For me.....it's definitely the coconut tree....:D

Grey Day 2
 

Marked out the bend lines.
Put some primer on the unbent profiles.
A lot of rain today, vertical rain so I could work.
Horizontal rain means no work.

I had some silver paint hence "Hawkwind".(Silver Machine)

It is too hard on the eyes, have to decide on another colour and title.

Some things I could not understand on the drawings but I found the answers on the forum.
Other people have had the same problems.
My thanks for their questions and my thanks for the replies.
If you want more coconut photos, I have some.
Also shorts and flip flops. :)

When I first was allowed to use a welder , age 12, I learned that protection from the arc was a good thing!

I was making my first go-cart and found that I could hold the piece firmly on the ground with my feet and hold the rod steady by bracing my arms on my legs and welding between my feet..

Of course I was wearing shorts and the sparks stung a little, but, Hey I was doing manly work!

The next morning I awoke to find the insides of both my legs had turned cherry red and hurt like hell... No more shorts for me!

Burn Notice
 

I have a similar story. I bought a plasma cutter and a MIG welder. I went out and cut up a bunch of steel my friend dropped off. I several items to weld and when I got done I cleaned and took a shower. I came out of the shower and my wife started laughing. She pointed and my stomach. The rips and tears in my tee shirt had formed a smiley face . I went around for the next week with a smiley face and boy did it hurt.

Round the bend
 

The home made leveling feet fitted and worked well.
Rails on the base pilot drilled.
One broken 7 mm drill bit.

Plates bent today.
The guy was good.

Problem. The 51 degree bends.
The bent profile would clash with the machine.
I told him to guillotine along the bend line.
The cut off parts were welded back on.
I was worried that they would not fit.

I did a dry assembly when I got home.
Left side perfect, Right 2mm out of square, not too bad.

Started to assemble the grinding skate.
Problem.
Makita grinders are different.
Yes I saw the post about this and DXF file too late.
Cut off some bits and used a larger washer.

Problem.
The bearings I had were a different diameter.
Elongated the hole by 6mm, 10 minutes with a round file and a pint of water, problem solved.
Hope to grind the rails tomorrow.:eek:

My wife would kill me and stuff me in a box, to be hauled off with all the metal material for my MechMate, IF I even thought about welding or working on a floor as nice as yours is. :eek:

Rails ground
 

I ground the rails today.
It went better than I expected.
I will post the details in the rail grinding experience thread.
The grinding was done in the carport just in case your wife is worried about the floor.

I primer painted the profiles that got bent yesterday.

Very happy with the days work.:D

Congradulations
 

One step closer to completion. I need a car port. My garage is full and it would be great not to be rained on. It rained Saturday so at 2:00 in the morning I went out and finished painting the legs to my table. Today is Sunday and it is raining like crazy. My pool is filled to the top and there is no chance of doing anything today. Later and again hope you continue to make good progress.

LOVE YOUR WORKBENCH!!!! IT EVEN HAS A SINK BUILT IN!!!

Loving it!

Got a carport but would love a pool.
The carport is no good if the rain is horizontal.
Workbench with a sink, should patent that.

Busy day.
Set up the tubes for drilling, clamped rack and rails together.
Went to the machine shop and collected some parts.
They look good.
Wanted the V wheels, but a few more days yet.

Opened out the pilot drilled holes.
I clapped a length of angle to the drill table wit some 3" clamps.
Clamped the box section to the angle with a 4" clamp.
Lined up the pilot hole with the pilot drill.
Change drill to 12mm and opened out the hole.
Repeat the process for the rails.

Tapped and fitted the clamping strips, Temporary for now.
Tapped the bed rails.

Countersunk some holes in the profile plates

Will do some work tomorrow to prepare for some welding on Wednesday.

good work. you will finish it in no time.

Had a busy day but not a lot to show for it.
Bought more mechanical fasteners this morning.

Prepared some parts for welding tomorrow.

Cut the X & Y Axis rails to length.
Was going to mark out some rack for drilling but I misplaced my glasses.
Found then by the bathroom sink after 30 minutes of searching.

Ah !, the joys of failing eyesight and a failing memory.

Hope for a better day tomorrow.

Finished in no time, finished sometime :)

The Shorted Welder
 

Greetings Mechmate fans.

It is time for the next installment of "The Shorted Welder".

I got the gantry ends welded up, also
spider plate, tower carrier and some rack.

Re tapped the threads in the spider after welding.

Now for the big problem, the gantry frame.

I do not have a large workbench so I used the main frame.
I had leveled the frame previously.
I set one end of box section level with the face of the bed up against a M8 stud at both ends.
Clamped the sections to the frame.
Positioned the second section level with the bed face using the gantry
end weldments for spacing.
Checked the measurements and level and clamped the sections to the bed.

Check level and measurements again.

I had no long clamps so I used 2 nuts welded together and 2 1Meter lengths of M8 threaded rod,
Joined the rods together.

Put the threaded rods into the tubes and through the slots in the end pieces.

Tighten up carefully.
Check level and measurements again.

Mark the weld position and sequence with a permanent marker.
All set for a visit of "The Shorted Welder" tomorrow.

very good friend

Cool.

Gantry frame welded
 

Cheers guys.

I got the gantry frame welded today.
Followed the sequence of welding.
Everything was OK until the second turn over.
One corner had lifted about 2mm.

I agonized about trying to correct this.

I decided to continue as there was further welds to do.

Clamped it down firmly and finished the welds.
Gave the frame 5 minutes to cool,
Released the clamps.
It was OK, it sat on all four corners.
A happy man indeed.

