Hi Pete

Just checked back to the MM site and you have been doing some really great precision work.
You are making me feel lazy esp with the dust collection :).

Regards
Ross

Ross, if it was not for your assistance I would not be where I am as of today. So the credit is shared, friend, and thank you for the compliment.

Getting ready to cut out material required for a spare touch probe.

Have been looking at making one of these also. Spring loaded plotter pen

Very interesting, Pete. Keep us informed on the plotter pen, will ya?

New SS touch probe. This one I opted for all stainless steel. Took a while to find all the pieces at a reasonable price. My aim with this one is to resist rusting. I have used the other one quite a bit since it was made. I bought enough components to make 2 originally with the hopes if it worked well to make a backup.

https://farm3.staticflickr.com/2933/...f29f9442_c.jpg
Cutting out Bearing Spacer
https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3893/...e2a7187d_c.jpg
Partially Complete

Pete #98. Sorry for getting off topic but I was reading one of your post from two years ago (June 2012) and was hoping you would share your experience with the set screws you used to level your X beams. I am at that stage and my X beams are a bit higher on the inside then the outside. The set screw sounds like the perfect answer to this C channel problem but I was wondering how it's worked for you over the long term? Have they moved on you? Did you use locktite or something similar to hold them in place? Any advice would be appreciated.
John

John, the set screws have not moved that I have noticed. You said "to level your X beams", I used it to correct the X rails and not the main beam. So the rest of this I will apply to what I did on correcting the X rail tilt. My main beam was welded to the legs and the crossbearers are bolted to them. I did not want to interfere with the mating surface of the bottom of the main beam to the crossbearer so I elected to correct the problem on the top of the main beam by jacking the rail into the correct position. The forces are also less at the rail as compared to the bottom of the main beam. I did lose some Y travel since my C channel was bent in but I designed a little oversized so it did not hurt it in the end. I originally was going to Loctite the screws but did not in case I had to move them later. Anything under 1/4" and Loctite 242 and 290 is considered permanent. With the draw down from the hold down bolts on the rails it locks the set screw threads down rather well. If you use set screws to level out the rail, the thickness of the rail would be the maximum size of the set screw to use to get maximum holding power out of the thread. I also would recommend if you are using standard thread and not metric to use fine thread to increase the amount of load the threads can bare. In my case, the distance left from the head of the bolt to the edge of the rail dictated the size of the set screw which became a M5. If you are using the set screws to level the beam, I cannot say if they will work their cup point into the steel over time from dynamic forces or not. I hope this helps.

Buy the right set screws, they come with points flats reverse cones nylon tips balls etc. buy some flat ones ( or grind the tip )
Loctite could (imo should) be used, ( use a thread locker like 243 not a glue like 603 ) and when you need to get them out, just use a pencil torch on the setscrew for short while, anything over 100 degrees will kill the loctite bond and allows for removal. Even 603 joints can be released this way ( but need more heat )
Don't use the lately popular ball nose hex keys when you remove them, use good old fashioned straight tipped ones, as you will strip the heads easily with the ball, they are only intended for turning in an angle before you actually tighten bolts down.

How is it working out besides rusting ? Good accuracy reliability of the switching components ?

Fox,
The original is working great. I cannot complain even a bit. For an example, I had to clean up the V carve on the goat sign (midway through the painting process). I set up the location in the original orientation for cutting. Used it to touch off the surface and off the other touch probe for tooling to find my offset. Used 5 distinct points to touch off to rotate the round sign back to the original XY datam. Worked like a charm. Without it, that would have been almost impossible. Now, is it a Renishaw or equivilant, No. But the DRO always stops at the exact same point when touching off from the side and for wood, I feel that is more than accurate enough.

Finally got my Frame World EX-2 aluminum for the bedway to mount the tailstock on. They are the length of the MechMate bed. Now I need to calculate out the C3x5 I need to buy to modify the cross bearers. Still have not worked out the removable section of the spoilboard yet. I have a shed to finish if the rain would ever quit.

Starting early.

Cool.

Pete you always amaze me with your knowledge and generosity.
Appreciate what you have contributed to this forum!

Keep up the keeping up :-)

I'll 2nd that ;)

Will try

Just finished this up. Based on the post I made earlier

https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3905/...603060eb_c.jpg
CNC plotter pen from design found online at instructables.com. , on Flickr

Looks good Pete, please let us know how it performs. I bought one of Kyles but have yet to test it out....

Bruce,
I will. Just finished my year long shed project so I can now move back to the machine.

