spelling check
 

I could better do some spelling check before I uploaded. maybe my English teacher had right 25 years ago. jonge jonge je zult nooit engels leren. boy o boy you will never learn English...

A good story Rik :)

In Afrikaans that will be jong, jong, jy sal nooit engels leer nie.

Maar, jou engels is heeltemal voldoende en verstaanbaar. :)

Rik, you look like your well on your way. Please let us know how those motors worked out for you. When you get your Machine finished, would you mind if I come to see your setup? I'm particularly interested in your Z setup with linear guides and ball screw. I'm also curious as to your motors with belt drive compared to my OM PK296 7.2s.

non standard black wall outlet
 

http://www.mechmate.com/forums/newat...anageattach&p=
This is my black wall outlet. the connector from my transformer was cracked and caused some heat.

Thank you Gerard, for the comment on my english.

mechmate owner meeting in Taiwan
 

Last saterday was a very importing day for the mechmate community in Taiwan. We had the first mechmate owner and all most owner meeting in Taiwan. I feeled like a kid just before his birthday.
So saturday morning I left at 4 o clock in the morning taipei to drive to the south. Way was quite easy, go to highway number 1. left the highway at the "firetruck"' there is a red truck on pillar placed near the highway. Drive to you see a windmill. Yes I am still in Taiwan and not in the Netherlands and then drive a couple of km and than I reached Davids paradise around 8 in the morning.

Normally we give some flowers, but in this case I had some useful parts in my car. I had heard from Davids huge vacuum blower so I thought he could use some heavy electrical stuff.
I had visited David, the only known mechmate owner in taiwan, and as a almost owner it is very nice to see a real full size blue beast and chat with the owner how he get his parts and how he has built his beast.
I was very surprised by the building quality and even more surprised when he showed his vacuum table. That pump he has is that powerful that it sucks through a 5 mm thick mdf layer. No No, there wasn't any small hole drilled in this plate.
When I saw the room where has placed his machine, whow that was big. my one has to come in the "maid"room from 3 x 3.5 meter or something like that.
Also the way he had made his dust collector was nice. just a room, I think twice the size my complete work area. So there is a pipe from his mechmate into this room, and just keep the door closed when you are working. I like this kind of solutions. and once a while you have to dig the room empty.
He shared his router bids secrets and gave me some good advices. I also think that I was able to give him some useful information.
I is a pretty that I didn't see the beast running over the table I didn't had much time that morning so at 10 o clock I had to leave.

I think I still have a smile on my face from last Saturday.
David thanks for showing your machine.

:)

When more than one Mechmate person gets together there are suppose to be photos. You want to see photos of these gatherings.

hmm. forget to make photo's
 

hmmm, I think we didn't make photo's
I will upload some pictures of the interface board for the desk cnc I am going to use. Thursday I will see Jeroen in the Netherlands. He has designed and made an interface board for me. I think your gone see a very big smile on face again.

Rik, I think I got the longer end of the stick in that meeting. Rik brought me some very nice breakers and magnetic contactors. I will have to say I was very happy to meet another Mechmate builder as well. Gerald, I think you started something that will be here for years to come. Rik is a very knowledgeable about a number of things that will benefit his build. I'm dying to see the DeskCNC board and controller and will definitely be visiting when you are finished! Thanks again for the parts, I'm sure I'll make good use of them. I'm sure there will be opportunities for photos in the future guys. I'll bring the camera next time:)

desk cnc interface board
 

Yesterday I visited my friend to see the desk cnc interface board he has designed and made for me. It is special designed for use on the mechmate.
I have "some" knowledge about electronics but I am not an expert in it. so I have to trust what other people say about it.
some explanation about the board.
The board can be connected to desc cnc.
I can connect my:
1)proximity switches
2)limit switches
3)emo's
4)relais for spindle, exhaust, vacuum
5) is generating a signal for frequency control
6) there can be a buzzer connected
7) my stepper driver transformer will slowly power up

He knows me longer and he knows my electic knowledge. For that reason he has build in a amazing amount of safty things and diagnostic.

