Well done on #125, welcome to the club! Now get cutting and enjoying your new beast :)

Congrats to #125 from #101.
Well done, sir.

I had some fun yesterday. First I cut a test piece- 1/2 of a kayak paddle at 20% size. Everything went perfectly.

Next I tested the safety systems of the MM. It was not an intentional test. I started to cut a full size paddle. About 1 second into the cut the gantry lifted and everything came to a nice ESTOP. Apparently I messed up my tool path somewhere. My lead in ramp was in the wrong place, my depth of cut was WAAAY too deep, and my cut speed WAAAY too fast for cutting that deeply. I'll have to see exactly what went wrong. I suspect I just loaded the wrong file. No harm, no foul. It's best not to play with giant power tools when I'm running on very little sleep.

I did the only reasonable thing- I declared victory, and a beer, and tried to get some sleep.

Good Attitude!;)

SUCCESS

This afternoon I was able to put in some quality time with the MM. I'm going to like this beast. I've just started to play with the potential feeds & speeds.

The first complete kayak paddle cut in about the same time as I was able to get on a ShopBot Alpha with a (4hp?) Columbo spindle. By my third paddle, I'm cutting in about 40% of the time of the ShopBot. Compared to the SB, I can take cuts about twice as deep with the MM, at about the same ips, without the chatter.

My Bosch 1617evs router is performing MUCH better than I hoped. I may still upgrade to a spindle in hopes of quieting things, but so far the router is working great.

Great to read all is better then expected ! ;)

How are things progressing with the time you have spent with the Mate now?

I'm learning bunches.

So far, all problems have been user errors. It's a steep learning curve ;-) I've not bothered with fine tuning/set up yet. My parts are well within the tolerance I need, so until I'm bored, we are definitely good enough. I have a few people who want more precision work, so get there sometime.

My Bosch 1617 router is performing admirably, but I have to keep the RPM's too high or I stall it. I'll likely order a Chinese 2.2kw spindle soon. I even have access to an unused 220v 30 amp breaker.

My most recent additions have been 2 remote E-Stop systems. One is just a simple remote with a key fob control. The other is built on an Arduino board & WiFi shield so I can E-stop via the web. The eventual plan is to have a webcam monitoring the machine. All of this is separate from my control computer.

The next addition will be a laser crosshair, so I can get a quick confirmation that I'm using the correct offset. Maybe it will prevent me from chewing through my jig next time...:D Maybe

I just finished installing a HY 2.2kw spindle & VFD. If anybody is looking, the instructions are here. And here for the VFD settings. Confirm & understand all the settings before you do anything. It looks like not all the settings from the link are needed (or wanted).

Pro tip (which I'm sure many already know)-
Actually enter the set up numbers into Mach3's ports/pins setting screens, don't just confirm them. I lost a full day until it hit me that I should try ACTUALLY ENTERING THE NUMBERS, instead of just seeing if they were correct.

Sales are coming in, and I've not been trying. Now that the MM seems fully functional, it's time for some serious sellin' :D

Great to hear about you and your recent developments !
Also good to read your having nice business growth !
All the best, keep on posting :D

Yeay! Now, that got me itching... I contemplated on building a Mechmate like 7 years ago, before finally gave up (budget/skill/time constraint, etc.).

I'm determined to finish it this time.

7 years.... I hope I could get sales as quick as you! :)

Random update-
MM is running great, Chinese spindle not so great.

During my warm up routine for the spindle, a bearing started talking to me today. I did the only reasonable thing, and ignored it. It did quiet down once under load.

Tomorrow I'll order up another spindle and hope I have better luck. Then I'll (hopefully) rebuild the old one and have a back up unit.

The lack of skill didn't stop me. Stubborn is a poor substitute, but I have plenty :D

Some chinese spindles come with plain radial bearings instead of AC for lower pair , friend of mine ordered cheap AC to replace and had a lot of runout. Tried Timken 6005-C3 deep groove and his spindle is running true 0.01mm and the bearings are holding well for the last couple of months cutting every day.

Thanks Danilo!

Another occasional update-

Much chaos here- illnesses & death in the family :-( Not much time to play, or work. I'm finally back at it.

My 2.2 kw spindle bearings are sounding angry, so I ordered another spindle. Once it's here, I'll swap it out and see about replacing the bearings in the old one. It looks like decent bearings are going to cost considerably more than an entire Chinese spindle, so I may just keep buying spindles & keep a back up on hand.

A local branch of a BIG company tracked me down to cut some plastic for them. Not fun, but it pays well. I'll take the money. I had to build a vacuum table, which is working great for just being powered by a big shop vac. Now that I have a vac table, I couldn't see a reason not to have a drag knife (my other business is a custom canvas shop. I spend too much time cutting strips of stuff!). It just showed up. I would have made one, but it would have cost me too much lost work. New toy!

Question-
How can I Estop my machine if the spindle stalls? I'm using the HY controller, PMDX-126, and Mach3. Internet searches have not helped. I lost a piece this morning due to the power to the spindle being lost, but the machine pressing on regardless.

edit- I think I just needed to ask the question to find the answer....

