Kobus, some older geckos had connector problems. See if you can get a new set of connectors to plug over the gecko's pins. (Unless you have already opened the gecko and see burn marks inside)

I have read about connector problems before, but I have connected that faulty Gecko onto the other X-axis connectors and vise versa. I am sure it is not the connector.
Had a look at PC-board, but no burn marks. LED is on. Still to check the opto-isolator chip on the socket...this is where the control signals come into the board.

Investigation at work under the Electronic microscope revealed this on the PC board. Sometime in the past it got wet. The rust grew and grew I suppose.
Not a Gecko problem...manmade problem.

Attachment 9081

That looks repairable. How about calling Greg at CNCDirect and asking his advice?

POOL Table
 

Finished another Hall Table (top from MINGERhout ..Mtumi) and varnished the Blackwood made previsouly with 2K car lacquer. This NARROW one fits perfectly in a normal house hall.

Attachment 9171

Attachment 9172

Looks wonderful as always Kobus.

Well done.

Jayson.

Nice work!
Can not really see from the pix, I always wonder how those 2K varnish will look like on wood. Do you have to apply any base coat before the 2K's?

It is common to use catalyst (2k) lacquer for wood in factories. However automotive and wood lacquer are two totally different products and should be used for the appropriate application as they have different properties.

The advantage of using catalyst lacquer is that subsequent coats do not dissolve the previous coats, so it is quicker and easier to fill the grain. A more environmentally friendly water based lacquer is also available but I don't have any experience in using it.

DIY poly urethane or enamel paint takes at least 24 hours to dry, so a paint job can take several days to apply multiple coats.

Using oil offers no protection against moisture. In addition it attracts dust and gives off on clothes. It is also (nearly) impossible to apply lacquer on an oiled surface later.

If you use sanding sealer, it "sinks" every time you apply a subsequent coat as it dissolves the previous coats so it requires more coats and more elbow grease. Sanding sealer does not protect the wood against moisture or UV.

Sand the raw wood with 60 grit cabinet paper, then fill all the small imperfections with stopping and then sand with 220 grit free-coat paper (the white one). Be careful not to use an orbital sander on raw wood, as it leaves little "worms" on the wood. This is caused by the heat of the sanding process that melts the resin in the wood and then sticking the goo and grit to the sanding paper. A belt sander (always with the grain) finished by a light sand by hand provides the best results.

You cannot prepare the surface too much!

If staining is required, it should be done at this stage. Stain livens up the wood and gives a nicer appearance. Spirit (methanol) stain gives better results than water based stains. Stain is just colour, it offers no protection whatsoever.

Then I apply a liberal coat of lacquer, let it dry properly, sand it with an orbital sander with 220 grit to create a nice, level surface. Build up the coats (usually 3 or 4) to get a nice, even finish. If you discover any small imperfection, use a drop of catalyst lacquer to fill it up. This method is cheaper than applying coat after coat to try and fill th elittle hole. It is advisable to sand the second last coat with 360 or even 1000 W/D with water to create a nice finish, specially if it is a quality piece of furniture.

Use a high pressure spray gun. You can use a low pressure gun or a brush, but the finish will not be as good as the high pressure gun atomises the lacquer into small droplets and gives a nice fan. Over spray 50% to ensure all areas are properly covered.

I buy Turbobright from Technipaint in Denver. It is available in clear or tinted (for MDF) in matt, satin or gloss. Thin with lacquer thinners (also available from Technipaint) The stuff is water resistant. Satin is the most forgiving finish as matt is very "dead" and gloss shows every little mark and finger print.

For maintaining the surface, beware of spray polishes. They contain silicone which causes fish eyes if you try to restore the item later on. A waxed based (Cobra) polish works best and a little elbow grease (available at your local bike shop) is sufficient.

Make sure you follow the instructions and use a respirator in an adequately ventilated area.

Wow so much info, my head is still spinning. I have oiled the piece with boiled Lynseed oil a while ago to bring the colour out. I then gave it a light sanding 3 weeks later and applied the 2k (mix 2:1) with my cheap little 24litre Makro (shop) compressor and R 240.00 spray gun. The guy that sold me the 2k also had his ideas that the 2k will not stick to the oiled surface, but so far it looks like it is holding on well.
I gave it a couple of shots, let it dry overnight and then used one of those 3M pads and the garden hose to wipe it down. This removed all the little upstanding pieces. I dried it and gave it the final coat of 2k. It is as smooth as a babies bum.

Kobus is becoming quite the expert in making nice stuff. He will have to start teaching the rest of us soon.
Excellent job Kobus.

Kobus, that is a nice table. Is it me or is tile flooring really popular is SA? You guys really seem to have tile everywhere. Halls, living room, poolside,......

Hi Marius, glad to see you are still around.. What have you cut lately ? Show some pic's.

Making nice things is only possible if you have nice REAL wood to work with. This Mtumi is now the first piece I used...have been lying in my workshop for more than 3 years. Up to now I was afraid to use it in case I stuff it up. From now on I will use it more as confidence builds up and I know what I want to make.

Heath, tiles over here is very popular in houses I suppose.....Good for summer but VERY cold in winter. All the floors in the house is tiled apart from the bedrooms that have carpet.

I like my POOL table...must make some of those long sticks to play the balls with...

We put in floor heating under our tile floor here for the winter. They stay nice and toasty on the feet. All our heating in our house in in floor. Very nice. You need good heating in Canada. I think I could last through one of your winters quite nicely..... :)

Ugly table ...Said the wife
 

Today way a nice holiday at home. Made some 100mm Sq turned leggs with 8 flutes...one left-hand direction and one right-hand direction. Thought I would be BRAVE and do something else....The BOSS said outright....it's UGLY :o

Well with some stain and varnish it might become something.

