Back in the MechMate mode!
 

Hello again to all.

It's been a while since we've posted on the MechMate Forum. We had a very busy spring this year so unfortunately, we were not able to make too much progress on our machine.:(

However, we worked on it every now and then, when we could. Also, I've continued to lurk around the forum almost every day to get my MechMate fix... Finally, it got to be too much for me and I had to make another push to move closer to completion.

Here are some photo updates of our progress...


The 'Z' axis moves smoothly through all three sets of V-rollers...

We were able to get the base frame welded and the V-rails bolted to the aluminum angle. I still need to spend some time getting all of the axis to roll flat relative to the plane of the base table cross members...it's pretty good, but I think with a little more tweeking, I'll be able to get it almost perfect.

We also got the supports for the cable chain welded and attached. And, as you can see, we also got the cable chains fitted.

We will be mounting the electrical cabinet on vibration isolating mounts. Here are a couple of photos showing this scheme...

And one photo of the electrical cabinet mounted in position.

Just a few last items to finish up and the machanical build will be done.

With any luck and a little more time this weekend, I should be able to get the proximity sensor mounts done and the 'X' axis racks mounted (we already have these welded up to length...we just need to drill a hole in the ends of both racks).

Looks like pretty good progress to me! Well done guys! :)

Everything fit together so well and all axis roll as smooth as butter. A few more hours and we should have the mechanical build done and we can put some blue paint on her...(which will be really good since, as you can see from some of our photos, it's starting to rust a bit).:o

It's been great getting back into our build!

I was able to purchase an almost new 5 HP HSD ATC spindle off of eBay and I just ordered and received a Delta VFD from the guys at PDS.

Almost time to start the really fun part....:D

Thanks,

Jeff

Beautiful stuff, Jeff & Erick! Nice to hear from you again. :)

Thanks Gerald,

It's nice to be making some forward progress and contributing to the forums again. It sure helps to have the helpful community here to keep us going. Hopefully we'll be able to have our Mechmate moving under it's own power before too long.:rolleyes:

Best regards,

Jeff

Blue...Blue Day (part one)
 

Started to disassemble our machine today to begin the painting process.

I thought I would get a shot of one of the tops of our 'X' axis rail beams. I used a very straight piece of bar stock along with some mark-up paste (blue steel ink), a belt sander and a couple of good squares to bring the tops very close to "true" for the mounting of our 'X' axis rails. We may have to shim a bit, but I hope it is minimal.

This may not have been a necessary step, but I couldn't help it...just my nature I guess...;)

Jeff

Blue...Blue Day (part two)
 

We started to paint some of the machine components today.

One benefit from building your own MechMate that I've never heard mentioned in the Forum is that if you do things just right, you'll have a pair of shoes to match your new CNC router. :)

Best regards,

Jeff

Elvis and his blue suede shoes?

We're still alive and kicking.......
 

Well, at last, a long over due update...and confession...

You may recall from one of our last posts that we were in the process of trying to "tune" our X axis rails and their mounting surfaces in an effort to make the Y axis gantry roll very flat relative to the base table cross members. We were able to get it very close (within about + or - .015" over all areas of the base table cross members). However, no matter how much we tried, we could not get it any closer. :confused:

That's when I realized that a "short cut" we (I) had taken on the aluminum rails had come back to bite us in the butt. Because the square-inside-cornered aluminum angle was not as readily available, I purchased aluminum angle (6061 T6) with the radius in the inside corner and I tried to nibble out the radius corner to a square corner with the table saw. Bad idea... This caused the mounting surface for our V-rails to float up and down and created a rail height that was all over the place. Our Y axis rail were able to be salvaged. They are short enough that we were able to mill out the inside corner and remount the V-rails.

Here's a photo of one of our Y axis rails after it was fixed...

Remaking our X axis rails
 

Our X axis rails were unable to be salvaged so I ordered the correct aluminum angle this time (I know, I shouldn't have deviated from the plan) and a new set of V-rails. :rolleyes:

Here we're tapping the new set of V-rails

....ooohhhhh I want a tapping head like that! I had one...then it went missing!
Very nice work. I am watching intently. Only a choice few have the alum rail base and preground rails on top. Good luck!

Setting the height of our X and Y axis rails
 

Here are a couple of photos of the process we used to set the height of our X and Y axis rails.

First, we bolted our V-rail to our aluminum angle and placed a clamp between each bolt location.

Next, we tightened each mounting bolt and then measured the height of the rail between each mounting bolt.

After determining what the best natural height should be, we adjusted the V-rail up or down by filing a bit or lifting a bit to set both sets of rails to the same height. We were able to set the rail heights to within + or - .0005" along the entire length of each set.

Painting X and Y rail with clear-coat
 

Both sets of rails are much, much better now. :rolleyes:

We are spraying each with clear-coat (no paint on the roller or gear surfaces) and we hope to begin final assembly tomorrow and over the weekend. We have many of our electrical components and we hope to begin laying out our electrical cabinet very soon.

Until our next update (which we hope will be sooner than our last)...

Best regards,

Jeff and Erick

Sean,

The tapping head in the photo is just a cheap-o unit from Harbor Freight, but it works quite nicely.

Jeff

Professional looking machine...really nice job.

I will just repeat what I said 6 months ago: :D

Looking very good Jeff: Nice work

Thank you all for the nice comments of encouragement. It is very much appreciated. :)

Regards,

Jeff and Erick

A Little Work On Our Control Computer
 

Our machine is just about assembled. We plan to drill and mount the first table-bed board tomorrow.

Last week we received some computer components which I had ordered, so we threw together this nice little embedded computer. We plan to mount this little guy inside of our control cabinet.

We loaded the operating system and Mach 3 today. Also included in the photo is the 17" ELO touch screen which we purchased off of eBay for cheap.

That's all for now...:)

Best Regards,

Jeff and Erick

Hi Jeff,
Could I ask you to tell me more on the computer components?
Some detail on what are they and where you got them, nice little compact assembly that I’m interested in and wood like to look in to !
Thanks in advance, Robret ;)

Robert,

Happy to provide the information.:) We ordered this computer from Logic Supply, Inc. ( www.logicsupply.com ). Here's the list:

* Intel D945GSEJT Johnstown - Fanless Mainboard;
* M350 Universal Mini-ITX case with Mounting Brackets and DIN rail mounts (I'm not sure yet how we will mount the control computer in our cabinet, so I purchased both, they're cheap);
* M350 Backplate and PCI Riser for D945GSEJT Mainboard;
* 2GB DDR2 667 SO-DIMM Memory;
* 160GB 2.5" Seagate SATA HDD 5400rpm (3Gb/sec);
* 80W, 12V AC Power Adapter (brick).

With delivery to our house $334.95 USD.

We are planning to use the SmoothStepper, but this setup also has an onboard LPT Parallel Port header and with the PCI Riser you could add a second if needed.

Jeff

Your machine looks great, hope you get it cutting before long. I live west of Dewitt, glad to see someone close by building the Mechmate. I hope to start mine in the next few months.

Great Jeff…. Appreciate V-much.
Amicalement, Robert ;)