My compliments Gerald on a good procedure.

As for tomorrow, what colour will it be ?
I will let the wife decide on that one.:D

Smurf city
 

The air turned blue.
The world turned blue.
Mechmate blue.

My wife liked the colour, so blue it was.

Looking good !

No more heavy lifting after this.

Heavy Day
 

Yes, no more heavy lifting for me, But !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I picked up the gantry frame this morning and thought this is heavy.
Same thought with the tower carrier.
A lot of mass and inertia there.

I looked at my NEMA 23 motors with their 6mm shafts.
No way !

Got a price for NEMA 34 825oz, just waiting to see what the shipping and import will add.

Machine shop say middle to end of next week for the wheels.
Got a price for good bearings.

Some work done on the rack and rails.
Used the pilot drilled rack as a jig.
Pilot one end, put pin in the hole, turn around and drill the other end.

Its "Blue-tiful"...!!
In truth a machine this size would work for me 80-90% of the time.....
Looking very good.

As posted by Surfcnc. Lol !!!!!!!!!!!!
Sounds like my V wheels.

"Find an engineer to bore the pulley.
Ring engineer on the day they say it is ready.
Discuss with engineer the job so they remember which job it was.
Engineer promises to call me back with an update.
No update is forthcoming or even forthcoming !!
Give engineer another 8 days to do job.
Ring engineer after another 8 days suggesting they were going to call back 8 days ago.
Success - the job is done (just this morning by chance).
But... it was tricky, had to machine up soft jaws... far more complicated than first anticipated ??
Payment time $99 AUD for two (2) holes.
Quality of job, pretty darn rough for a pro and visibly out of round."

Would have liked the full sized machine but space limitation.
Looked at building a workshop in the garden, had the space even with the coconut palm in the middle.
Wife said no due to the cost.
If this build generates a profit maybe next time.

Slow day
 

Not a lot done today.
Had to convert the office back into a bedroom as a sister will visit for 3 weeks.

Opened out the pilot holes in the racks to 8mm.
Tapped the M6 threads in the rails.

Bigger motors on order.

Walked out to the front balcony this afternoon to be greeted by a snake.
Bootlace thing, green & black.
Took no chances.
Sent him back downstairs with a broom.
Gave the tree it came up on a haircut.

A few small jobs planned for tomorrow.
What will delay me for a few days is the wait for the V wheels.

Phew, I hate snakes, when they startle me.

Wobbley spider
 

Some small progress today.

Y axis rails and racks fitted.

The spider plate had a wobble mainly due to the bending process.
When the machine shop made the bosses that are welded on to the spider
they hardened then.
I did not ask then to but they did.
A file was out of the question.

A few whacks with a club hammer and a skim over with a flap wheel in the grinder did the job.:D

That spider doesn't look very healthy...
I do have a spare spider. You can have if if you pay for the shipping.

Looking at that spider, it appears to be a good offer.

Thanks for the offer Ken, I will bear it in mind.
You dont happen to have a spare Mechmate by any chance:)

No work done yesterday on the machine, I had to build a bed.

I would take him up on that offer in a heart beat!

The spider is a critical part of your machine and difficult to adjust even with a well bent spider.. Your current spider is really damaged...

Spider need tender touch & care.

Spider
 

This sounds a bit serious & the other spider sounds lonely.
Can you inquire how much the shipping is please Ken.

Where about in Thailand you reside?
I don't think its expensive, most likely under 1000bath with Poslaju courier.
You want it bent as well? I can get it done for a song here.

Delay
 

Looking at a major delay.
Phoned the machine shop, worker doing the job has not turned in so far this week.
Cant do much more without wheels.
Motors due next week.
Made a few small brackets and cut a cable chain plate.

Full speed ahead
 

Today was a bit like Christmas.
The machine shop phoned to say the wheels were ready.
The profile shop phoned , the plates for the bigger motors were done.
Picked them all up, got the bearings (Ouch)

Fitted the base board.
Pressed in the bearings using the drill press.
Remember when fitting bearings, make sure the number on the bearing faces out. This makes identification possible for you or any subsequent owner.

Also the new motors arrived.
If you are not sure what the difference between a Nema 23 260 oz and a Nema 34 860 oz is , WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!, should cover it.
I will post a comparison photo tomorrow.

Full speed ahead.
Any icebergs about ?

did you put some locktite on the bearings? they will fail on the time. i have some problem with them.. final solution was some MIG solder points.

is that a 6560 stepper board? i imagine that is NOT for the Mechmate.

6560 is cheap, if it burns, it won't burn a hole in the bank book :)

I second Fernando's loctite advice too.

ติดตามอ่านอยู่ครับ :)

Rail on
 

Thanks for the Loctite advise.
Is it red or blue, one is studlock the other is bearing lock.
Will ask Google, he knows everything.

Not a clue on the board, it came with the kit.
I bought the kit from the same company that I used for my first build.
No problems with them.
Everything worked well.
Longs Motor.

Got the gantry on today, everything went well.
Y car on, needs some shim washers, the shop was closed so I made some temporary ones.

Back ache from all the solo lifting.
Nobody available when you need them.
Who needs a gym when there is a Mechmate to be built.

Looks great. I really like it.

"Thanks for the Loctite advise.
Is it red or blue, one is studlock the other is bearing lock."

Have a look at this : http://www.loctiteproducts.com/p/t_l...-Green-290.htm

Great advancement.....looks you'll be making dust soon !!