I think I just had the wrong hotkey code. Here is the answer, I think: http://www.cnczone.com/forums/mach-s...top-reset.html

Sorry for you "chaos" ...mate !
Wishing you sanity through all this !

Out of interest, how many hr ( approx) your spindle has / had before....telling you he's angry :p !?

Love to read when one ask a question....for then, seeing self answered :D:p:p
All the best, ;)

There is a spindle repair company in Massachusetts that sells a decent Chinese spindle. You can get the bearings off ebay from them from their ebay store.

I just checked the maintenance log in Mach3. 1600 machine hours, 0 hours on the spindle. Hmmmm.

That spindle has been on the machine since May of 2016. I don't have a good guess as to number of use hours. I'm curious.... I'll poke thru my VFD manual and see if there is a number in the VFD somewhere.

I'll check out the repair company in Mass. Thanks!

Make sure of the dimensions of the bearings and contact them with any questions about the bearings. Here is their store on eBay http://stores.ebay.com/Precision-Bearings-Plus

Business is booming. I've been making and selling lots of kayak paddles, and a few local (BIG) companies have tracked me down with lots of ongoing work. So far, everybody who has tracked me was through connections I made at TechShop Detroit.

I'm hunting for a building, and may be building another machine or 3. I've not found anything I like better than the MM.

Up late Chuck....:p
Glad & envy your.....growth.
Indeed. The Cnc world does have this potential to create......wonders & growth...;)
All the best....Robert

Awesome! I love to hear that someone is being successful with their MM. Keep it rolling Chuck!

Intresting. Can you put some photos of them? I am doing same job for one customer.

hello Chuck #125, i have seen that you have made a vacuum table, have you some photos to share perhaps?

Yannick.

Here'a a pic of some of my paddles.
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/To...n=w512-h908-no

Sadly, I was in too much of a hurry to take pics when I built my vac table. I have 8 zones, but the table is pretty generic. I did use these valves, which I like MUCH better than the typical gate valve. It's powered by a ShopVac. Not ideal, but good enough for what I'm doing.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Nice! I see what you mean about being "busy". Thanks for the tip on the valves. Maybe you could share a picture of your completed vacuum table setup. I'm one of those still "thinking" about a vacuum system.

Chuck can you post a picture of your "Mechmate", for me. or point me to a pic on the forum?Thank you.

Never mind there Chuck #125. I found it.

Question-

A few weeks ago, I was getting mis-aligned cuts, which I tracked to a loose belt in my Y axis drive. I tightened the belt, and all was good.

I'm now getting the same problem, so I assume it's the same answer. I'm away from my machine for a bit, and just had a customer notice a stepped cut from a few days ago. (parts are still acceptable- it helps to have great rapport with customers!)

I've been running my MM long and hard- do belts have a life? Or am I just not tightening things well enough?

Cheap belts will have stretch more than a quality belt for sure. However if you did not put blue loctite on the grub/set screws it can cause this also. There is a lot of torque being applied on the pinions so I would look there first.

I do have Locktite on the grub screws (added after some slippage early in MM's life), and everything is tight. (As of when I checked 3 weeks ago). Customer says I'm out about 15-20 thou.

My belts are these from B&B manufacturing and are neoprene/fibreglass.
https://www.bbman.com/catalog/product/162XL037G

I'm ignorant of the quality of belts, and not really price sensitive. The machine has gotta work :-)

Any recommendations?

Thanks!!

Working in maintenance we found that Goodyear belts held up the longest to the abuse of heat and work stress. They were acquired by Continental a few years back but still make a quality belt.

If you have an indicator that you can use, running a test to see which axis is the problem. I am unfamiliar with your drive setup without some in depth reading. If it is a gearbox drive then a backlash problem can be present.

If your motor is mounted only with four bolts, it could be pulling it back. Mounting a small steel block with a pusher screw to keep the motor in place is a good option as well. This will keep the belt tension constant.

I'm running the 3.6:1 belt drives supplied by Metalhead.

It appears the Y axis is the problem. No detectable error in X. Most of what I'm cutting has square profiles, so it's mostly only moving one axis at a time.

Yup- only mounted with four bolts. I should have thought of the block & pusher screw, but didn't.

Thanks!! I will fab up a pusher block and bolt, and track down some Goodyear/Conti belts.

For what it's worth Mate (Chuck) !!, in my case, I tend to get this (of alignment, or out off spec) occasionally !
In my case, what cause this, is mostly on my "Y" as it get out of alignment.
Many factors I've found through time ( aside others) is, for me, being in northern east Canada, seasoning ( temps changes creates expansion & contraction ) of everything !
Metal, the concrete slab on what the machine sit, indore temps & humd changes with seasons..... on....& on !
So, in a nut shell, through all these years ( 10 now with my babe :eek: )....i've learned not to neglect recheck at least 2x per yr (if not 3 x ) the "realignment" !!

Sure, belt may be an issue?!?, not questioning that, but never had for me @_@!!

My 2ct & situation though I'd shared !
All best bud....;)