Painted!
 

I picked up the table from the painter today. It was too late in the day to take a pic of the table parts so heres a pic of the Y-car. I feel so much closer to finishing now thats its painted.

Attachment 4799

And some other painted parts
Attachment 4800

Actually, not all the parts are painted yet. Still have the Z axis parts and the E-chain brackets. I wanted to wait until i had the e-chain to make sure i installed it at the right height. Well it arrived today, so i should be able to finish off those over the weekend and get the final parts painted next week.

Attachment 4801

Will post more pics of the painted table over the weekend....

Electronics progress
 

I have nearly all the parts for my control electronics now. I'm going with a slighty different layout to Geralds standard. I'm having all the geckos mounted in a vertical pattern. This will allow the motor power supply to enter from the left, the control signals from the right, and the motor wires will run under the heatsink up to the top ofthe box where they will pass through grommets outside the box.

Attachment 4802

Its hard to see, but the black heatsink has fins running vertically. This arrangement will also allow more natural convection but i will probably add a fan anyway.

I'm also doing my earthing a little differently. Rather than making the heatsink the earth point, i'm going to put a brass stud through the control box as the earth point. This will allow me to connect the earth wires more easily both outside and inside the control box. So having an anodised heatsink is no problem.

P.S. Man is that a big capacitor! I calculated i needed a 30,000uF and it was cheaper for me to get a 47,000uF than two 15,000uF ones. I hope it doesn't blow fuses on powerup with the current inrush!?

Matt,
I would not worry about the 47000u cap. It will just filter a little better. :) You wont get that much more inrush from the 47 to the 30. Just size your fuse accordingly.

a little more...
 

Finished the final parts that need to be painted now. Here is my spider plate with v-wheels fitted. (yes, i know i still have to drill the hole for the gas strut)
Attachment 4904
and the other side.
How does everyone bent that little tab over? my bender said it was too small to bend without the metal cracking. was thinking of just taking on a small tab or using a screw instead.
Attachment 4905
and with the z plate in place (rhs stiffener not fitted). got a local machine shop we use at work to machine this for me.
Attachment 4906

My X axis echain is the wider of the two option that Gerald has designed for. To better support the echain (and to use what i had on hand) i re-used the offcuts of the rail angle instead of the 10mm rod.
Attachment 4908

I also purchased some enclosures for the control buttons. The enclosure is designed for the 22mm buttons and comes with the 3 holes predrilled. I don't like how the mushroom head button is so close to the pause button but theres nothing i can do about it now.:(
Attachment 4907

Didn't make as much progress as i'd hoped, but thats been the case since i started :D My deadline hasn't shifted though so the next two weeks will be busy!

Looks good Matt!

The bend of the small tab has no more chance of cracking than any other bend. I grab them in the vice and coax them 90 degrees with a hammer. If they really do crack (odd grade steel), they won't fall off - run a weld over the crack. Or, "pre-crack" them by grinding them 1/2 way through, bend, then weld.

Hi Matt,
Gerald beat me to it. Here is what I did to reinforce the crack.

Nice clear sharp pics - good going.

Hi Matt (matty Zee),

Where did you get that spindle from? Internet perhaps?
What did you pay for it? WOuld be nice to replace the 2700 usd spindle option from the states with a cheaper option.

Anton

Yeah, got it from an eBay store that someone mentioned, linearbearings2008 i think is his user name. Paid about AU$770 (US$620) delivered. But make sure you ask for it to be really well packaged, particularly around the water connections. I had heard of some spindles arriving with broken water connections caused in transit.

Making great progress Matt. It should be cutting soon.

Jayson.

power supply
 

I really hope it is cutting soon Jayson. can't wait! I moved the old router out of my shed tonight to make room for the MechMate. I will be moving the frame from my folks place later in the week so i can finish it off at home.

I had another job for the laser cutter and it came in under their minimum order so i added one of these to make use of the few extra dollars i was going to be charged either way.
Attachment 5083
I calculated my power supply needed to be 600VA and it was easier to find two 300VA transformers. This bracket allows me to attach both, and their fuses and the bridge rectifier neatly on the one bracket.
Attachment 5084
Unnecessary, maybe, but it effectively didn't cost me anything.

thats cool Matt!!!!

I am a bit worried about coupling the 2 transformers in parallel, unless their voltages have been closely matched. Best to check with the transformer suppliers if they are happy that you do this.

