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Looks great, but who is a welder, not me, but still I'm going to weld it myself. And as I write this I have just completed the construction of 36 feet of homemade IPE beams that I'm going to use for building my garage bigger so I can have my mechmate in my garage and alot of other things... :-D

J.R., Good progress!

I notice that you added some round pipe just under the table surface to get your diagonals into a flat plane. You may be surprised by this, but the diagonals would be stiffer if they went off the flat plane to the stronger channels instead. I know it doesn't look quite right, but it is still very strong. There are so many angles under the table that your eye doesn't catch that non-flat plane.

Just thought this might be of interest. This is a Contour Shuttle Pro II. I have 1 on my cnc wood lathe. It has got to be the best thing I have done to the lathe. A friend is running one on his cnc router, he has about 30' of cable connecting it to the computer. He can walk completely around his machine. He said it is the best thing since sliced bread. Artsoft has made a plug-in for Mach that will let you assign the 15 buttons to almost control you choose + the 2 wheels can be ajusted to your satisfaction (for jogging or moving 1 step at the time). It is even better than having a portable keyboard. I already have one waiting for my MechMate. Regards J.R. ps the caps of the 9 top buttons are removable so a lable can be inserted.:cool:

http://www.machsupport.com/PlugIns/shuttlepro.jpg

Nice
 

What is the price tag for one of those.???

Gerald I did consider the weakness of the pipe compared to the channel and came to the conclusion that the Y car wouldn't have enough momemtum to flex the pipe. If it were the entire gantry starting and stoping that would another story. Hope I made the right decision.

On e-bay used around US $60. Other places on the internet less than $100 new.

Gerald what would you think about adding part # M1 30 123 to the laser cut profiles. It could have the holes and the etched O mark for the location of the bearing stud? Thanks J.R.

Sure, you could have it laser cut, but it is a very low-tech plate easily made from scrap.

Pictures of my most resent progress.

Stunning!

That's an inspiration! Well done!

WOW, way cool. Nice work!

Next I'm going to enlarge that bald spot on my head:D

J.R.

Are you putting a cable track on the X axis also?

I was thinking about doing the same. When you study the "big boys" machine, they all have very nice cable mangement systems.

Greg

Yes the larger track (75" about US $100) will be for the X. I'll post some pictures when I get it done.

Some pictures of the cable track. Ya'll might not want to hire me by the hour ..... this took over 12 hours. :eek::eek:

12 hours is not bad for the first one - when you don't have drawings. :o

I lowered the chain on my Y-axis in case I ever wanted to add a second Y-motor. Yes, the chain then drops a bit below the gantry, but it has never bothered us.

Personally, I would have done the X-axis chain from the other side. The connecting point to the gantry would be nearer the bundle of cables coming from the y-chain, the other end would point towards where the operator and control box would most likely be located. And I think I would drop the x-axis chain about 300mm [12"] lower down for the times when having to lean over that wide table.

J.R.,

As I look over your pictures, I notice that you went with the non-geared motors. There was quite a bit of debate on this topic about 4-6 weeks ago. Did you have any specific reasoning that you want to share?

The good news for me personally is all of the things I had to finish before I started my build are actually coming to completion. I can't wait to build!!!!!!!!

Did you maintain that supplier spreadsheet? Want to share it??

As everyone so far has agreed...

YOUR WORK IS BEAUTIFUL!!!!!!!!!!!!

Marc

Marc it's all about my wallet:), I paid $200 total for the 4 motors including shipping (used, but like new). I plan on trying them direct drive first then if I'm not satisfied I'll try making some 3 to 1 belt drives (unless someone knows where I can get a few gear boxes to fit them). My main concern is the possibility of movement during the reduced holding current issue with the geckos.

Yes I do keep adding to the spreadsheet, however I no longer have a zip program. How can I get it to you?

J.R.

If Gerald doesn't mind, you can simply fool the forum software by renaming it .zip. It isn't a size issue, the file will be tiny. It is a security issue. .xls's can have autorun macros. That simply can't happen if you rename it .zip so there are no security issues either. Just say in the post if you rename it rather than zip it so that I, and others, can simply rename it back. But... if you are running XP, it can zip without any additional software. Just create a compressed folder and copy the .xls into it. That compressed folder is a zip file.

However, the rename method is the simplest solution.

