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:)Congratulations :)
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Thanks all for the nice comments. As has been said many times before, this forum is a great place for information and advice.
Gerald, you are correct, the hardest part of the whole process was starting. The rest just falls into place. For the record I have 3839mm X travel, stop to stop. 1316mm Y travel and at the moment around 120mm Z travel. I seem to have a little less in the Y than I had expected but still plenty to allow me to cut 4 foot wide sheets. Jayson. |
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Congratulations Jayson at # 18 :).
Now we have more 30.000 holes and 15.000 rivets ... :D You did a great job and very fast. Yuri |
Hi Jason
Where did you get the motors? Congrats! francis |
Hi Francis,
I recovered the motors from some photographic equipment. You know those machines that you see making photo's in 1 hour shops and Harvey Norman it was a pair of machines like that. I don't advise you go out and buy 2 just to get the motors out of them though... :eek: http://cgi.ebay.com/NORITSU-2301_W0Q...3A1%7C294%3A50 It would be cheaper to import some motors I think ;) Jayson |
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Got some 32mm mdf for the base and 16mm for the spoil board . Got the base screwed down and even managed to cut out a little project. I think the results are good and I am happy with the over all performance of the MM.
Attachment 3628 Attachment 3629 I believe that I may need to upgrade to belt reduction as I am not totally happy with the finish. Don't get me wrong, the results I am obtaining with direct drive are more than acceptable for a wood working machine, I would however like a slightly better finish Attachment 3630 These marks are fairly fine and could easily be removed with very little effort with some fine sandpaper and for a lot of projects these would not be of any great consequence. The 3:1 belt drive might just be the solution. I will keep you all informed on how I get on. Jayson. |
Jayson, what you are seeing is typical for direct-driven pinions, and I fully agree with your comments. Nice project!
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great bee, but the big wings is inverted.
hugs |
I have been looking into doing a cnc router for years. I've lost count the number of times i have searched the net looking for plans/info etc. They all left me wanting....
Finally Mechmate has me exited. Sorry, this is my first post on this site. I just wanted to add that i am in the lucky position to have my work depo located about all of 100meters from a laser cutter. They also have a water jet, plasma, and one jinormous cnc router table.... its a monster. Also they do full bending as well.... how lucky am i ! I put work thru them for my job already, so i know the guys and they will give me trade price on stuff i do personally. Thanks Gerald for the dxf files, that is amazing. Sorry to post my first post in your thread Jayson, however being a fellow aussie, and after just reading your thread, i couldn't resist. Would you mind if i contact you now and again if i need a hand finding out where you sourced your parts in Oz ? Gary Townsville North Queensland ! |
Hi Gary,
Good to here that there is going to be another build here in Australia. Feel free to ask any questions you like, thats what we are all here for. How are you going with the rain up there? It seems stupid that 1/4 of the country is under water and the other 1/4 is burning. Regards, Jayson. |
Jayson,
I see that you live about 250 Km from Melbourne. How far are you away from the fires? Are you concerned that they will head your way? With Hurricanes you know they are going but fire moves so quick and you don't get much warning. I am sorry your country is suffering from the fires. |
Fires move a lot slower than hurricanes. I reckon a wild bushfire moves about 30km [20 miles] per day max.
