for indexing then drop back down after vacuum hold-down takes over?

Tom, sorry for such a long post.

I used nothing more than tee nuts with a drill pattern throughout the spoilboard to make the a quick holddown grid. I recommend only aluminum clamps as your cutters may survive the impact and no sparking. I have never screwed into my spoilboard. This was fast and inexpensive. I am still seeking the end solution for my own holddown needs.

The pointers everyone here will give are good (great is something relative to an individual situation but not suited to every one process). If you try to implement every idea or even just some of them, you will never cut or use the machine enough to get a true feel of the direction you need your completed build to venture.

Your view right now may not be the same as the one in the future. Blindly following the creations of others does not create a great thing. Studying it, reverse engineering it, learning its weaknesses and strengths then mold it, form it and combine it and then you have something great. That is DIY to me. I have worked maintenance for many years but it was an older friend that once told me to listen to everyone and form my own conclusion. I find my best information from the person who has never touched that machine before and not always the most experienced. Ignorant does not mean stupid and lazy does not mean worthless, a lazy person will find the fastest way to complete a job so they have more time all while retaining there job. These people tend to make us mad. But we should be mad at ourselves because they figured it out before we did.

In conclusion, button up the remaining open items you have but cut stuff in the process and enjoy your new machine that you made. That is something no one can take away from you.

Amen!

If we had Likes on this forum, you would be getting one Pete, brilliant post!

I am a bit Lazy though.:o

As would you. Bruce.
Profound.

Great post Pete, that can only be the works of someone who had been there.
#ps,
I still have no idea why limit switches is needed on the machine other than for safety regulation compliance...

Kind of agree, Ken.
I have them, ran almost a year before I hooked them up, Never ran off the table prior to or since hooking them up.
HOWEVER, some guys building a MM have never ran a CNC before, and some crazy things can happen when you hit start for the first time....

Personally, I don't trust myself enough to do without them. I operate on little sleep and when at my worst I get sloppy. Later on I may have a different view. I also look at it as another ability it should have, the same with z plate zeroing and probing, all of which I can operate without. But why should I? The more it does for me, the less I'm required to think when I can't, right or wrong. We all have different reasons for what we put on our machine.

I want it all...

A limit switch is the safety to save the machine from unnecessary forces created by mistakes. It allows the software to protect the machine from destroying itself. Hard stops are for the extreme failure where software will not prevail. On larger machines, the forces are tremendous. Even a large cast iron beast will bend with enough crashes. With those machines, the thermals or overload protection build into the drives will stop the machine. Limits are a good thing. The Mechmate design in itself is strong but the forces are enough to cause problems. You should hook up your limits in my honest opinion.

Pete, hence I said for safety compliance... :)
I'm still too lazy to hook them limit switches up...
Maybe I'll have them in my upcoming Plasma table which is using LinuxCNC with MESA 5i25 + 7i76 cards. Apart from 5 channel step/dir ports & encoders, it has 32 i/o pins... must find something to fill the voids... :p

How about a limit switch or 2...lol:D

4 limit switches with dedicated pin each :D

Alright, today played with Aspire...starting to get a feel for this stuff... I'm likin' it!:D

Surfaced my spoil board tonight and found out the hard way, that dust collection is most imparative. Dust everywhere, entire shop, lots to clean up in the morning :( I need the hose and to devise an overhead track system. Did get a roll-around computer enclosure (its yellow and big) not sure if I'll paint it and use or sell it (too big maybe) I just don't have the space, heck I didn't have the space for the MM but there it is, all 7' X 14' of it.

Dust collection is very important. Get it.

LOL! Can I say "Told you so"
At least tie a shop vac to it for now.

I just didn't realize how fast it was producing it, I had to use a shop broom to get it off the table and shop fans trying to blow it outside but only managed blowing dust in a whirl wind. Yep, it was like a scene out of a comedy. :o I've cut several parts that didn't produce anything like surfacing did, I couldn't keep up with it and I was only running at 400ipm (next is 800ipm and a lighter pass at 0.025"). Now I can adjust the z perpendicular to the table and run it again. Ken I can see it now, the shop vac being dragged back and forth accross the table, lol.:)

Welcome to Dust City, population unknown.
I hope to move soon, possibly to Cleanairsville.:)

Population...that's been well covered before. 3" deep.

