David - Looks like we were a little slow getting you a number !!! :D You get #99

Congrats David! Looks great! :)

Builder's Log Update
 

David,

Congratulations on completing your MechMate and earning Serial #99.

Looking good.:) Here's the Updated Builder's Log.

Feel free to make changes to your Entry. Just let me know and I'll update your entry.

Also, we like to include the "cutting" dimensions in the Entry. Please let me know what your dimensions are so that I can update your Entry.

Thanks for the builders number that Gerald thinks is sexy ;)

Cutting size 2750mm long 1300mm wide cutting. Extra 350 mm cutting over the edge of the actual table to cut deeper objects.

11 Month build Finished April 2011.
Most use is cutting form work for building the Farrier F85SR Trimaran.
Regards
David

Thanks, David.

Update here.

Resurfaced the table
Added a V bit cut a rectangular path over zero end quarter of the table.
V cut similar crossing on bottom of new MDF 18mm sheet as spoil board.
Glued new MDF down with a little epoxy.
Surfaced MDF.
Lower MDF table is sealed with paint on the lower surface and sides.

Set up aprox 800W VAX vacuum cleaner through lower Table into the V cuts.

Worked VERY well as vac hold down for first 1/4 of the table.

I had read the posts about vac hold down then found the huge powers the large machines use at "High" vacuums and thought I was wasting my time with the VAX.
Works well (before any large cuts are in the spoil board.)
Cheers
David

Sounds like your vac actually has some potential.Few thing you can do.
BUT 800W isn't enough to whole small pieces. so please don't get disappointed. but it should have no problem holding anything larger than 300x300mm (1'x1')

1)Improve air flow by re-cutting the V grooves with 20mm end mill leaving about 6mm on the thinnest part of the spoilboard.

2)I think you have leaks within the spoil board, this is an inherent problem, since MDF is porous.
I would suggest you manage this leaks by covering the exposed/unpopulated spoil board area with vinyl floor mat.

3)Also, when the bottom side of the workpiece isn't flat, i.e. no proper seal, I usually seal the sides of the workpiece by taping it to the spoilboard with packaging tape,

Why packaging tape & vinyl floor mat? because they are dirt cheap & commonly available.

BTW, you can just screw the Grooved board on the base board & not epoxy it. make life easy when replacing.

Thanks for the tips Ken I will try them, I was actually surprised I got any efffect from such a low power vac cleaner.

You are welcome.
The trick is managing your leaks.
BUT, you still need the vac to generate enough vacuum head.

Aluminium Mounts
 

Hi
Long weekend work with the MM.
16 Aluminium mounts cut from 80x80mm 10mm thick angle.
Two bits consumed. single flute 1/4" diameter. (Ok broke the first when I hit a hold down screw..)
700mm per min 0.5mm deep per pass. Plastic backing and WD40 as the coolant/lubricant.
Big mess, Al is sharp.

Started to work loose on the wooden/threaded rod spindle mount that was only installed till I could cut a neat one, now I will have to change it :)

Cheers
David

David,

Nice looking parts you made.

Need more bits?

Hi David

Nice go at some alloy machining.
Boat parts by any chance?

Also interesting the gearbox for the Motion King stepper but I was unable to find it on their web site.
Any hints?

Regards
Ross

Hi Ross
try email
MotionKing Motor Industry Co.,Ltd.
http://www.MotionKing.com
[email protected]
Tel: 0086-519 8988 6261
Fax: 0086-519 8515 1172

Brackets are for the folding mechanism of the Trimaran.
Need cleaning and sanding, reeming, anodizing.
Cheers
David

Hey David , i see your building a Farrier F85SR trimaran....i have a friend thats building a f-9 in my shop but its old school with the yellow cedar and such. I was just wondering if you could tell me how much are the plans for the new design of the f boat? Thanks. Mike

Hi Mike
My Plans were about $1900 with some extra DXF files.
However plan sales stopped last month. email Ian at [email protected]
Tell him that you are working next to/helping the f-9 and he might still sell a set.
Cheers
David

Rudder making
 

Rudder mould and halves before the final vac bag.