There will be 16 leds which will show the status, and indicate posible errors
sow it will show sensor and cable errors
He has created a document from totaly 30 pages, how to build, test, and use this board.

Hi Rik,
Do you mean your friend made this custom board for you? It looks like a manufactured and mass produced item. You have some very good friends. Did he charge you for it or was it more a pet project? I can't wait to see your setup.

Hope to see you again soon. Are you still doing your DIY wood working classes down south?

David

Desk cnc board
 

David,

He has made a small cnc routing machine. His one is running with servo motors and desk cnc. With the experince from his machine and the input from me for the mechmate, he has designed the board. he let made 15 of these boards. There are some colleges allready interested in the boards.
There were some small issues with the first board. (He had to cut away one pin from a component and he had to bend the soccets from a relay toget them fit in the holes. This is solved in relaise 2. He has placed an order for these boards.
For me he has placed all the components and tested the board. It is made "hufterproof" That means that if I should do something wrong, this is not resulting in damage from the board, me or the machine
The board is nice, but if you see the effort he placed in the documentation. that looks also very nice. If somebody is interested in the documents I can upload it
He is planning to sell the boards. (just the boards without the components)

When I am happy, with the result, I will place an annoucement on the market place from this forum.

At this moment I am in the Netherlands, but when I am back in Taiwan I want to finish my machine. After I have seen Davids machine, I want my one running. Then I can test the board in combination with desk cnc. I want to make wood dust instead of all the rusty metal dust.

When He was in Taipei last year, he showed me the electrical shops in Taipei and I showed him my favorith street, the checheng street in taipei. There has bought some mechanical components for his machine and somethimes I am shipping parts to the Netherlands for him, so we are helping eachother.
And, when we are visiting eachother, we don't bring flowers..only parts.

gearboxes
 

It's a time ago that I updatet my building activities.
Yesterday, the postman was my best frend. He delivered the desk cnc software and controller board. I ordered 3 weeks ago. It takes a week to ship from us to taiwan. custums wanted 600 ntd for the shipment.
So I am getting closer and closer to the end.
At this moment I am still painting. the paint result makes me allmost crying.
Whit a brush, I get stripes, with a roller, I get a texture instead of a nice surface Then I bought a airless paint sprayer, thats even more texture than with the roller. The best result I get with the roller and then after it, verry verry quickly touch it with a brush. In the picture the result from the airless sprayer
[ATTACH]10413[/ATTACH
I also made some gearboxes. I spent some time reading the forem and there are some nice designs. But the existing designs where not suitable for the xl size gears i wanted to use. So I designed my own ones, bring the files to the lassercutter. asked somebody in the chingcheng street to make the axis and ordered the gears, belts, and screws in the street. I also bought the flanged bearings overthere. The lasercutter did a great job, he made the holes in the plates allmost directly usable for the bearings. they where a little bit tappered so the bearings where fitting from one side and from the other side I had to smooth a little bid with some sand paper.
I bought one meter aluminium tube profile and made the distance bushes. I still have to shorten the bolds in the distance bushes and PAINT it.
Attachment 10415
Attachment 10414
Attachment 10416
Attachment 10417
Attachment 10418
Attachment 10419
Attachment 10420


I also have my geco drives nicely mounted on a piece of alluminium
Attachment 10421
Attachment 10422

So yesterday may desk cnc package arrived. I unpacked the box and I was surprised by the size of the board. The board will be used in combination with the interface board a colleage of me made for me. the desk cnc board can be mounted on the interface board and connected wiht tree connector cables which were deliverd with the desk cnc control board. so the wiring can starting
Attachment 10423

That is a cool belt drive. Do you have the plans for it?

As far as the paint you have two things to look at.