This is a post about the Gecko 203 Vampire drive and its performance. Where I work at we use industrial AC drivers. I am not found of AC drives of this nature but it is a fairly well known name in industrial applications. Using the drive with their stepper (1100 in oz) controller with the Oriental Motor SCX11 controller, it is used to make adjustments for a process. The driver works great with the only hang up being with lose of power it will fault and takes a 20 sec power off to clear. The maximum turns per sec with the drive around 20 r/m before stalling. We have some machines where they already have a 80 V power supply (67 VDC actual) that the original dc drive is no longer available. So I suggested we try a Gecko drive. We wired it up and tested it with the Oriental Motor controller. The spec sheet for the motor says 50 r/m is capable. With the Gecko, it works fine. Multiple runs of cw and ccw at 50 rev/s without one hiccup. While this has little to do with the Mechmate it does say that the DC powered applications like ours with a Gecko drive will run well and can be pushed hard. It was great to see.

https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3858/...468db1c3_c.jpg
Plot Pen Test , on Flickr

http://img.youtube.com/vi/UICtCybNo40/0.jpg
YouTube Video

Looks great Pete...can I assume you give the plotter pen set-up thumbs up?
Mark

Yes. It does work well. I was just saying that I can make a large banner with the different color pens. The only down side is they are only available in green, red, blue and black.

Yeah, I am sure more colors would be nice. Silly question, do you just install that in the 1/2" collet of your spindle/router?
Mark

Yes. It is held in the 1/2" collet. I do use tape to keep the spindle from free spinning.

I wonder what mods it would take to be able to use Sharpies? Pretty much unlimited color range :)
I think this is on my to-do list! Thanks for posting.
Mark

Sharpies are more tapered. Much more complicated to hold true. I started with the same thought. There is a 0.040" taper on those.

Figures, it wouldn't be that easy. Did you by any chance look into other pens/marker brands? That might not be tapered and have more colors? I assume you considered adapting the holder to accommodate the sharpie too? Just thinking out loud...like you said, very nice add on if you could add colors.
Mark

Looks like Dick Blick has some markers that are not tapered (looks to be about 1/2" diameter) of course it doesn't say, broad tip on one end and fine tip on the other. 196 colors too?
Will be fun to investigate!
Mark

I would like the addition of the fine point to use with the ultra fine point.

The design does allow for almost 1/4" of travel of the marker before bottoming out in the spindle. The next option would be to make a holder to mount on the front of the clamp mount to hold larger pens. However the form of the marker needs to be as cylindrical as possible to hold accuracy for the movement up and down. That is if we stayed with the spring design.

Interesting, did you build the instructables as per design or did you make any changes?
Is the only limiting factor the "pen" diameter? I guess in theory, a smaller diameter pen, could be put in a enlarging collet first

I followed the theory of construction but used a little different components. I drilled and bored out steel for the chamber and lock ring. I used an smaller diameter spring and rewound it around a 1/2" rod to make the spring then cut to length. The closest Lowes or Home Depot to me is 50 miles away. Sometimes it is more convenient to make the part as to buy it.

As far as the limiting factor being the pen diameter, not really, but is does need to fit in the 1/2" collet. The cylindrical shape is the more important part. If your holder was mounted elsewhere on the Z, it would not matter if it was 1-1/2" as long as when the marker is true the length it is in the tube to limit the amount of variance at the point of contact of the tip.

My Depot is right down the road :) Will have to check it out.
I'll give it some thought...and sleep on it :D
Thanks again for the info. Have a good night.
Mark

http://www.rockcliffmachine.com/foru...iy-plotter-pen

this cute little gem allows for the plotter pen to caster about the pen point while being dragged along.
the nice part, albeit crude...it's cheap and you can have all sorts of pen diameters and colors at the ready.

That is a nice find Sean. I may have to try that when I get the machine back up and running. I had a mishap that damaged one of the bearings inside the spindle. I have already disassembled it to see what was involved. Had to make some custom wrenches to ease the process. The bearings inside are sealed which was a little surprising considering the speed. I will contact SKF and Timken tomorrow to see what they have to offer. I used a dial indicator after reassembling it and it was dead on. But the audible noise is most definitely a bearing.

I forgot they actually sell the unit they have up on the forum.
Thanks Fox!

When I saw your link I remembered seeing that somewhere and saving the link for future ref a while ago. Was thinking of building it someday. I reminded me of a drag knife, and I was thinking of combining the two, as in one tool multipurpose .. Drag knife, pen, crease wheel in one kinda extravaganza.. Mm

...I have seen a similar fixture that had a pounce wheel on it for garment pattern tracing too.