I'm digging out a hose this morning and make a really rough dust shoe by hand until I can find one I like. Are there dxf's of shoes on the forum I wonder...

Oh well, time to get back out there.

Yes there are, Tom...
I based my dust foot on the DXF in post 25 of this thread, originally designed by Marc Shales.
I modded it to have interchangeable strip brush holders.
With three lengths of strip brushes to choose from, based on bit length and material, it works pretty good.
http://mechmate.com/forums/showthread.php?t=526

A side note...A friend gave my son a violin that was given to him by a family friend when he was 9 or so (40+ years ago). The violin was acquired back in Cremona Italy in 1945 after the war and kept to later pass on to someone else (my friend). In 1974 the violin was refinished (Bad, I know) by a hack luthier and is in pretty bad shape now. Turns out it was made in 1673 by a guy that was taught at the same school 20 some odd years prior to Stradivarius. Apparently because there are no Strads left to be had, collectors are looking for violins made by makers of the same school before and after Strad. We don't know it was a copy or not, but because we know the recent history before anyone was looking for this maker's work its most likely not a copy.

The cool factor: In recent years (2006) a violin by this particular luthier sold for 97,000 euros (but was in great condition).

The not so cool factor: Our little find is going to cost $30k in restoration and certification.

It will sit on the shelf until my son gets through college, priorities you know.

Thanks Darren, I'll take a look see

Nice story Tom...sounds like that violin could put your son through college!
Mark

No, only a swift kick in the arse and a firm hand will get a teen motivated. lol:D Yeah, it'd be nice to pay for college but Julian has been playing violin for 12 of his 16 years and is exceptional, I'm thinking graduation present.

LOL...yeah, sounds like you have a family heirloom for generations to come!
Wonder if anyone has made a violin with a MM? :D
Mark

Tom,

Managing dust can be frustrating. Get something on the table now that you can build upon. Never stop improving.

A few tips I learned...

Learn from other professions, like managing drywall dust. Mist the air with water from a spray bottle. The water droplets capture the fine dust, start the decaying process and drop it to the ground. Do it before you sweep, after you sweep and then mop. Mop often to manage the dust.

The dust shoe has to be large enough to allow the super high speed particles to stay within the dust shoe and not be pushed threw the brush.

Balance the draft throw the shoe, you need air velocity to allow the dust to convey. Totally enclosing around the spindle to the spoilboard with the dustshoe slows the air velocity and dust particles will escape but too much opening and the same will happen.

This ties to the previous. Manage the exposed openings under the dust shoe, add a removable leaf to the table so the shoe will not be hanging over the front or back edge of the table if it does so. Close in the sides of the spoilboard so it does not happen there as well.

Use at least a 6" main duct and flex and reduce only right before the dust shoe. Use a minimum 2hp high quality dust collector if that is all you can afford. Pentz recommends 5hp for a small shop. I used less but it is only tied to the Mechmate and I plan to upgrade later.

Old style aluminum tinsel (not the new plastic crap) works well when wrapped around the main trunk to control static electricity if you use S&D 2729. If you don't have any, fold up aluminum foil into 2" width strips and spiral wrap it around the pipe and tie it to ground.

Build a Pentz cyclone when funds are available. It is easier than building a Mechmate and works with amazing results. No dust makes it to the filters.

Rule of thumb, If you can smell it, the dust particulates are in the air. The particulate has to be carried through the air and land in your nasal passages in order for you to smell it. Since I upgrade to the Pentz design, I do not smell the wood anymore when it is cutting.

I hope this helps. In order to not pollute the thread, PM me if you have a lot of questions?

I'm sure there have been. I know I would like to make atleast one on the MM. The wood for a violin is so costly, the last one I made 10 years ago, the sitka spruce blank (had 60-65 growth rings/inch) 5"w x 14.25"L x 1"t was $186 (it came with certification and serial numbers) and the grade 6a maple back was in the same ballpark price for similar size. You definitely don't want to experiment with that kind of cost involved. These things are best left to touch and feel and mostly to sound they produce. As you know each piece of wood is different.

Pete, I definitely intend to build a Bill Pentz cyclone when I can find several things, time, money and completion of some of my metalworking pursuits. Could wrapping a bare wire around the pipe then connect to earth ground be efficient enough?