1. Make sure their is NO oil on the steel (wipe it down with acetone or paint thinner on paper towel or rag) and put on a coat of metal oxide primer. (I guess that is really two things)

2. Put paint thinner in your paint. Test how thin you can get it so it does not run and use a low nap brush or one of those sponge rollers that is used for trim work... (Heck I guess that is two things also :D ). You can test this on a scrap piece of steel. The thiner paint will level better.

So those are the 2 (4) things I can think of that will help your paint issues.

Hello mike,

I have drawing en dxf files of the plates. I also can make a drawing of the shaft.
I also have the information of the belt, pulleys and bushes.
Maybe you are also interested in the prices I payed here.
My idea is that I first verify that everything is fitting and than post the drawings
or for the ones who are really in a hurry they can have the drawings

the paint.
first I removed the black layer with a grinder from all the steel surface. I tried to find a sand blaster here, but i found only companies with small equipment.
then I put on a rust protective coat (2 layers) after this I sanded the surface smooth and apply the finish coat. The temperature is still hot here when I paint that's at least 32 degrees Celsius. I don't know if they gave me the correct thinner for the paint. The Taiwanese paint is different than what I am used in europe, and the names of the fluids the have here is also different, if there is an english name available. Most is in Chinese last attempt I made the paint really thin, but when I put on with a roller, I had to go immediately use the brush to finish that is within a couple of seconds, after that time it wasn't flushing any more.

I did the base frame that way,and this look acceptable.
I will try a spray can I can buy here. cost of a spray can from 400cc is 2 euro.

I till have to do the y cart. I am removing the black layer of the steel, but inside will be a hard job. So I will look if I can find a sandblaster somewhere in the area.

Use phosphoric acid, chemical sandblasting! Works like a charm and the paint sticks better.

One other thing. Was the surface of the steel smooth? I looked back at the photos and it appears the texture is comming through the steel. If the steel was really rusted and you used a grinder to remove the rust it may have left conturs in the steel that are causing the texture. Try using a super stiff wire brush. If you still have pits in the steel and want a smooth surface you will need a body filler and sand job.... Or you can run with that texture and just call it a hammer tone finish :D

The only trick I know for good glossy hand brush job is to use slow drying paint such as Enamel Alkyd paint... You will have enough time to sort out the brush marks... Fast drying paint is just to fast for my non-existence painting skill...

Other things to watch out are degreasing the surface, curing of the previous coats.

But if you expect automobile bodywork finishing quality, sanding between coats is necessary...

Since I was way too anxious to get mine cutting soonest; I accepted textured finishing :p

It looks like a hammered finish. Here in Barbados the hammered finish paint that comes in the rattle cans costs twice as much as the normal rattle can paint.
So you got your hammered finish at a reduced price.:D

assembling the frame
 

After sanding the x car with waterproof sanding paper and water, I am walking arround for a week with blue nails. I paint it for the last time with a roller and a brush, and it looks acceptable. Thanks for the reactions for the paint.
I cleaned the tread holes, and assembled the table together.
I measured the distance between the flanges where I have to install the v groove bearings.
I measured it with a gauge I have mounted on a piece of wood. At the other end there is a screw to create a hard surface on the piece of wood to be able to measure. the difference is 0.1 mm. This wil be compensated with the nut i will turn on the correct thickness on my lath.
This evening I am going to place the x card on the frame. Last time I damaged the guiding a little bit when mounting the x card on the guiding. so now I am going to place a plate of wood on the tabel top so I can roll from the plate of wood easily on the guiding. Then i can check if my gearbox is fitting on the rail. I bought some 3m vhb tape to place the rack on the guiding. the tape has no code it only says vhb. It is whith foam. thinkness is arround 1 mm (didn't measure) I will first try it on a small piece of rack I kept from a longer piece.

There is also a picture from the proximity holder.