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Hi Nils,
One of the fires started about 5km away from where I live. The one here was minor compared to the rest of the state. There were 8 homes lost but no one died. This is a link to a friends facebook page that shows some of the photos he has taken of the incident here. He works part time for a TV station so manages to get some access to places others don't get to at times. http://www.facebook.com/album.php?ai...8&id=564905052 Horsham used to have one of the best golf courses in Australia, but it looks a little secondhand now. The concern about the fires was not all that high when it was happening, its only afterwards when you see how bad it could have been that it finally begins to sink in as to what could have happened. The fire did move very quickly here but I could not say exactly how fast. The wind speed at the time was about 40km/hr but at the fire front it was somewhat faster I believe. The high winds meant that spot fires would start in front of the main fire, sometimes at least a kilometer away. There are still fires going in the rest of the state and so far at least 2 towns have been totally destroyed and the death toll is about 172 at the moment but that is expected to rise as the authorities are able to get into some of the more remote areas. That’s enough of that, this is a happy place to be with lots of friends. I do appreciate the concern though. Thank you. Jayson. |
Gerald,
I just read Yuri's thread... I am stunned that you want us to crash our machines :eek: I will slow mine down I have a problem with the way the rest of the world looks to blame people when things go wrong. If my machine comes off the rails and I get injured, then it is my fault, no one else’s. However if it hurts someone else then it is still my fault and this is not so good. Your concern is justified, we must all remember that the gantry has a great deal of inertia and we should do all that is necessary to prevent someone getting injured. Regards, Jayson. |
Had to highlight that those high speeds are impressive, but potentially nasty. Glad to hear that you take responsibility for your own actions, but I will still be sad to hear that you got trapped under a fallen gantry and the router/spindle had slowly emasculated you :eek:
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Yeah, the Floods.... its so weird (and tragic) to read about the fires down south. We are alright in Townsville where i live doesn't flood, although alot of other suburbs have. Ingham is the worst hit (100km's north). I was working in cairns a week ago, and on way home on friday, got stuck on road for 2 days ! Not fun. Anyway, better get back to the topic. (not sure how strick this forum is just yet !) Thanks for the reply, and mostly for posting up your pics. Its amazing how much easier it is to see a part in a real photo over a 2d drawing........ Gary |
Jayson,
Thanks for taking the time to explain about the fires. Gerald, it is true that hurricanes move faster but you get a whole lot more notice about them coming some times a week. But a fire can look like it is going to miss you and within the next hour be on top of you. I have no experience with fires but what I have seen on the news and the experiences of California and local fires in Florida. With regards to speed and some one getting hurt. I consider myself a nubie when it comes to my machine. I have seen how quickly things can get out of hand. I fortunately have not done any major damage. I have not broken any bits but I have had to realign the Z and Router because I drove the bit into some wood or the router into the table surface. I can see the importance of having a number of E-Stops located in easy reach. I hope I never see the gantry coming flying at me. It is good that Gerald reminds us of the potential danger. Every tool has to be treated with respect and understand its limits. |
You bet these speeds are impressive.
Nasty if things go wrong, definately. When I crashed at 5 m/min scary came to mind as it had been traveling at 27 m/min moments before. My heart took a little while to beat again and the ringing in my ears lasted even longer ;) Please take note everyone, it is cool to have a machine going this fast but things can go wrong really quickly. :eek: I just looked up the definition of "emasculated" Gerald, I can tell you that is not going to happed and I can't believe you want it to happen slowly... :eek: :rolleyes: :) Jayson |
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I haven't posted in a while so I thought I had better give an update.
I have not made anything spectacular just cut out a few MDF letters for a friends kids. Something for them to paint and put on the wall no pictures but you get the idea. Now on to something I do have pictures for :) I have started working on the belt reductions. They are based on the ones that J.R. made, thanks for sharing... I ordered the pulleys and belts from a local supplier who got them in promptly for me. Unfortunately they did not get exactly what I wanted and instead of a 3:1 reduction I ended up with what would have been 2.9333333333333333333333333333333:1. This was not going to be acceptable as far as I was concerned, so they returned the 44 tooth pulleys and got me some 48 tooth. This results in a ratio of 3.2:1. There was not as much room with the original belt as I had hoped but at least it should still work. Attachment 3962 Due to the belt and pulleys not being exactly the same as J.R. used I had to change the design slightly. Attachment 3963 Attachment 3964 The plates machined well and I managed to press the bearings in without much hastle. (made on my CNC mill) Attachment 3965 Attachment 3966 My motors have 14mm shafts, but the only bearings I could get quickly and cheaply have 1/2 inch bores. This meant that I needed to make shafts with a small step in them, not a big deal to do just a little more time. Attachment 3969 I also make a few spacers for the bolts between the plates Attachment 3970 I was a little concerned as to how I was going to bore the small pulleys but I came up with a plan. I bored a piece of aluminium the same size as part of the pulley and then used loctite to "glue" the pulley into this while it was still in the lathe. I then drilled and bored the pulley. This kept it as close to centered as I could get it. I was very happy with the way this worked, and none on them slipped. Attachment 3967 Attachment 3968 That’s about it for now. Hopefully I will get the pulleys drilled and tapped over the next few days so I can test them out. There will be no working on the machine on Saturday though as I am off to an Air show with a friend but I am sure to be eager to get it finished once I get back. http://www.airshow.net.au/avalon2009/index.html |
Jayson the parts look very good. How long did it take to do the plates on the cnc mill?
