Ok, who ordered the spaceship ?

Cool, what process did you go through to make it

Beam me up Scotty. Must, get, home.

Process
 

As Ken C said, search for a .dwg or .dxf file or draw one from scratch.
Edit and scale the file to suit your piece of wood.
Save the file as a .dxf.
Put the file through your cam/ post processor to create the n.c. program.

As I do not have a planer thicknesser I faced both sides of the board on the router.
Cut the job. Sand, seal, stain/ varnish.
Fill the engraving with paint, wipe off the excess.
Thats about it.

De railed
 

by the way the close to the edge referred to the band YES.
Well all the new rails are cut. I never did get the plasma cutter working.
exchanged the two consumable parts. I rewired it for 230volts. The air compressor is plenty big to handle the air and pressure. but that will a task for another day.
I did get finished with cutting all the new rails. I ordered a new skate from Mike and will start putting a pretty little v on these guys when it arrives. It has been raining the last couple days so that is slowing progress. I would like to put slots in the rails so I can adjust them but I will need to dig the mill out of the corner and put it up front.
If I get this done I can start to plan assembly of the y-axis. Later

Plasma
 

Well I guess the plasma cutter didn't want to be used to cut the rail but I did get it working. I need to buy a inline dryer.
Well it finally hit me. I went out and moved some of the machines around and put the mill up front in the double car side. Now I can hang the ten foot rails out the garage opening and not worry about pumping into things.

New Skate
 

I received the new skate I ordered from Mike. I found six of the eight bearings in my computer room. I stash parts there now since I am really lousy at organization. While I found the last 2 in the garage today while looking for nuts and bolts for the skate.
I really hate to admit it but Jimmy Carter was right when he tried to convert us to metric. I have a mixed collection of both. I had to get no# 12 metric bolts that fit the bearings. I drilled them off centered to give them the needed cam action. Hopefully have the skate finished tomorrow and start beveling.
Tonight I go shopping with the wife looking for a new microwave.

anyone have input on rail height? I believe it is suppose to be 1.100 inches.

Rail Grinder Notes
 

Note, Ryobi grinder AG403 4 1/2 inch grinder is a perfect fit for the rail cutter/grinder. Other Ryobi grinder does not fit grinder and requires grinding to fit. Warning when grinder is setup to grind v pattern on rail, the grind wheel is exposed. Wear gloves and eye (full face would be best) protection when grinding. When grinding in one direction sparks are thrown directly into your face.

Grinder Completed
 

Completed making parts for grinder. I was able to bolt it all together after a couple trips to the hardware store. Started testing it. Vibration requires that lock washer be used. Run flapper wheel grinder over rail where grinder bearings run. This may allow bearings to be set to tighter tolerances.

Are you using a sanding disk with a grinding wheel as a backer. This will save you hours of grinding. Also HF's 9.99 grinder fits with no mods as well.

Thanks
 

Is the sanding disk used to finish/polish the the rail.
I wouldn't think it would cut faster. Let me know. Thanks

Use 40 grit and it makes the metal disappear way faster and doesn't glaze. Then move up the grits if you like. If I remember I was able to bevel one of the rails in 15 minutes after I used all the others for learning.

36 grit is what I used....made the 45 deg profile in about 15 minutes for each rail. Finish with 80 grit. Remember to use a REAL grinder disk as a hard backer

Thanks
 

Thanks Rus and Sean. I do have concerns about how the skate "wobbles". It is not really steady. Maybe this is because I am at the beginning of the process. Is it because it is still cutting the square edge and forming the bevel. I guess I will find out tomorrow.

hmmm....... I don't remember mine wobbling. I do remember going one direction it would lift off and going the other direction it would dig in. The eccentric bushings took care of I would think would cause wobble. I also didn't hold the grinder itself. I mounted handles on my skate. Basically Eye bolts that adjusted the height of the skate.

3M 06394 VHB Tape
 

Purchased 3M 06394 VHB Tape on Ebay. I am almost readt to mount gear track on rails. Should be finished with rails by time tape arrives.

Gear Reduction Drives
 

Started to work on drives. Ordered the following parts from

Standard Drive Products. www.sdp-si.com

Belt (5)- A 6B 3-080037 8.16 40.80
Driven Pulley (4) - A 6A 3-72NF03716 33.73 134.92
Drive Pulley (4) -A 6A 3-18H3716 11.58 46.32
Bearings (10) - Ebay FR8Z Bearings 25.00

Hurshy, are your belts the fiberglass or kevlar?

Kevlar

Mine too, I just hope I don't crash the thing and do more damage because the belts didn't break.:eek:

Fill Me In
 

Fill me in. As I understand the MM it is driven by a PC that controls a BOB. In turn the BOB controls the stepper driver/stepper motors. The PC is running Mach3 and it is told what area it can operate in. It also has proximity detectors that act as a secondary safety. When tripped they tell the BOB "stop the motors". There are also hard stops attached to the axis. I see that this is a piece of steel. I am thinking this needs to be a rubber or a spring to prevent damage.

I see at the top of the web site that there are a series of 5 pictures. Can these be looked at?

Everything you see above is posted throughout the forum, you got to find them, they are there.

The pictures are from the threads.
The hard stops are hard for a reason...they also double as your "hard" registration for squaring the gantry. Not everyone uses it that way - but designed as a hard daily reference.

You only hit them if something goes really wrong in operation.....nothing breaks, but they do the job.

Your signal flow of control is correct. PC uses Mach3 to talk to BOB via LPT or USB port that decodes the control code to dir/step voltage that the gecko (drives) can understand to turn the motors.