I am also looking arround for a spindle. I think it will be a chinese 2.2kw spindle. the vfd (frequency controller) is gona be tricky. I taiwan I have 220volt 3 fase, and in europe I have 220 volt single fase. In the discription from the chinese drives the say input voltage 1/3 phase. an other option is boost my 110volt single phase to 220volt single fase. Put I think I have to be carefull with the ammount of amps otherwise I will create more smoke in the basement and I only want to create dust, lots of dust.

Jewa is getting a little bid nervus about my electrical progess. Yesterday I assembled a rail with the breakers for my powersupply.
Attachment 10453

Attachment 10454

Attachment 10455

Attachment 10456

Attachment 10457

Rik
Don't worry about turning some special spacer nut.
If you recall in the "gantry squaring section" of the plans, you will find your self using .1 mm shims in alternate corners to get a perfect x - square - to - y relationship.

So, don't waste your time on the lathe...you'll end up shimming anyway.

Sean

power up
 

It has been a very long long time that I have updated the forum. but I have made a lot of progess and at the moment I am finishing the wiring and the machine has been powered up allready for testing the axis.
I will not jump directly to final building part, but also write down what happened last couple of.....eh 6 months.
Finaly I found a company which can do the sandblasting. They sandblasted the Y cart. After sandblasting I first sprayed wiht a layer of rust protector and 2 nice layers of blue paint. I bougt an electrical paint sprayer and the result is very nice. :)

http://www.mechmate.com/forums/attac...1&d=1303743246

I bougt a sping with a length from 35 cm and I had to find out the length of the spring to get the required pre load on the motors. I filled a bucket with 15 liters of water and atteched the bucket to the spring. then I measured the distance between the spring attachment from the motor and the gantry.

http://www.mechmate.com/forums/attac...1&d=1303743246http://www.mechmate.com/forums/attac...1&d=1303743246
http://www.mechmate.com/forums/attac...1&d=1303743246

the final length of the spring with a 15kg load should be 135 mm
The motors and gearboxes are placed on the x and y axis. The spacers used inbetween the 2 plates from the gearbox where first machined all to exactley the same length. after assembly and put the bolds on tork, I could feel that there was to much tension on the bearing. to solve this I untided some bolds and adjusted them again till I could feel the tension on the bearings. then I measured the space between the 2 plates on that postion and made a new spacer with the correct length. I think I had some variation in the thickness of the paint layer which coused this problem. but finaly I have 3 very smooth running gearboxes. the teflon washers have a thickness from 1 mm and are made out of a teflon sheet.

http://www.mechmate.com/forums/attac...1&d=1303743246

In the meanwile I orderd my router spindle at deitech in hong kong.http://www.driver-motor.com I orderd a 2.2 kw router watercooled router spindle and a set of different size of collets. those people know where they talk about about and they are answering your questions. so I was satified to buy a spindle from them instead of ebay.

I also designed a spindle mount and delivered the drawings in the ching cheng street. First I had to buy the alluminium in a shop 150 meter to the left and then I could go back to the machine shop. there they made a very nice perfect fitting mount for me. I could not find a picture from the mount but this will come later

http://www.mechmate.com/forums/attac...1&d=1303747365

http://www.mechmate.com/forums/attac...1&d=1303747365

My z axis is also finished. this is a spindle with a linear guiding and ball lead screw. the travel way is about 40 cm. so when I want to place a indexer under the table, it is long enough to reach the workpiece. the backside of the z axis needed to be flatened. this has been done, to my surprice, not on a milling machine but on a planer. The travel way of the planer was a impressive 80 cm. the shop is that big, that if the shopowner want to sit, he has to sit outside his shop. so what you see on the picture is the complete shop including owner

http://www.mechmate.com/forums/attac...1&d=1303747365


The steppermotor is connected with a belt reduction to the ball screw. The setup is without a compensation spring or gasspring. when the motor is not powered the z axis including the 2.2kw router stays in position and is not going down. During the final tests I will see if a gasspring is required.

