Wayne - real impressive!

Thanks Irfan....appreciate the comment.

Assembly continues.
 

Carriage idler wheel is installed. Amazing how tightly the spring assembly holds the carriage to the rails.

The Z assembly is installed and adjusted. The slide rolls through all 6 wheels very smoothly, can't even feel the transition:D

I made the z-up and down stops ajustable. Thought a little flexablity might be useful in the future. As you can see the stops are currently set to the middle of the range.


The last photo shows the spindle / router head mounting pins.

The last machine which was finished like this was may be JR's - How I hope my brush would get me that finish :)

think you are a day away to movement!

Have fun - and the next serial

RGDS
IRfan

BEAUTIFUL machine Wayne:)

Irfan - I had hoped to have it running today, but found I was short a couple of nuts and bolts so it will have to be tomorrow.

Glad you like the machine Greg, appreciate the comment.

Almost done.
 

After almost 30 hours of work this weekend:eek: ....my Mechmate is nearly complete, just need a few more nuts and bolts. I believe the electronics will go quick, since the control box is already built and tested.

Wayne,

Awesome looking finish, the black really looks good. Take lotsa picture before you get it dusty. Congrats.

...I want to see lot's of pictures of it dusty! :D

I agree it doesn`t stay clean that long

No problem, I look forward to getting it dusty......that's the fun part:)

Machine wiring is complete
 

I completed the wiring of the machine today. All that is left is to connect the machine to the control box:D

I made a special effort to run as much of the wiring through the machine as I could, this should prevent wiring damage once the Mechmate is put into service. I also ran a 1/4" air line to the Y-car, thought I might have a use for it in the future.

The control boxes were ordered from DigiKey....I like them,they fit perfectly. The buttons were removed from some surplus equipment that I aquired a couple of years ago. The start stop engraving was done on my small mill.

Truly impressive machine Wayne, nice attention to detail. I see J.R.'s idea of black rails is catching on, it makes a nice contrast.

I see your motors have shafts out the back, are you going to add encoders or were they just conveniantly available?

You may want to bend the anchor plate for the Z spring up a bit, (or mount it with the short tab on the Y-car and the long end attached to the spring) that spring angle is a bit steep and you will not be getting the optimum pressure of the pinion into the rack. Yor spring is pulling "down" instead of "across".

Nice detail work Wayne. I am a little concerned at the apparent lack of screening on the pushbutton wires?

Alan,
The motors are new (old stock) that I bought cheap, the shafts serve no purpose on this machine. Good call on the spring bracket, I did not notice the angle until you pointed it out. I will flip the bracket as you suggest. Agree, J.R.'s idea of black rails is great....it adds a nice "factory made" feel to the machine.

Gerald,
Not sure I understand what you mean by screening, do you mean electrical shielding? If so, all the wire used in the machine is shielded (except the EMO). The pushbutton wiring is actually twisted pair w/shielding.

That's fine then Wayne!

(It appeared to me to be discrete wires, and that's why i said "apparent")

Ok, I see it now.

There are a lot of functions in the control box, that's why there is so many wires. I also wanted to have extra conductors for future functions like air solenoids and lighting.

TaDa - it's moving.
 

After completing the controller connections this afternooon....I threw the power switch and made the MechMate move:D

I still need to clean up a few wires and finish building the router mount.....before it's truly complete.

Here's a couple of short clips of the machine in action.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46mir5E6iNM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHvUkAbT5Uo

Well done Wayne!

Great job Wayne!:)

Now start making some dust to cover that overly clean floor:D

Thanks Gerald. I appreciate all the effort you put into the design and plans....it's an extremely well designed machine that was a pleasure to build.

Greg, it will be making dust soon....just need to fabricate the router mount. I spend this afternoon playing around with the machine.....tuning and testing. The machine runs super smooth after nulling out the Gecko's :)

I am currently uploading another YouTube video that simulates the highspeed cutting of 32 holes (bolt-hole pattern) at 300ipm and a triangle at 500ipm. Even at that speed the machine runs very smooth. I will post the link once the load is complete.

Youtube link to highspeed cutting video (simulated cut)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOWbhc7-8gw

Nice video, thanks

The first part has been cut!
 

I cut my first part night:D It's an RC dragcar chassis that was to big to be cut on my small mill.....but not a problem for the MechMate:eek:

I mounted the laminate router from my other mill.....not a lot of power but it cut well. I will use this router for making smaller items, because I have 1/8",3/16" and 1/4" collets for it, so it's perfect for those small endmills. My larger router will be used when I need big bits and more horsepower.

I have a couple of short videos, I will post the link once they are uploaded.

Nice going Wayne,
Looks like another serial number is coming up. :)

Thanks Heath, I hope it passes inspection:)

Here's the finished chassis....since it's a prototype, I cut it from pressboard. The final version will be cut from composite material.

Nice work Wayne, I hope the non- symmetrical holes are planned and not something loose on your machine ;)

1 st April,April fools number for you Nice going!:)

Well done Wayne!

(Hennie, his local time was still 31 March)