Milling Slots
 

Spent the day waiting for Grizzly to call me about returning the bandsaw I bought. When I bought it it stated that it was INDUSTRIAL. So I figured that it could handle bought metal and wood. I was wrong on that. It is industrial wood only. They are being very nice and taking it back as long as I buy another bandsaw. That is fair enough as long as I pay for shipping.

Spend the afternoon milling slots in the y axis rails. That is now done time to start the x axis. The weather right now is windy and chilly. I am going back out and starting to mill the x axis.

FR8Z bearings showed up today. The rest of the parts will be here soon. I bought the steel I needed to make the reduction drive plates. Need to cut the 4 foot plates down to size. Need to create a template and use the plasma to shape them. back to work.

Why are you milling slots in the rails?
The oversize standard hole for the 5/16 fastener has more than enough room for adjustment. The 1/2" hole allows for 3/16" variation.

Or am I missing something?

Sean

Nope You're Not
 

No you are not missing anything, but I do want to have wiggle room if I decide to make some changes down the road. I have been cruising the other sites and see changes that the are making and I decided that since I am waiting on parts right now I would take the time and do it. Anyway I completed the x-axis about ten minutes ago. Tomorrow I will mount them to the frame. Would mount the gear track but waiting on tape from ebay vendor.

3M VHB Tape
 

got the 3M VHB tape in the mail today. I would like to put the gear rails on tomorrow but it looks like rain. Guess I will work on z axis and put v groove bearings on the spider and mount the 80mm spindle mount. I will need to whittle it down to size on the mill.

Zero Drag Coefficiency, Formica washers
 

I was watching machining videos and noticed that they use formica to create surfaces that need to slide freely. I am going to pick up a couple of samples at Home Depot and use then to make washers for mounting the drive mechanisms. and yes I think I will get some blue ones.

Order
 

I called SDP and found out that the 72 tooth pulley will not be available until January. Anybody know of a vendor?

If you are doing 4:1 see if 15 & 60 pulleys are available. Of course the belt length will change too.

Hey Hurshy, I forgot that I have the plastic 72t gears that you may borrow until yours arrive. I can pop them in the mail in the next day, if you want. Just a temporary fix...

Martin makes pulleys. The only brand we use at my place of work.
http://www.martinsprocket.com/produc...nous-sprockets

Amazon sells them too in a pinch.
http://www.amazon.com/Ametric%C2%AE-...g+pulley+xl+72

Spacely Sprockets put money in your pocket
 

Tom thanks but I just ordered.

I ordered the gears and belts. Thanks Pete.
I got the 10 inch rotary table I ordered for my mill. I can now mount the steel I ordered and mill out new pack plates. Boy is this thing heavy, 110 lbs wasn't heavy until I hit 60. I can layout the part and just dial in and mill, reset and mill. Tell you how it turns out.

Gears for Reduction Drive
 

Thanks Pete

The 72 tooth gears showed up today. They sent 3/8 diameter hole/boar. I will mount them in a collet and drill and boar to 1/2 inch. I noticed the specs on the chart states 3/8 plus or minus 1/16 inch. Pretty sloppy until I thought that 3/8 plus 1/16 = 12mm and if you subtract the 1/16 you get 7.9mm shaft.
So it looks like we think we are getting SAE and are sending Metric. Oh well I am happy they came and will resize them tomorrow. One tiny little step for me and mankind has marched on with the band.

Fastenal
 

If you are looking for nuts, bolts, bearings etc. try seeing if you have a Fastenal near you. By brother was hunting for odd ball nuts and bolts for his truck and he found them at Fastenal. The prices are about the same as Lowes and Home Depot. I picked up stainless steel 10-24 cap head screws for the same price as zinc plated. They also sell the rectangular tube used for the y-axis.

The rest of my gears and belts showed up today. I drilled out the pulleys to .500 and made the 3 inch axles for the four units. After I dry fitted the unit I scribed the metal plates as described by Mike. Grinder time. The tab came off and I am ready to give welding a try. Hopefully the turkey is the only thing that gets burned tomorrow.

Here is a photo of the reduction drive. Are the gears suppose to be this close?
http://i1296.photobucket.com/albums/...psfa4a454f.jpg

New Belts
 

You can see that the two pulleys are almost touching. The pulleys are 72 and 18 tooth. I ordered the belts from sdp/si, the part number for the original belt was A6b3-080037( 080 is 80 tooth or 16 inches). I ordered two more belts A6b3-088037( 088 is 88 tooth or 17.5 inches). A6b3-090037( 090 is 90 tooth or 18 inches). Will let you know which one works.

Hurshy,
The bad part is that Fastenal used to be about 1/3 less than Home Depot and Lowes when they sold in bulk. Now the are nothing more than a fastener superstore but you can still negotiate price with them. I have used them since 1997.

The 80 tooth belt would only have left you 0.010" clearance according to the Center Designer at SDP-SI where as the 88 should be 0.93" further apart in a perfect world. That is if you are using XL series. Belts are not that perfect but they do stretch a little. When I did my design I ordered for the middle of adjustment and always found it to be a little tighter than the perfect measurement.

check this seller on ebay http://www.ebay.com/usr/2000mkmp

In Gear for Reduction Drives
 

Finally crated the bandsaw and it is ready to go back to Grizzly. I am tired that thing weight 600lbs before crating. I finished turning the gears I need for the reduction drive. Need to figure what size set screws would best do the job. I have the steel ready to cut for the covers on the drives. Once the new belts show up I should have them done.

http://i1296.photobucket.com/albums/...ps990684f3.jpg

Y-Axis
 

I worked on the Y-axis today. I drilled all the holes needed to mound the v-groove rails. I then took a 7 inch flap grinder to the rails. I removed all the scale and rust. I made sure that all the corners were rounded. I then wiped it down with mineral spirits. I finished by spraying then gloss black. Tomorrow I will drill and mount the gear track and do the same process to the x-axis.