During Chinese new year I had a visitor from holland. He helped me with the electronics and the cabling of the machine. Targed: running before he was going back to the netherlands. This target was a little to high but together we worked a lot and made an amazing progress. I am very happy with his input and help. ofcause we had also visit the ching cheng street and some other electronic district to look arround for nice parts.
The control consul is set up for easy diagnostics, so all the motor and sensor cables are interchangeable between the axis. each axis has is own proximity and limit sensor. On the front side there are also 25 leds, which are showing me the status of the machine and possible errors
At this moment he is helping me testing the machine and he can remote log in into my system to set the parameters correctly in desc cnc and look if every thing is correct.

here is an picture of the connection plate for the control consule. the plate is 3 mm thick aluminium and all the holes and squares for mounting the connectors are laser cutted.

http://www.mechmate.com/forums/attac...1&d=1303743246


finaly for today I have two questions:confused:. How long must be the distince between the proximity and the limit switch? I don't know how far the axis is moving over its home point before it stops and what is a useable homing speed?

Hello Rik
Nice to see you back, i finish my MM last summer but have not put on MM logo yet have bin buzy to cncing machines to the universeties in Thailand but use my MM to make different parts in aluminum
Can you tell me the price you have to pay for the spindel from China?

SEL

I paid 180 euro for the spindle and 6 euro each for the collets I had ordered 2,3,4,5,6,8,10 and 12 mm collets. shipping costs to taiwan 40 euro.
The problem with ebay is that I first had to place an order before I could ask a question. Creating a paypal account was also not possible in taiwan. it was also not possible to order extra collets on ebay.

Thanks Rik
I pay 350 euro for spindel and VFD last year

finetuning and ....programming
 

Today, was a very nice day. My spindle turned for the first time in the mechmate. I decided to use a power converter to go from 110 volt to 220 volt to power the frequency controller. I turned the spindle for an hour at 30% of its maximum speed to see the heat production of the spindle, the frequency controller and the power converter. The water cooling was pumping when the command in desc cnc was on, so this was working correctly. I have a flow control sensor mounted in the back line which can activate the emo circuit when the flow is to low, but this is not connected yet. last time I played with homing and moving the axes, I could here a relay switching in the console. I checked all the connectors for bad wiring but didn't see something strange. today the relay was quiet
I placed a piece of paper with the axes direction on y slide so I can see if I have to to in the minus or plus direction to go the direction I want.
I run a small program my collage has made and left on the machine. When I run the program The end limiter was immediately activated so I decided to move the 0 point from the x axis to the left side instead of the right side.
Now I am playing with my dxf converter in desc cnc. My collage In Holland explained the basics. He can remote login on my mechmate and operate it from his sofa +/- 14.000km away from the mechmate.
When I worked 12 years ago for the last time with cnc machines, I had to program them manually with with G codes.
So no dust yet, but I am very close. I checked my starting date June 2009 so that's a while ago.
for making serious dust, I have to move the mechmate from the glass house to the basement. That's also a test that I can disassemble the machine completely. the door from my basement is only 65cm wide, and also to low for walking in straight for me.
I saw that some pictures are not added correctly so I will try to replace them. that will be tomorrow

adding pictures.
These are pictures from the spring I used for the motor tensensio
first I fill a bucket with 15 liter water. than I connect the bucket on the spring.
I measure how much windings I have for the required lenght, cut the spring and bend a connection eye on te spring.

Archimedes would be proud!
Great "teaching post".

Rik:

Thanks for the photos. Good to see you're moving along.