Marc

We have run those very same motors for a long time under Geckos - there is no "reduced holding current issue". It works fine. Mike_R is the one having a concern with reduced holding currents, but he uses totally different motors and controllers (his are with encoders and behave closed-loop). Our experience is 100% okay on the holding torque of those particular motors used direct-drive while Geckos give them the (optional) reduced current. The reason I swing towards reduction/gears these days is to improve the slight chatter on curves - it has nothing to do with holding torque.

File renaming is fine. Just watch that you don't chew up your 3 MB of total allocated file space on this forum. (you can go back and delete files to free up space).

Thanks Gerald,

Whew, I thought I had missed something about the motors. I went with the SG7.2 geared motors and the G203V drives. Mainly because Doc Tanner was using them and the performance was good. Also, chatter marks is something I don't want.

J.R. Thanks for the photos. They really help allot.

Greg

This is the link to the Excel spreadsheet for parts in the US. http://www.msnusers.com/ncmechmate/d...nw?fc_a=0&fc_p=

Gerald this was my original plan, to run EMT conduit from the X track around the corner to the Y track. These compression connectors make it very stout. I kept the conduit to the right side of the X bracket so I could drill a hole on the left to accommodate the wires for the X motors. I'm thinking about running the 120 AC line for the router with the dust collector pipe (completely away from all other wires) or just tie wrap it to the outside of the conduit. All suggestions are welcome. thanks

Remember that the conduit must take 5 cables (z-motor, y-motor, E-stop, pushbuttons, ground) - 6 cables if the router/spindle is included - 7 cables if the spindle has a fan and thermistor.

Congratulations J.R . It is a challenge to post pictures after looking at yours. Nice detail work. Very inspiring work.

Now to finish what I was trying to say in post 64. I kept the conduit to the right on the X bracket so I could put another one to the left when Gerald realized the one was not going to accommodate all the wires needed.:D:rolleyes: I never thought I would need that many wires. Thanks for catching that Gerald.

Thank you Hugo for the encouraging words.

J.R.

I have to agree with Hugo, you do such nice work, its hard to post pictures. Actually, your high quality work is making me step it up a notch.

Thanks for the photo's, they will help with my fabrication.

Greg

j.r,
im a newbie and was looking at cncs and am thinking of building the 4'x8' mechmate. What do you think your total cost will be inthe end?

Picked up my white MechMate vinyl letters today, 2 pcs 2 1/2" (63) high and 3 pcs 1 1/4" (32) high US $10. I had to convert the DXF file to a PLT file. It would have been a lot easier if I could have converted it as a CDR file (Corel). If someone would do this I think it will help. Thanks

(Logo discussion moved here - Gerald)

Did I tell you guy's about my spray booth:cool:, it's has the best ventilation system ever.:D

So, J.R.,

Tell us how many guys it took to get it out there?

I'm betting you scooted under there to paint the inside. Gulp...:rolleyes: Be careful!

P.S. You sure are cruising! You are going to be cutting soon it looks like.

Don't forget you asked.:p
I didn't have any help of any kind. I moved the beast from inside the shop in the background (down the steps) put it on the saw horses and washed it down with degreaser, flipped it over and washed the inside. I then took it from the saw horses and set it up on the cans and sprayed 2 coats of Ford Tractor Blue paint on it. If I had to do it again I would give some serious consideration to the possibility of taking it apart.;)
It's all true except I did have it taken apart (4 pieces).
I will have to say my back felt better yesterday morning than it does right now. And for all those smarties out there I'm 57 and I got all the children I want, Thank You.:eek: PS I am going to wait for my son to come over and help take it back in the shop (taking it back in is different than throwing it out):).

Hello "super" J.R:D My back hurts just thinking you move that by your self.
¿Can you tell me where you buy your cable tracks and specifications of the track?
Thanks

Hugo, do you have Microsoft Excel (spreadsheet)?

Hello JR. Yes, I usually work with excel.

Hugo go to http://www.msnusers.com/ncmechmate/d...nw?fc_a=0&fc_p= there you will see a link to a spreadsheet, the info about the cable chain is in it, lines 13, 14, 16, 17. thanks J.R. ps when I double click the spreadsheet link it opens up.

Hello J.R
I open the spread sheet but there is no specific information about the cable track. Just gives McMaster address . ¿What am I missing?:confused:
Thanks

Hugo, keep going to the right the spreadsheet goes all the way to column J.

Upssss.
Thanks, got it