John the jig is your "right of passage" ......welcome to the group. It needs a name (JR grinding skate)

Thanks JR. You are one of those "giants" the rest of us stand on the shoulders of. I appreciate the welcome.:)

I like your idea of the saw jig being my right of passage.:D I rather not have to burn up a grinder...but we'll see.

On the other hand, given the price of the saw, I seriously doubt that the saw jig will ever be popular.

Regards,
John

Hi,
Your controller looks good. Good going, from now on you are entering the best part of the show, enjoy every minute. No BBB leave it , its nice to have trim clean faces, but please be a part of us with atleast one Big 'B' :) . The cutting machine with the Jig looks to do a better job. How long did it take to complete cutting your 1 'X' rail because with our ordinary hand grider with cutting wheel took at least 30 to 45 minutes for 10 feet.

Vishnu

Vishnu

Vishnu,

Thanks for the remarks.

No Beard, no Bike...what's the third B, Beer? I'll have a beer!:D Honestly, I couldn't find the reference to BBB in the Forum. I have a distant memory of the discussion, but since one can't search the forum on a 3 letter word, I looked around a little bit and gave up. Let me know, what the 3rd B is.

As for cutting down the rails to 28 mm, it took about 5 minutes to cut the longer piece which in my case is 152". It took less than an hour to cut down 40 feet of rail, including using the belt sander to smooth the saw marks. So far, I'm very pleased with the saw. I also used the saw to cut the 2" X 4" rectangular tube for the Gantry. Worked like a charm. I wanted to make sure the end of the tube was square, so I clamped a guide to the tube and held the saw against the guide. The result was square and had no burr.

Regards,
John

Boep :) I think (beer belly)

Update...finished grinding the rails. Whew, that's a job!:eek: Glad it's done! It took roughly 8 hours of grinding. I ground 40' of rail.

First of all, the $29.95 grinder got the job done and is still RUNNING. I had a scare about half way through. I adjusted the bolts to cut deeper and I set the cut too deep. So I was grinding too aggressively. The grinder started to smoke!:( But, it must NOT have "released the Magic Smoke," because it kept working. I let it cool down, reset the depth and worked with the grinder the rest of the day.

Lesson's learned:

1. Don't be too aggressive on the grinding, it smokes grinders.

2. I found that I got the most controlled grinding by letting the grinding wheel PULL the skate along the rail. My job was to prevent the skate from going too fast and thus skipping a part of the grind and holding the grinder down on the rail. When I pushed the skate against the direction of the grinding wheel, I got more aggressive cutting, but it was NOT uniform...and it was HARD WORK! Just be patient and let the grinding wheel do the hard work.:D

3. Also, as someone else already mentioned, by letting the grinder move quickly across the rail, everything stays cooler. Don't rock it back and forth. The grinder stays cooler because it's not working as hard. The rail stays cooler because you're not sitting in one place grinding away. Also, I suspect, but don't know, that since you are moving quickly down the rail, the grinder is constantly encountering and throwing off "cooler" chips and just like in other kinds of cutting, bigger, cooler chips are a good thing.

Question: I noticed after finishing the grinding that a light hand sanding of the ground surfaces removed the grinder marks making the rails look more like they had been "machined." I haven't seen any mention of this idea...at least I don't remember it. Is there a problem with lightly hand sanding the rails? I don't think it would change the dimensions at all.

Regards,
John

Thanks, Heath. I think I've got that "B" covered.:D

Regards,
John

John,
Yes, me too I fear. :o

The light hand sanding is perfect. We sometimes even drag a file across a rail that is roughly milled (draw filing). Strictly, this does change a dimension somewhere, but by such a tiny amount that you won't notice it. Bolting the rails down makes much bigger changes in the dimensions than a bit of sanding. The smoother the rail, the cleaner it stays.

On the BBB nonsense; I don't do bikes or beer. I thought it started as "big blue beast"?

I think my BBB was the first... Big Blue Brakpan.....bike and boep came along after that.

Enjoy;)

Thanks, Gerald. I'll finish the rails with a bit of hand sanding.

As for BBB, I must admit that my "beer belly" comes from too much plain ole food, not beer.:D

Kobus, I think I'll leave the BBB to the "experts":rolleyes: and get back to the MechMate.

Regards,
John

And I missed all the fun.;) Come on guys...share!:)

But, I did get the Y-clamp strips cut and drilled and the Gantry welded. Also got the Cross Bearers cut to length.

Now for a bit about my personal status. I'm going to have a "trial separation" from my MechMate. About 10 days.:(

No seriously, my wife and I will be in College Station, Texas, about 100 miles from here, for about 10 days. We're helping our son and daughter-in-law with some re-modeling of their house.

So, since I can't take the MechMate along, I be taking a break from the build:(:(:(

However, I will be checking in with the Forum.:D


Regards,
John

Put a webcam on your 'baby' before you leave, so you can check in. When I was there 3C BBQ had good brisket, and occasionally GREAT BBQ beef ribs.