Joe

starting up, but no dust yet
 

A small update, I got some comment from Holland for no updates on the forum. so here it is.
Yesterday I mounted the control panel from the frequency controller ,a spindle speed controller and an usb connection on the front side of my control unit. then I closed the back panel from the machine. When I closed the back panel, the monitor and the computer didn't power up. I check for bad contacts bud did't found strange things, the third time I closed the panel successfully.
Up to the next step.
first of all I use desc cnc instead of mach 3
I can home my machine but when I home the Z axis I have fill in 400 as position. If I want to change the value to 100, the machine sees the proximity but passes it. I was trying for half day to correct this, but i didn't succeed. I have to zero the cutter any way so it isn't a big issue.
Up to the next step. running a program. I chose the mechmate logo, placed by Mike on the forum a couple of weeks ago.
When I load the program (with a usb stick nice mounted on my control panel) the spindle was running and shut down immediately, after removing the M6 code for tool change out of the program it runs.
The machine run the program save in the air. I noticed that, the logo must be very small, or the machine was not correctly, I noticed also that it sometimes makes a strange noise during the program, but whit my knowledge I have yet, it is sometimes hard to judge if it is normal or not.
Next step was mounting a pencil on a small linear guiding and fix this to the spindle and draw the mechmate logo on a piece of paper.
The machine was drawing all the letters on the same spot, but the shape of the letters was correct, Hmm. A small moment I thought that the program was not correct but the differences in x position should be big enough to write the logo correctly and the logo was correctly shown on the screen while the machine run the program.
Then the strange sound during running the program was triggering me that the G00 speed was to high and the motors where stolling. after an half an hour playing with the speed and accelerating settings. the machine draws the mechmate logo on the piece of paper how it has to be. again a step closer to DUST

Rik,

Nice update. Nearly complete.

How about showing us some photos of your machine?

adding pictures to the forom
 

Lets add some pictures to the forum and I want to show some things which I make different.
first of all I want to show the new bed from my daughter. she wanted a big girl bed. finaly she wanted something wiht hard shapes instead of prinsesses. she made the design and together we made the final drawing, get the wood, cut out the wood, sand it, chose the color and to save her clothes, I did the painting work. all this is made "manualy" and not on the mechmate. the other picture is a storage rack which I made when my oldest son, 9 allready was born. the ideas of these figures I get from magazins where the show how to make window decorations. They sell this magazins in Holland, but I don't see them in Taiwanhttp://mechmate.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=12919&stc=1&d=13272895 76

next pictures
 

So this is working, Mostimes I have to try several times the uploading from pictures so know the stuff you want to seehttp://mechmate.com/forums/attachmen...1&d=1327290257
This is my machine. the working area for x is 80 cm and for y is 1.25 cm my Z axis kan travel approx 35 cm and is made wiht linear guidings and a ball screw. the ball screw is connected with a gear 3:1 to the stepper motor. I didn't use a gas spring but i find out that I have to be carefull with my z speed up. so a gas spring will be mounted in the future. So this is a kind of mini mechate. It is designed that it can be extended to x 2.50 and y 1.25. With the long z axis it must be possible to make a rotation axis under the table surface. the frame has a bold construction because It must be able to move the machine "easily" Here I have to move it to my basement, and the enterance door to my basement is only 70cm with.
So first some pictures form my Z axis. there is also a detail from the proximity holders. there is one used as home sensor and one used as limit sensorhttp://mechmate.com/forums/attachmen...1&d=1327290909
http://mechmate.com/forums/attachmen...1&d=1327290909
http://mechmate.com/forums/attachmen...1&d=1327290909
http://mechmate.com/forums/attachmen...1&d=1327290909