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Hi J.R.,
The plates were machined very conservatively as I have enough broken end mills in my collection already :rolleyes: Each plate took aroung 35 minutes. Slow I know but it got the job done. Hopefully I will get them finished on Sunday and have another run soon after. Jayson |
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Sorry all for not posting on the weekend, I was just too excited about getting the gearboxes finished. They went together perfectly and have made a difference of course. My maximum speed has been reduced from 27 meters per minute down to 15 meters per minute. I am still happy with 15m/min rapids, the table is not all that big so it gets from one end to the other quickly. The added safety of the slower speeds is also a bonus ;)
Some pictures... Attachment 4019 Attachment 4020 One X axis gearbox and the y installed I got a delivery of some 6mm acrylic sheet during the week that I had hoped to make an edge lit sign with. The sign is 230mm high by 530 long and is to go over a friends BBQ area. I was not sure how it would go so I was conservative with my machining feeds and speeds. The finished depth was 4.5mm and this was done in 4 passes at 1900mm/min using a 12mm 45 degree V cutter. It took around 45 minutes to machine. If I was to do it again it would probably be in 2 passes at the same speed. Attachment 4021 The picture does not do the finished product any justice, it does look fairly good even if it’s me that says so :) Attachment 4022 Here is a close-up of one of the letters just so you can see how badly the machine does curves... I still need to mount some LEDs and a way to hang the sign but so far so good. That’s it for now, off to dream up another small project before I start the next big one. |
Jayson,
I assume you're being sarcastic about "how badly the machine does curves". This looks really good. Congratulations! Jeff |
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Hi Jeff,
Yep I was being sarcastic. I feel very happy with the cut quality. Regards, Jayson. P.S. Attachment 4051 Sign Finished. |
Looks great Jayson.:)
How did you end up lighting the sign? |
Hi Greg M,
Thanks for the comment. I lit the sign with a string of 30 surface mount led's with adhesive tape on the back. Probably too many LED's but it was easy and it worked. Jayson. |
Smart work Jayson!
Where are the other Aussie CNC router blokes these days? Probably out practicing their rugby so that they can thrash us again! |
Thanks Gerald,
there are other Aussies lurking here, I have been answering a few PM's and phone calls filling them all in on what a great design you have provided. There will be others built here soon I'm sure. Jayson. |
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First post
Hey Gerald, thanks for the great plans! I've been one of the ones bugging Jayson with questions. I've had a homemachine i was going to upgrade to improve it but i've since decided to go with the MechMate.
It looks like Jayson has done a great job with his build and i'm lucky enough to be able to use the same laser cutters/benders as Jayson as they are 10mins down the road (Jayson is about 5 hours away). Funny you should post here Greg as your machine is what inspired me to mod mine to a Rack and Pinion drive but i like the idea of a large cutting area. I'm still going through making sure i understand everything before i dive in. I have a couple weeks of leave from from work begininnig Easter weekend and hope be able to really getting cracking then. Will keep you all posted. hardest part was convincing the wife.... |
x-y y-x
Jayson,
Gerald has mentioned elsewhere making the carriage transom represent the longest axis to later accommodate transfer to a larger table. After building #18, is there anything you would do differently? |
Hi Besser,
There is not anything that springs to mind that I would do differently. The design is extreamly well thought out and if the plans are followed you will not have any trouble with the build. |
Still lurking - not working on it yet
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Jayson - good work. I know it is achievable in OZ now. Pete D |
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A brief update on what’s been happening here.
