Blue is a good color ;)

Nice progress you have there firechief.

Keep on with the work, don't see back, and be in no doubt. You'll be cutting before me.

Borko

Rails have started
 

This weekend I worked on my V rails. This was a big pain in the A##. I have over 12 hours in just cutting off and v grinding the rail... It is done and I,m glad. I think the out come was good and should work well.

Main rails
 

After we got the rails done we started on the main I beams. got them cut off to size and cleaned up before they get leveled up and welded. I drilled and tapped three 1/4 20 in the I beam bottom leg. I will use then to level the beams before welding. I will get some pic of this as we set the main beam.

Next I will get the mounting holes in the V rail along with the hard stops and proxy target holes. I will have this move on the rail soon I hope.

One more note on the grinding skate... you need to use button head harden bolts for the height adjustment with button turned down on the rail, Softer bolts will gail on the top of the rail and will not slide along the rail. I had a hard time at first with grade 5 bolts before I made the change.

As always If you see something please let me know.

An interesting acronym on your main beams.:)

Tim you are moving right along, thanks for posting , but why did you reference your cut of the rail off 2x wood that cups and twists? Instead of letting bolt heads ride on a steel beam, I haven't done rails yet but assume you will need to straighten that cut by removing the wood and grinding it?

The beam was not that wide (4") for the head of the bolts to ride on. I placed the board on the beam and the rail on top of that and clamped it all down to the beam. This was flat and worked great for me. It was a new 1"x10" so it had no twists and was flat to start with. I used round headed bolts to ride on the wood.

I did not have any thing that was 11' long and 6" to 7" wide for the rail and the skate to ride on, so this is how I come up with a way to cut the rails.

Here is how I adjusted the rails to be level.. Then I welded the beams to the table for good. The bolts were to adjust the beam, I had three of them on each beam, one on both ends and one in the middle.

Thanks for looking

Go the rail on and looking good.

This is how I got the Gantry rail bolted to the gantry. I used a rod that I threaded on one end, put the clamping plate inside the gantry tubes and threaded the shafts in the clamping plate on both ends of the gantry. I lower the rails over the shafts and set them on the gantry. Then I pulled the shafts up and clamped them in the up position. I then put the bolts in the remaining holes removed the shafts and put the two bolds in there place. Work get

firechief

Some more rail pics all together

Gantry and Y cart stops.

Every thing is ready for paint. It will be going Tuesday to get color.

Very good. I suspect you will be cutting in a short period of time.

This has been a big project to put together, but I had a lot of fun so far. I just got back from dropping it off to get painted "Sky Blue it is". I will be picking it up on Friday. Now I got to clean the shop from all the grinding dust before It gets back. Thanks for looking. I have been working on Mach 4 and all the coding to setup the e stops, limits, homing and so on, Then on to v carve pro "big learning curve all the way around".

If it was easy everyone would be doing it.

firechief

Did they show you a swatch on that color? Royal/Ford Blue is the typical Blue used. Just want to make sure your getting the color your looking for. I had an experience with sky blue once that the painter used powder blue instead...

They did show me a color chip... I hope it is the same and we will know Friday.

I will post pic when it is back in the shop... Will be looking for some stickers soon I hope, and get on the build list with a number???

Kornerking Bronze looks good also.:D

I got it back from paint... Not bad looking. Now it is time to resemble and make it move.

Starting to get stuff mounted... it is hard to make the stepper noise with your mouth, but you know I tried. Got the rails painted as well.

Every thing is level and rolling smooth. Still got the Z to do. Looking at water cooled spindle, alone with a cooler and pump set on the Y cart. This making the run short and the system will be right in you face to keep your eye on. It will have a water movement indicator and temp read out as well. What do you think Pros or Cons

firechief

Looking awesome.
Now get a move on.

Wow, that looks so nice! Well done, you'll be cutting in no time at all.

That's one serious heat sink! Looking very sharp! You're in the home stretch now.

Thanks for all the comments on my build. Hope to be cutting soon. Then the learning curve with mach4 and v carve pro.

Any and all help is welcome.

The stepper drivers are mounted to that on the inside, I cut out the side of the box to the size of the heat sink less 3/8" all around to seal and bolt it on. The drivers are bolt on to the heat sink on the inside. I can add a fan if needed on the out side of the control box, this keeping all the heat on the out side.

Thanks, Not sure how long it will take to get all the movements dialed in. When mach4 calls for 1" of movement the spindle moves 1" on all axes, also getting the spindle square to the table and so on.

Again thanks for looking
firechief

That is a good looking build. Very nice work.

Get any movement yet Tim? looked like you were moving right along

Water Cooling
 

I got the water cooler setup along with the radiator and 3 fans. The water pump and fans startup with Mach4 calls for the spindle to start. work great so far.
As you can almost see the water flow indicator on the Z slide just after it come out of the spindle, to make sure it has water movement. The temp is showing there in front of the fans.

Let me know what you think?

It is alive
 

I got the thing moving... I even crashed it one or two time :D :confused:
I got V carve pro 8.5 and Fusion 360. There is a lot to learn the curve is just about strait up. I fly cut the table, that was way cool the first time. I had to do it three time to get the spindle sq to the table and the steps adjusted right.
I have been cutting some small parts and made a base for a LED edge lite sign. The last pic show me making a vac boot for it out of wood (this will be from HDPE when done). This boot will let the z go to Home 0 and the hard stop.... if needed.

Maybe I can get stickers for it so I can get a number as well. :)

Let me know what you think.
firechief

Looks good! Just needs logo for a number.

Awesome job Tim! Looks like a great job. Now let's see some projects and maybe even a video. :)

Firechief I have moved your thread since you are now cutting.

Excellent job, Well Done.