hmm
 

The story and picutes I was creating was disappeared sudenly so second attempt.
first I will show a additional picture from my z axis. here the linear guiding and ball screw is visablehttp://mechmate.com/forums/attachmen...1&d=1327291635
http://mechmate.com/forums/attachmen...1&d=1327291635
Here is an picture of the proximity holder. I had this a little down afterwards to fit it wellhttp://mechmate.com/forums/attachmen...1&d=1327291861
The stopblock is not welded but mounted with a countersinked M6 screw. reason: when I want to re-grind the top edge i can remove the stopblock and can use the grinding skate.http://mechmate.com/forums/attachmen...1&d=1327291861
Here is a picture from my motor. the motor connetor is connected to the button box and there are going two sub d connectors from the botton box into the frame. there is an ingoing and an outgoing cable. On the motor is the dust stop visalbe. this is made from a protection plug for pneumatic components. it was a little to small. but with when heated up with a lighter it could be made in the correct shapehttp://mechmate.com/forums/attachmen...1&d=1327291861
here is a detail from my teflon washer. I could not buy teflon washers in taiwan, but i could buy teflon sheet from 1 mm thickness. I drill a hole on the correct diameter and I cut with sissors the material round, for make it nice round I put it in a lath. In the picture you can see that i made it only on one side nice round and at the other side you can see the sissor cut edges. works fine.http://mechmate.com/forums/attachmen...1&d=1327291861
here a picture from my suppervisor during the job.
http://mechmate.com/forums/attachmen...1&d=1327291861
The cable chain had to placed a little higher to let them run parallel. when I mounted the rail at a higher position it made contact with my bearing which run on the underside of the guiding rail. I mounted a piece of wood to correct the possition. the cable chain was not straight when hold parralel it was a little curved, I removed a little material from all segments on the table saw to correct thishttp://mechmate.com/forums/attachmen...1&d=1327293278
I will save this and then start the story from my control unit

pictures from control unit
 

In my last post I see the link of the pictures but not the picture directly. hmm
Here the story from the control unit.
I am using desk cnc one of the advantages is that I can use an old laptop. this is mounted in the control unit.
http://mechmate.com/forums/attachmen...1&d=1327295998
When I turn on the head switch the machine starts and the laptop start up after a couple of seconds. at the right side of the head switch is the control unit from the frequency controller. under this pannel is the spindle speed button and the on/of switch from spindle ( no labeling yet)
on the control unit are leds mounted which are showing errors and status from controllers and axis. the labels are now hand writen but will be replaced by some nice printed ones there are also leds which show if the spindle, pump and suction system are running. This has been designed and made by my dutch collegue. He can log in in my system and run it from his sofa 10.000 km away from here. is a nice funtion for trouble shouting and learning. I use the Ipad with skype to show and communicate.

last part from picture updat
 

I am doing 3 times exactly the same, and 3 times my pictures show up in a diffent way. I will show some pictures from the back side of my control unit. there are a lot of cables. each axis has is own motor and sensor cable. I case I have problems with one of the axis, I can switch cables to figure out where the problem is. I also have dummy connectors for my sensor cables
there are two swithches on the dummy connector, one for emo, one for limmit. when the machine is over his limit, a replace the sensor cable by a dummy, move the axis away, and place the correct cable again. On the picture where the leds are shown on the front side of the control unit there is also a usb connector visablehttp://mechmate.com/forums/attachmen...1&d=1327298097
http://mechmate.com/forums/attachmen...1&d=1327298097
http://mechmate.com/forums/attachmen...1&d=1327298097
the front side of the control unit can be removed and most of the electronics are mounted herehttp://mechmate.com/forums/attachmen...1&d=1327298545
http://mechmate.com/forums/attachmen...1&d=1327298545
http://mechmate.com/forums/attachmen...1&d=1327298545

here is a picture from the pencil I mounted on my spindle holder, I am going to make it that way I can mount it with a magnet to the spindle holderhttp://mechmate.com/forums/attachmen...1&d=1327298373

I hope you enjoyed the pictures, When the first dust is produced, I will let you know. When I look in the previeuw I see only the link of the pictures but not the pictures directly
http://mechmate.com/forums/attachmen...1&d=1327299162
http://mechmate.com/forums/attachmen...1&d=1327299162
http://mechmate.com/forums/attachmen...1&d=1327299162
http://mechmate.com/forums/attachmen...1&d=1327299162