I spent some time fabricating a pen holder so that I could draw some cross's in the corners of the machine, the purpose being to square it all up. I could have just followed Gerald’s squaring directions but where would be the fun in that :). After a few hours of fabricating and cross drawing the machine is now .5 mm out of square (it was 5mm out to start with :o ) I will spend some more time on this soon to get it better I just cant live with it the way it is :rolleyes: . Oh and the postman delivered this last week... Attachment 4365 The spending never stops. I have hooked it all up temporarily to test it works and also to do initial setup. As others have found it is important to set the motor parameters into the VFD before trying to make the spindle turn. Failing to do this may result in damage to the spindle and/or VFD. Some may notice the white tape on the collet nut. This is a target for my optical tacho so that I can confirm the VFD if displaying the correct RPM. An interesting observation for those of you without a tacho. Here in Australia our mains power is 240 volts at 50 Hz (it's the 50 Hz that's important). Fluorescent lighting "flickers" at a rate of 50Hz here so if you have a target stuck onto the nut it will appear stationary at 50Hz or 3000 rpm and at multiples of 50 so 100 Hz is 6000rpm with the same result (100Hz x 60 seconds = 6000 RPM). Just some more useless information. This little fact also means that to use my optical tacho I need to turn off the shed lights and turn on a torch otherwise the tacho just reads 3000 rpm no matter where you point it. I am surprised that in the dark the VFD didn't end up in the bucket of water on the floor under it. I guess you have to be lucky some times. I have to order some aluminium during the week to make the mounting brackets so at present I have only been doing bench testing. I may have to look at getting a different pump as it does not seem capable enough. It is rated at 12 litres per minute but once restricted to the smaller size tubing (only restricted once it gets to the spindle) it is only passing 250 to 300 ml/min. This still seems to be plenty for testing and very well may be enough when running but I would like to get another 100 to 200 ml/min just to be sure. All the same I will monitor the temperature of the water and the flow just to make sure things don't get out of hand. I have noted that it looks like there have been some markings removed from the spindle, and I'm not sure why Attachment 4366 Can anyone confirm what is usually marked on the third line, is it anything important? For those that have more knowledge on water cooled spindles than I what do you use to cool them (apart from water :rolleyes:) Do I use automotive coolant or is there something else I should be trying to procure? That’s it... 'till next time. Jayson. |
Jayson,
That spindle looks great, and already running.:) Was the VFD RPM accurate? Best of luck with your spindle set-up...already looking forward to more updates when you get it hooked up.:D Regards, John |
Hi John,
The RPM is accurate now that I have set the parameters correctly. ;) Yep, there should be more updates soon. I can't wait to get it cutting. Jayson. |
HI Jayson - for the benefit of others can you list out the parameters which you set on this VFD -
one basic doubt - don't laugh at me :D - when you were setting up the VFD was it connected to the spindle? I mean when you powered it up. RGDS IRfan |
Hi IRfan,
Yes the spindle was connected when I was setting up the VFD. I was unsure if the VFD would be damaged if I accidentily started it without a load connected. All settings are default except for:- PD003 Main Frequency 25.0 PD004 Base Frequency 400.0 PD005 Max Operating Frequency 400.0 PD023 Rev. Rotation Select 0 PD141 Rated Motor Voltage 220 PD142 Rated Motor Current 7.5 PD144 Rated Motor Revolution 3000 I don't think I have missed any. These are just initial settings and I am sure there will be changes once I get the spindle mounted but for now they are working. I have PD003 set at 25 so that when I press start the spindle runs at 1500 rpm just to prevent running it full speed until I get it mounted and also to prevent bearing damage. I have PD023 set to 0 as I do not require the spindle to run in reverse as my cutters do not work very well turning backwards. I hope this helps someone. Regards, Jayson. |
I would like to copy the last few posts over to a thread for setting up spindles, but I need the name of the VFD for the title please?
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