Attachment 9191

I'll bring you some stain and lacquer on Saturday.

Kobus make another one looking the same get some glass 1000 x 700 as a top and use some of Jan`s stain and see what the wife has to say then.

Kobus, you do some excellent work. Those tables are beautiful. Wish I had an indexer now.

Kobus,
We had to close shop and are busy moving at the moment so no time to cut until I have built a new shop.
I am picking fruit from the same tree as you at the moment.

The first never is the best.

Like when courting a woman, you need more attempts until she falls in love :)

On reflection, when I think of examples of various turned columns, those with uniform diameters all seem pretty "masculine"; those with tapers or bulges become more "balanced" or in some cases "feminine". Maybe that has something to do with the reaction? That piece does sort of scream "courthouse" or "Men's Den/Library". "Solid" "Stout" "Powerful" "Squat" etc.

Quite a contrast with the "Svelte" tapered legs on the table above.

They are pretty cool, though.

Marius, welcome to the club...together we will keep the lights on in dark africa. ;)

Thank's guys and just to show how wonderfull this MM family is. Today I received a parcel from Hennie.
His one Gecko 202 also packed up a while ago. He then replaced both X-axis with new G203's. Thus he had one faulty 202 and one working 202 available which he donated to me. Will see if our electronics guru at work can fix the 2 faulty Gecko's sometime.

Dankie Hennie, jy is 'n doring.:D

Brad,
Might depend on the kind of wife you have too. :D:rolleyes:

Jan de Ruyter how is the dibbler comming on ?

Hi Kobus, was lecturing at UJ this week, so time was few. But I will buy some dome nuts this week and try it out. My concern so far is if I put 200 bolts and nuts into a plank, it is going to be HEAVY. Will look at Skiffy if they have a standard plastic thingy.

Many thanks for the effort, I appreciate.

How about glue instead of bolt & nuts?

Ken, it was all explained in your thread, while you were drinking Amarula. :)
See http://wannafarm.com/

Ouch :D ... I forgot...
How about nylon/plastic bolts & nuts? Its rust & chemical resistance too!

This week I refurbished my little Martlet thicknesser. Took it apart, put new bearings in everywhere even on the bottom rollers. Went to Ruterforts to get the little height adjustment handle as mine never had one when I bought it secondhand a few years ago. While I was there I asked the price of 2 new rubber rollers.....R 490.00 each...ouch.... Well as luck was on my side they did not have the little handle in stock, so the workshop guy took me to a little store room to check if he had any lying around on the junk pile......
What did I see.....2 brand new rubber rollers. He said that he will ask his manager if she would sell it to me at half price at it was just lying there and this model was basically obsolete. This nice lady looked at me, saw that I would give these 2 rollers a good home and told me to take them away and look well after them....exactly what I will do.
Must say this thicknesser is now like new.....happy me.

I also finished that UGLY table.....My wife still say it's not her style, but must admit it is looking better.

I also gave that other hall table a coat of the ELVOLAC that Jan brought me. Must say it is also looking good.

Attachment 9292

Attachment 9293

Lovely work!

Kobus,
beautiful, work, and in my epitaph, you would spell it "peace" not peice
//chopper

Thank's guys, and to Chopper, welcome back, but PLEASE don't be such a hard ass when you differ from other people.

I am sure you have, will and can be a great asset to this forum, but leave the fighting to the asshole politicians out there. PEACE MAN...;) let's smoke the pipe.

Kobus,
never intended to be a hard ass, actually far from it...if that is your perception,
I can see where it may seem to be that way but I just call it like I see it,
if I have an opinion I will share it, and when I Am wrong I will admit it,...
so with that said I admit I was wrong about the backlash accumulation,
after a great amount of thought on the subject and research I see that I came to the wrong conclusion, I guess it took me awhile to see the error in my line of thought, but I never intend, that my view is the correct view, it is just my view, all I ever intended was to help others better their machines, but anyway ........
"peace"
//chopper

:) thanks

I have a small engineers square like this..

Attachment 9307

I believe it is not 100 % 90 degrees. How can I check it, because all 5 my squares I think / know is WRONG.

I went to the shop, took some GOOD QUALITY type of engineers squares and held them together and showed the salesman that they were out.

I am also trying to get a good 45 deg miter sled setup on my table saw, but because all these instruments are not PERFECTLY 45 degrees, I don't get it to my satisfaction.

Kobus,

I don't know if this is a official way or not..

What I used to do is draw a line on the wood using a sharp pencil.
Then simply rotate the square around and line it up against the just drawn square.

First line
|
|
|
----

Second line

....|
....|
....|
----

( I had to add the dots because the forum removed my spaces)

if the angle is perfect 90 degrees there should be a perfect fit. If they are not 90% you will draw two lines, properly both ending at the top or the bottom making a tiny sharp triangle.

Ries

Place the square against a known straight edge withthe "block" on the left and scribe a line up the blade, flip the square over so the "block" is on the right, line the blade up with the end of the scribe nearest the straight edge and scribe another line, the two lines should be on top of one another, if they diverge the square is not square.

The best instrument for setting the mitre sled square or 45 deg to the blade is the largest draughtsmans square you can find (the one with two 45's and a 90deg), they cover a large area and are fairly close to 100% accurate - get a known brand like Faber Castell.

I draw a 3-4-5 triangle using a protractor. this will be more accurate then any square money can buy.

Thank's guys. I did it like Ries and Alan suggested, at they are definetly out....should I file/grind it to get it better or just shop till I get one that is correct?
Ken I could draw it on paper / cardboard and slide it under the square to check , or I will get old BBB to cut a draughtmans square tonight and see how accurate MACH3 can cut it out.

Hi Kobus:

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...temnumber=1028

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=94963

Hope that helps :)

Scrap mettal:D