Two mold halves were cut with 1/4" ballnose. One G code file was used and the Y axis was reversed to do the second half.

each half was made with a vac bag using the MM table as a flat refference.
The halves were decked with the MM.

Both halves and the outer carbon layer were added and the rudder was vac bagged again to the MM table.

MDF formwork was then "flexed" to release the rigid rudder from between the moulds.

Cheers
David

I love seeing pictures of these types of projects.
Very cool.

More creative work David.

Regards
Ross

Table
 

Hi
My son and I have Finally put the table together and got it finished.
Timber is a western Australian Jarrah. Very hard wood.
The tree died on a friends farm, cut it up, dried it and now...

Janka 1910 hardness. That will work the tooling if cutting a lot of it I would bet.

MM update and boat progress
 

Hi Folks
I have not posted for a while but often follow some threads.

I updated the MM with a replacement computer. Windows Vista as I owned the operating system already on a clean installation. Took a while to reload mach3 to remember how the zero detection on the tool were installed etc as they did not go with my backup strategy...

SO much faster clock rate is stable to 100kHz up from the 25kHz I had before. I have not yet installed the higher voltage transformer I have, still on my list.

New aluminium spindle mount installed. The original timber one wore out though lasted a few years. I built it to last as long as it took to cut a better one, but while it was working I left it alone.

Reset the squareness of the spindle and cleaned up the coolant system. Purchased a four inch dust collector. Other than eliminating the use of expensive dust collection bags I think I preffered the old Vax system. It was out of the way when not in use and adequate for my small volumes.

Last weekend I installed the form for the middle hull of the trimaran. All the cnc cut forms from the MM.

Oops not sure how I get photo the right way up
Cheers
David

Sweet!!

Wow!!

Big Trimarans are very extended model boats in australia and those parts of the world.
Im following some constructions web's.
And the epoxy sistem will be infusion and corecells?.

Regards.

Hi Ros
I am using Corecell a closed cell foam. West system epoxy. I vacuum bag the flat sheets onto a flat table putting fiberglass or carbon on both sides at once. Peel ply is on the outside of the sandwich sheet. Total less than 11mm thick.

I then cut these sheets with a two flute straight router bit in a single pass keeping the speed up.
The two flute straight router bit leaves the swarf in the cut. This helps hold the part in the sheet.
No vacuum hold down on my table for big sheets. any dust collection vacuum lifts the parts and they move while cutting.

The fiberglass, epoxy and foam are all excellent insulators. So static electricity is a big problem. The dust clings to EVERYTHING.

The fiberglass when cut makes me itchy so often wear a complete dust suit and mask.

Have to watch cuts closely as if the peel ply is loose at all it will wrap around the bit and brake the bit.
Great Machine :)

One of my next projects is a vacuum bag setup based on a Joewoodworker design.
All this varied work using the MM fascinates me.

Hi Darren
my vac bag setup uses two (one small and one larger ) old refrigerator compressors as vacuum pumps. I have an old aircraft manifold pressure gauge to indicate absolute pressure attached as that is what I had around.
I have mounted this in an MDF box cut on MM

The main thing is to have the air exits from the compressors run up the inside of the cabinet. They then join together at the top and exit via a 20m tube.
This is a makeshift oil air separator so the oil runs back into the compressors. Importantly the air out let goes away from the fiberglass area so the area is not contaminated by the oil vapour / small droplets.

Mine is on three old skate board trucks/ wheels.

Opens up what can be made.
Cheers
David

Great idea to keep the oil in the compressor.
I had read that that can be a problem with them.
Thanks!!

refrigerator compressors are very high pressure pumps, it is possible more than needed, be careful with this.

Is important use special epoxy for high pressure infusion

One good read and list of pumps used for big infusions:

Link

Thanks for the pressure warning.