Enjoy a mess for me!

3C may be gone by now, it was 35 years ago!

Jack,

Not much to "webcam" yet. A piece here and piece there, but I'll keep that in mind.

As for Barbecue, Rudy's rules now-a-days. Actually the LOML, Dee, does a great job with a brisket...we're taking one along for the occasion.:D

Regards,
John

Hello John,
Great idea for the rails, I'll cut mine that way. One less thing to think about. Enjoy the "Vacation".

Tim

John,

I have some questions about your dust collection system that you talked about on Pablo Peu's build site.

That looks like a Harbor Freight dust collector with a Wynn Enviornmental 9L300BL or 9L300NANO filter and a home built drop out box sitting in front of the dust collector.

Which filter are you using? Is that correct about the drop out box (not sure that is the right name for it - ment to collect large pieces). If that is not a drop out box are you having a problem with larger pieces getting caught in the filter.

How long have you been using the dust collector and how does it work.

I am thinking about buying the same system. I like that the filters have a long life and can be cleaned and reused.

Thanks

Nils,

Very perceptive.:D You are very close.:) It's a Grizzly DC, but their DC is very close to the Harbor Freight DC. I did note that the sheet metal used by the Grizzly model is a little thicker than that used in the Harbor Freight model.

Here's a link where I describe the modifications that I made to the DC based on Phil Thien's "cyclone" baffle. It works great. I recommend it as a "cheap" alternative to a true "Cyclone."

What you see in front of the DC in my picture is a 5" tee. My DC ducts are buried under my workshop slab. The downward pointing part of the tee is connecting to the under-slab DC ducts. The upward pointing part of the tee is actually plugged off and is for a future duct to my 24" thickness sander.

Nils, if you are not planning to build a Bill Pentz cyclone and you are planning to add a Wynn filter to your DC, I would recommend the Wynn 35A as discussed by dbhost in the link above.

I'm happy to provide additional detail if you would like.

Regards,
John

John,

When Harbor Frieght puts them on sale, I will get back with you though I think you write up is very good. If this works good enough I won't buy a cyclone.

I'm back in town and working on the MechMate. I've made some progress on the table in the area of cross bearers, main beams and legs.

One picture I want to share with the Forum for anyone considering a metal cutting saw. I got my oxy-acetylene rig all ready to cut the remaining angles on the main beams (I don't have a metal bandsaw). I only had the steel yard make one cut. I was concerned that they would mess up a second cut on each beam, wrong length, wrong direction...something. Plus each angle cut was $12.00.

Well before cutting the beam (it's C8 X 13.75 #) with the oxy-acetylene and doing the inevitable clean-up, I though I'd see if the metal cutting saw was up to the task.

Here's the result:

Attachment 3664

The beam on the left was cut by the steel yard. The one on the right by the metal cutting saw. I was amazed. The saw depth of cut is 2.5 inches. The beam depth at the web is 2.25 inches.

Regards,
John

Im amazed also...I cant wait to put my hands on one of those, I went to a dealer here in Mexico, but the price here is about 500dlls...a bit to much :mad:, Ill wait for a good deal on ebay or amazon maybe...and add this baby to my tool collection ;)

John,

You might be hearing from me after the 13th of March. Harbor Frieght is putting the 2HP dust collector on sale for $179.99 instead of $249.99. Which is an excellent price. I will start working on the modifications to the collector then.

Nils,

Great! Glad to help anyway I can.

Have you figured out how you're going to support the duct over the table? I've been thinking about it a little, but haven't done any real work on it. I kind of like Koning's hanger design. Also, having the entry at the middle of the side of the table is interesting.

Regards,
John

John,

I have thought about it today. I want to think about it some more but I am thinking of running PVC pipe or hose to the center of the table at the rafter level. This will only work if you have rafters above your machine like in a garage. At the center location, I am thinking of making or finding a rotating device that the flexible hose is attached and runs to the PVC pipe coming up from the dust collector foot and above the Z.

I have some other ideas of what I can do but I need to play with the concept for a little time and buy some items and do some searching on line.

This is just a concept right now but I think if I can find or build what I want I think it will work.

If anyone uses this concept, my name appears on it. :D

Of course it could all go up in dust also.

Or if it works, the dust will go up. :)

Made some progress...the table is now assembled. Feels kind of good.:)

This is my "coat of many colors" table. some bare, some primed and some painted...

Attachment 3708

The Gantry moves smoothly as does the Y-Car. Still need to complete the attachement of the rails to the X-Beam and the Gantry...plus a whole lot more, of course.

Attachment 3709

Regards,
John

Looking good John.:)

some progress???
 