This aspect further discussed in Two transformers in parallel?

Thanks Buzz for your pics. The little tab bent over rather easy and only a very small crack appear at one side. I didn't bother welding it as its still got plenty of strength.
Attachment 5144

I promised pictures of the painted table but this is all i have at the moment. Its finally in my garage now and i have started aligning and shimming the x axis rails. The wooden blocks are used to hold a line of cotton as a straight guide to shim the rails. (i just sat the gantry on the rails for the photo)
Attachment 5145

I'm not sure how others attach the Y axis cable trays. 2mm wall is a bit thin to tap M6 holes. I know its not holding much weight but i decided to borrow the rivnut tool from work and installed some rivnuts.
Attachment 5146
And here is the cable tray installed
Attachment 5147

For those in Australia you may find as i did that the 3M tape is not easy to get hold of particularly in short lengths (<50m). Jayson put me onto Husky tapes and i called their local distributor. The stuff they have which is 'equivalent' to the 3M tape is Acribond A5200W. Its 2mm thick. Its is cut to the required width on order. So i got it 15mm wide to match my rack. It comes in a 15m roll. Cost ~$50 including shipping. Pretty pricey for tape but the prices i was getting for the 3M stuff was many times that.
Attachment 5148

1st class craftsmanship Matt. Beautiful.

Matt, a weld here would have been good:

Attachment 5163

Yeah, i knew you were going to pick that up :) There is only a tiny tack weld there but the other welds are pretty big and i'm pretty confident i won't have any issues there. Thanks for picking out all my errors! :p

Pulley reduction drives
 

While a belt reduction is not a new idea i thought i'd share pics of my pulley reduction drives. I got a friend of a friend to machine them for me from 1/2" 6061. Its only a 2.4:1 drive.

Pulleys and pinion bored to size and shaft. Still have to put flats on the shafts.
Attachment 5376

Machined plate. The counterbore for the motor is slotted by 3mm total (+/- 1.5mm) for belt tensioning.
Attachment 5374

Machined second plate. These were made to fit snuggly in the motor bracket plates.
Attachment 5375

The mounting screws protrude by a little over 2mm in the pics but i didn't have the spring washers fitted yet.
Attachment 5369

Attachment 5370

A with the pinion (not fastened yet, just sitting there)
Attachment 5371

Yes, the belt does clear the spacers :)
Attachment 5372

Attachment 5373

Well done Matt. Great pictures.
These should work well.

Jayson.

Great work Matt.:) Very professional. Thanks very much for sharing such detailed pictures.:) We are standing by to see how they work for you.

Lovely matt - that Alu will sure help a lot to dissipate the heat from the motors, tellin from experience!

Wow!!! I told my wife that I'm getting a complex just looking at the beautiful work some guys are able to turn out. 1st class stuff.

Hi Matt
I've been lurking in the background watching your progress "DAM FINE JOB"

Stan

nearly there!
 

I have been progressing quite well behind the scenes and hope to have to motors driving the table this weekend. Here are some update pics.

Here is one of my motor mounts attached to the gantry. Fits great.
Attachment 5622

I decided to mount my control box on the side at the end of the cable chain carrier. This allows a neat flow of the cable into the box. Normally its a no-no to mount cables into the top of a box, but this is an indoors project not subject to weather and the grommets are rated at IP68 anyway. In the photo you can see the 4 motor cables entering the box. The other two grommets are for control cables. below the isolator switch is a sealed USB connector which wil interface my smoothstepper to my control PC.

Attachment 5623

And i've got the z axis all assembled. Still have some fiddling to do to get it plumb.
Attachment 5624

and here is the spindle attached. Still need to attach the z axis spring.
Attachment 5625

As you can see, i still have to terminate my cables but once thats done, i'm pretty close to driving this thing around! Then once i sort out my spindle coolant circuit, i'll be making dust :D

Looking GOOD Matt.:) Good luck this weekend.

another pic
 

Thought i should add a overall shot...
Attachment 5626

Matt - very good!

does one of your friend has a excitech router?? i was reading the Excitech on the zone thread and think a name similar to your was mentioned?

Nice Matt, very nice.

Thanks guys.
Yeah, Rocket67 on CNCZone has his business only a couple of minutes from my work. He bought his Excitech about 18 months ago. He's a very nice and generous guy. Why do you ask?

Looking good Matt. Good luck with the first cuts. :)