I am only vac bagging not infusing. The glass is wet out by the resin by hand then put in a plastic bag and the vac pump is switched on. It is possible for these to pull too much vacuum and leave the glass dry. I have not had this problem and I have the two pumps on separate switches. I planed initially for a vac switch to control the vacuum. I never needed it. I usually chase leaks in the bag until I get a vac I am happy with then stop chasing and let it set.

I do have a PVC pipe as an inlet catch to stop resin going into the pumps. I have never needed it as I have never had a trace of resin into the vac line when disassembling the vac bag.

My whole rig with pipe gauges and box was from junk lying around and about $200 for bits I could not find.

The large sheets 1.2m x 2.4m worked very well as we did enough to get well past the initial learning curve. We made one a day setting up after work. vac on overnight. Disassemble before work. These were sealed onto the table and the vac pump was a lot less volume than the link (I estimate). we would pat the air out then apply pump and within ten minutes it would be down to a reasonable pressure. No way we could work fast enough to exceed the earliest time to apply the vac in the manufacturers specs for the resin.

You said your bag is plastic, is that plastic sheeting like the drop cloth type stuff? Do you use a release agent? And do you use a mesh or something to allow the vacuum to reach the farthest points? or is that the purpose of the 2 pumps? Got any Pics? I've always wanted to make my own boat. Too many Questions?:D

Hi Tom

Not much to see as it is in the box.
Top left is air out with a valve to close for transport and keep bugs out. Old 19mm corrugated conduit as long air outlet pipe.
Air inlet is top right starting on al tube. This goes high to help stop air flow carrying resin in, not been a problem.

Gauge is 2.25 inch diameter to get a scale panel slopes back so switch etc does not get bashed as it is rolled around.

min pressure I get absolute is 5 inches Hg.

Plastic that is best is a vac bagging film 0.1mm clear and durable. any plastic that is not melted by the wet resin is ok.

A wadding (can be old cotton or synthetic) is used under the plastic so the vacuum is spread around.
this wadding collects the "dots" of excess resin. when the lay up is done well we get up to six uses out of the wadding. One if too much resin is applied.

Under the wadding is perforated plastic.

Under the perforated plastic is Peel ply.

Under the peel ply is the part that is being made.

The vac bagging more than doubles the time required compared to a hand layup.

Better adhesion to the foam and glass to resin ratio is achieved by vac bagging.

I don't vac bag any of the large curved surfaces like outsides of hulls. Too much hassle and too small a vac pump.

Oh on my computer and phone the photo is the right way up......

I'm thinking after I get the SuperPID set up, I need to get going on a setup similar to yours. Thanks a lot for sharing.

Yeah thanks for sharing

Batterns added and Foam
 

Batterns are attached to the form frames.

10mm Corecell foam is added to the batterns by 1500 screws in recesses cut by mech mate.
This holds the hull shape for classing.
Top of hull half to the left. port side is being made.
Cheers

Hi David,

What size boat are you making?

Looks good so far.

Warm regards

Boat Progress
 

Boat is a Farrier F85 8.5m long

Shown on its side. all MDF and Fiberglass panels cut on MM.

I cut slots in the Aluminium mast on the weekend by mounting it next to the base board of the MM. Great Machine !!
Cheers
David

big project !
something like this ?

http://s30.postimg.org/o3qysuuf1/F_8..._Sailing_2.jpg

something like this in your garden ?

Thats the boat but not my shed...

Yacht makes it to the front yard to be assembled
 

Hi
Long time no post....
I am doing the final assembly of the 8.5m long by 6m wide three hulled Farrier F85.

Mech mate is covered in dust and rust spots as I don't oil it to decrease contamination of the fiberglass components. Only failure in last few years has been the computer mouse.. What a great design! :)
Cheers
David

Congratulations David
 

Anyone who makes a machine then a boat has got it in spaces.
Well done and hope your days sailing are long and enjoyable.

Kind Regards
Ross