WOW !!!! some progress.. Thats alot of progress. good job. I bet it does feel good.. Seems like yesterday that steel was on the trailer.. Now look at it.. Very clean work.. It looks like you bolted your diagonal leg bracing instead of welding.. If thats correct do you intend to keep it that way or are you going to weld later.. The reason I ask is I want to construct my table in a way that it can be disassembled in sections after painting to move.. Like if we sell the house or something... Moving the entire table welded up would be a pain.. once again super good job john your modification look very good.... Dennis

Thanks Greg and Dennis.

Dennis, the cross bracing under the X-beam is welded. So for each side, the beam, the bracing and the legs are a welded unit. The Cross Bearers and end bracing are bolted to the the side-beam-units. I don't plan to weld the the end bracing to the side-beam-units.

Just like you, I thought I might need to move the table someday. I can disassemble it and reassemble it. The heaviest individual piece would be the side-beam-units, which would weight less than 200 lbs. each.

Regards,
John

Took me a while to see the table . . . . was first admiring the clean, light and super tidy workshop! :)
Good work!

Thanks, Gerald. Still need some more clean-up, though.

Now that I've done "a little bit" of steel work, my impressions are that it's a lot like woodwork...planning, measuring, sawing, drilling, fitting-up, gluing (welding), sanding (grinding), filling, finishing and clean-up.:D Except, the "dust" from steel work is messier and harder to keep cleaned-up.:(

Regards,
John

steel work
 

hey john,, Am I understanding you right, you have little experence with steel work but more with wood work?? If so thats where I am. I went to school for welding in 1980 for a year,, but have not welded since.. What machine did you weld with and were there any problems or regrets or things you would change.. I have many wood machines in my shop but as fate has it no welder.. I've read some post regarding welding but concensus seems to vary on machines and wire .. your welds look good.. Thanks Dennis

Dennis,

Thank goodness for grinders and caulk.:D

I have a Millermatic 130 MIG welder. When I first got it, I did not have shielding gas. I used flux core wire. I recently got shielding gas. Using shielding gas is much better. Cleaner welds. I also have a auto-darkening helmet. That makes a difference too.

Like you, I have most of the woodworking tools. But I'm very limited on metal working tools.

Regards,
John

Looking good John,

I look forward to seeing it completed. By any chance will you be installing a dust collection system that uses automatic gates?;)

Jayson.

Thanks, Jayson.

I have already installed a Dust Collection system using automatic blast gates. The automatic blast gate system is the GreenBox from Ecogate. In the picture of my table, at the lower right corner, there's a blast gate. That one was for my router table. When I get the the MechMate finished, I plan to use that DC port and blast gate for both the MechMate and the router table.

Are you familiar with how the Ecogate works?

Regards,
John

"Are you familiar with how the Ecogate works?" :o

He may be, but 2948.6 of us are not ..........so share. :)

From http://www.ecogate.com/legacy-system...cy-systems.htm:

"Here you can find information on Ecogate systems and accessories witch[sic] are no longer manufactured"

I supposed witches ride on brooms, which are used for collecting sawdust? :D

Yes, as Gerald indicates, Ecogate no longer manufactures the system I purchased. My system can operate 8 gates. I purchased it with 7 gates for about $500.

Ecogate is still manufacturing systems, but the least expensive one is about $1000. The system I own is now called the "legacy" GreenBox.

JR, the Ecogate system has a control box, and motor-operated blast gates. There is a sensor attached to the motor of the tool associated with each gate. When you start the tool, the motor vibration is sensed and the control box opens the associated gate, closes the last gate opened and starts the Dust Collector...so you only have one gate open at a time. When you turn off the tool, the Control Box turns off the DC. It's very convenient when you're switching from tool to tool...no need to manually operate the blast gates and turn on and off the DC.

Regards,
John

My DC operates very similar to that. I did incorporate a delay relay to keep it running an extra 45 seconds to give time to go from one machine to another without the DC starting and stopping so much (from the jointer to the table saw to the radial arm saw), It also gives extra time to clear the lines from the surface planner. All of my gates are manual :(. It sure would be nice to make them automatic. All in time ;).

Made some progress...I've got MOTION, in 3 dimensions.:)

I ended up with plan B. Since, I never got the other used Vexta motor, I had to purchase a new OM Vexta PK296A2A-SG7.2. So I modified the main power supply to produce 39 VDC for the new Vexta and 78 VDC for the older Vexta's. Seems to work fine.

Still need to wire the router, attach the spoil board, do some more clean-up and then I should be ready for cutting.

Regards,
John

Took some pictures to document the MechMate.
Attachment 4280
Attachment 4281
Attachment 4282
Attachment 4283
The dark rectangle in the upper right of the Control Box is a digital thermometer. It only displays Centigrade...The probe is attached to the Gecko heat-sink.
Attachment 4284
34 degrees C (about 93 degrees F) is the warmest the heat sink got after several hours of operation. I was air-cutting the Roadrunner graphic over and over.

A little more work and I'll be ready to actually try to cut something:D

Regards,
John