The story and picutes I was creating was disappeared sudenly so second attempt.
first I will show a additional picture from my z axis. here the linear guiding and ball screw is visablehttp://mechmate.com/forums/attachmen...1&d=1327291635http://mechmate.com/forums/attachmen...1&d=1327307603
http://mechmate.com/forums/attachmen...1&d=1327291635http://mechmate.com/forums/attachmen...1&d=1327307603
Here is an picture of the proximity holder. I had this a little down afterwards to fit it wellhttp://mechmate.com/forums/attachmen...1&d=1327291861http://mechmate.com/forums/attachmen...1&d=1327307603http://mechmate.com/forums/attachmen...1&d=1327307603
The stopblock is not welded but mounted with a countersinked M6 screw. reason: when I want to re-grind the top edge i can remove the stopblock and can use the grinding skate.http://mechmate.com/forums/attachmen...1&d=1327291861http://mechmate.com/forums/attachmen...1&d=1327307603
Here is a picture from my motor. the motor connetor is connected to the button box and there are going two sub d connectors from the botton box into the frame. there is an ingoing and an outgoing cable. On the motor is the dust stop visalbe. this is made from a protection plug for pneumatic components. it was a little to small. but with when heated up with a lighter it could be made in the correct shapehttp://mechmate.com/forums/attachmen...1&d=1327291861http://mechmate.com/forums/attachmen...1&d=1327307834http://mechmate.com/forums/attachmen...1&d=1327307834
here is a detail from my teflon washer. I could not buy teflon washers in taiwan, but i could buy teflon sheet from 1 mm thickness. I drill a hole on the correct diameter and I cut with sissors the material round, for make it nice round I put it in a lath. In the picture you can see that i made it only on one side nice round and at the other side you can see the sissor cut edges. works fine.http://mechmate.com/forums/attachmen...1&d=1327291861http://mechmate.com/forums/attachmen...1&d=1327307834
here a picture from my suppervisor during the job.
http://mechmate.com/forums/attachmen...1&d=1327291861http://mechmate.com/forums/attachmen...1&d=1327307834
The cable chain had to placed a little higher to let them run parallel. when I mounted the rail at a higher position it made contact with my bearing which run on the underside of the guiding rail. I mounted a piece of wood to correct the possition. the cable chain was not straight when hold parralel it was a little curved, I removed a little material from all segments on the table saw to correct thishttp://mechmate.com/forums/attachmen...1&d=1327293278http://mechmate.com/forums/attachmen...1&d=1327308043
I will save this and then start the story from my control unit
Mon 23 January 2012 11:58

Tried to place pictures in the story.
Here a picture of the router bits have. all bits have a shaft diameter from 12mm and a picture of the height adjustment tool I have. I changed the connector on the spindle. http://mechmate.com/forums/attachmen...1&d=1327308410
http://mechmate.com/forums/attachmen...1&d=1327308410
http://mechmate.com/forums/attachmen...1&d=1327308410

Yes, DUST
 

Today, there has been wood under the router and I allmost forget the smell of fresh cutted wood.
Yesterday I spent time on updating the forum. and making a program. I programmed my son's name and made a name sign for him. a frend of him was visiting him, so I made a name sign for hime too.
Now my machine is finished I want to thank Metal Head, and Gerald, even when he is retired, for this great forum. It is connecting people all over the world.
I also have to thank Jewa for making my electronics in his holliday and giving my good advise.
Looks like this is the second serial number today
http://mechmate.com/forums/attachmen...1&d=1327406598

http://mechmate.com/forums/attachmen...1&d=1327406598

http://mechmate.com/forums/attachmen...1&d=1327406598

http://mechmate.com/forums/attachmen...1&d=1327406598

http://mechmate.com/forums/attachmen...1&d=1327406598

Great !!! Paint, Dust .... Logos are all that's left !!