That is some clean and precise work. Nicely done. I love that skate!

Thank for the encouragement Guys!

I have gotten a few requests about the size and weights of the material used for my table so I thought I would post it here for others to use if they wish.

Main Beams- Wide Flange 8.0" at 15lbs per foot
Legs Beams- Wide Flange 4.0" at 13lbs per foot
Table cross members- Channel 3.0" at 5lbs per foot
Truss Tubes- Square tubing 2"x2" .180" thick wall
Gantry tubes- Rect Tube 2"x4" x .120" thick wall

For more details about the exact sizes, they can be matched up with the info here- http://www.everettsteel.com/steel.html Just match up the pounds per foot.

Travis

Travis are you going to notch out the I beam so that the rack can be mounted to the angle iron or are you going to mount the rack to the I beam. Good looking build. I ordered the same size steel the other day. Hope mine turns out just as good.

Update
 

Hi Russell,

I'm going to mount the Racks right to the underside of the I beam for a clean look. My table came out really Parallel so I'm able to get away with doing on this build. I do see a few detals that do need need to pay attention to, but I think it will work just fine. I made some new motor mounts that have and offset of .315" to drop the motors a bit.

I finished off the Gantry welding last weekend. That was fun putting it together as there was a lot to watch and keep an eye on. I really took my time here ensuring it stay square and true. It payed off here. Followed Gerald's weld sequence, and worked like a charm. I made sure to put the same length of welds at the adjacent corners all they way around to minimize the pull of the welds being uneven and causing the Gantry to scew. It is really nice to see the thing roll along the rails. It was a beautiful thing to see everything match up and come together. I was thrilled to say the least.

I ordered the Mikes special time savers for the proxy switches. They are both drilled and tapped and bolted up.

Stopblocks are made and the X's are welded on in place.

I cut and welded the Racks and thankfully that went well. I cut the 2 mating ends 1st then welded them 1st then I cut them to length, so in case I messed up the welding or welded the 3 pcs of rack together, I could just cut them apart and do over.

I get what you are saying about mounting the racks to the underside of the I-Beam. So I take it you are going to flush the rack with the edge of the I-Beam than.

Also thanks for those table base measurements as it will give me something to work off of and adjust accordingly.

Keep it up...

Getting her ready for some Paint! Yahoo!
 

Still working away at it. I lost a handfull of progress pics, but finished up a lot of amall detail work. Made and welded the y car stops, made the cable chain racks and tapped some more holes and drilled the holes in the racks. Welded the spider up last night and will be milling off the tops of the bearing stand-offs tonight.

I finally tore it all down, and did weld cleanup and de-greased and washed and prepped for paint. I'll be tarping off the garage this weekend and laying down a couple coats of primer.

Travis

Travis what are you using for paint? I can recommend POR15 for the primer and Valspar Tractor and Implement paint.

Hi Russell,

Thanks for the recommendation on the paint. I have all ready bought the Imcron 3.5g and primer. I'm curious to see how well it goes down. I'll has to try that POR15 sometime.

I Finished off the spider lastnight. Amazing how much the it releived on the bends after applying heat from weld. Here are a few pics of how I tamed the spider by re-squaring it, before I faced the bearing standoffs. I put a steal bar across the tops and put a clamp in the middle and bent both ears at once. This worked better than I was expecting. Was quick and easy and with the square I could see how much more I had to go.

Getting Primed
 

Harbor freight had a big sale on tarps and rope, so I tarped the garage off and started on the primer. With the tarps on the rope, it made for easy opening and closing of the tarps. Here is a pick of my parts.

Travis

Travis,

Great idea for a "paint-room". Thanks for sharing.

Harbor Freight has the Organic style respirators on sale too...just saying. :)

Thanks Sean!

Those filters can be pricey. A respirator was defiantly needed for this paint. With the main garage door open and three sides covered plus the floor in the garage, it worked better than I anticipated. Before I have always just made a full hanging enclosure with fans and furnace filters, and it was always a pain. The small tarps were $2.99 each. I bought 10 of them, and was perfect to do a 2 car garage.

Harbor Freight is funny about sales, the online sales don’t match the shelves prices sometimes. You have to watch and make sure to look up the sales online and print the item out and bring it with you. When I got to the store they were $5.99, so I had to come back later, otherwise I would have paid double.

Once my work caused me to help clean out a 20' or 30' diameter above ground fuel oil tank. We were sloshing around in 3 or 4 inches of fuel, using brooms to push it out of the drain. We had respirators, full face, most likely because I don't remember my eyes burning. It was summer in South Carolina and about 100f degrees. My nose started to itch and I pulled the mask away for a second. Hoooweee! I found out that mask had been working hard to keep my air breathable. Those masks actually work!

Hey Fella's

It's been a while since I last posted. I took a long break after all the painting. I let the pcs cure for several weeks to let it fully harden. That paint in really amazing stuff for the price.

I have the machine all painted minus the rails. I have spent many days reading and figuring out details. Recently I have Mach 3 configured correctly with the jumpers all in the right spots, charge pump setup with all the e-stops working.

I went with the C6 Spindle Control Board and have it wired up the the Delta VFD and spindle. After programing the VFD and working thru the setup problems, this works really slick! We have speed control now!

Things are moving along!
 

Here I have the spindle side of things done. I wound up getting a 50 lb strut with 14.0" of travel for the beast. The diameter of the strut was .875" so I modified the mounting of the gas strut to hold the weight of the assymbly. Everything weighed in at 52 lbs so the strut fit right in.

Here are some pictures of my alignment. I 1st leveled the rails with shims, then aligned one rail, then I made some alignment gages to set the rails parallel to eack other with an indicator and some stock I made. This worked out sweet and I could get the rails easily within .001" // all the way down. This made it go really fas. I didn't want the gantry to be riding up on the rails causing uneven wear. Everything rolls really nice.

Here you see thing starting to come together.

I spent hours on the blue pad wiring everything up together. Here are the completed pictures of my control boxes. I have some tiding up to do, but things are working well together with out interference.

Man that is looking great. I like that dial indicator for checking your spacing.

Nicely done Travis, look like your close to « take-off » day :D
BTW, Would you consider sharing your skate cad file, some may enjoy another alternative !?
Later, Robert ;)

My Super Skate
 

Thanks Robert,

Yes I'm going to have to put together the files and put them in a zipped format to share with the forum Members. Those who are interested, please PM me your email address. I'm headed out of town so I'll get to it in a few days.

Thanks,
Travis

Travis: Great to see your progress. Let me know when you are running and if I can come for a visit. I would love to see it in action. Similarly, if/when you find yourself coming over the causeway to Whidbey, please stop by for a visit to see my machine.

Joe

Looks great, neighbor! Really top notch build...

Machine is Ripping up Hardwood!
 

Hi John, Yes, Amazing how time fly's when your having fun. I wish I had more time.

Thanks Joe! You are welcome anytime.

Here is the an update. After I got the machine running, I got invited to a last minute birthday party, and needed to come up with something fast! I had a tasty looking pc of Mahogany slab in the shop and decided to make a family sign for them. Here is the pics of the progress......

The sign is 11.5" x 36" x 1.875" thick. The last pick is a little pocket to for the hanger in below the surface on the back of the sign. I used a solid 3/8" CEM 2 FLT at 16,000 rpm at 120 inches a minute at .375 depth of cut for the roughing passes, and 60 inches a minute for the finishings passes. I could barely keep up with the vacuum at that speed. :)

I managed to even cut some logo's out of some vinyl.

Enjoy,
Travis

Great build and amazing first project !!! You get #75 !!! Congrats !!

Mike let Travis have #76. Hold off one more completed machine before giving it to him... Im sure he will agree with me... Come on buddy...:)

By the way Travis great job buddy. It is an impressive first project indeed. Can't wait to see what you do next..

James

Thanks Mike! 75 sounds good!

I couldn't wait for 76 lol....Thanks for the root James!

Time to work on vacuum lol... and draw up some tables plans. I have an idea brewing.

Nice cut quality...well done

Updated Builder's Log
 

Travis,

Wonderful build, nice sign. Congratulations on completing your MechMate and earning Serial #75.

The Updated Builder's Log is here.

Please review your entry and let me know (PM or reply) any changes you wish to make to your entry.

Looks Great Travis!

Travis nice work on the machine and the sign.
Good to see another number after mine at #74, it takes the pressure off to produce, haha
Reading back through your build thread it seems that every part for the machine you have made is beautifully engineered.

Congratulations
Ross

Congratulations Travis #75. The machine looks awesome and the sign is perfect.
Keep on the great work.

Ahmed

Congratulations Travis the machine looks great! It also look really familiar:D

Thanks for the wonderfull comments!

I have to report that after running the sign, the motors remain to stay very cool. They remain at coffee cup warm temp. Not a hot coffee, but a warm cup, and can keep my hand easily on the motors. The reason for the report is that I chose to go full coil on the motors, and am very happy with the power delivery.

I dialed in the spindle to the table with in .002". After that I couldn't wait to get to cutting the sign. I did have some challenges durring the run, my pc has been been going down hill, and it froze on me twice. So I had to reboot 2 times in the middle of cutting. I picked up zero again and ran it.

I was pleased to see the cut quality using the 7.2 motors in the hardwood. I figured that that the hardwood would give me and immediate result of the performance at the current setup, and what the machine could handle as far as load. If one was to setup a fault limit on load for the drives, how would this be done? Like for example, if the drives reach a set limit of amp load, the machine would e-stop. In the event of a crash or unwanted load.

It was really nice to be able to dial in the rpm thru mach on the spindle speed control. very nice feature.