And, for the those of us who get it, dont forget snow on your boots. Slicker than grease when walking on painted or smooth concrete. :) Alan, you probably don't have that problem. :)

No such luck Heath, my closest snow only appears at the top of the mountain outside my front door, and only when the conditions are right, in the middle of winter.

Thanks for the tip, Alan. I'll definately plan for some sand, especially after reading your post on safety :eek:

Heath: Thank you for the response. I will be reading and giving the process a try.

John: Thank you for the info on the flooring. Good points. By the way, I couldn't bring myself to take apart that beautiful machine. I think I would live with the floor and buy a good shop Vac.

Dan

Hello,

I finished the final wiring of my machine, and have been spending some time learing how to use Vectric and operating the machine. Below are some pictures of my first project...a nice sign for the garage.

I'm very happy with how well the machine runs and the quality of the cuts!!

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i can just say WOW!

Nice John, just hope that you have the correct undercoat and paint to make that sign SHINE. I battle to finish MDF properly...let me know what you put on. I made some Yo-Yo's for the kids this weekend, but am not happy with the paint results...otherwise the yo-yo is working fine.

One day while workin on the motorbikes, I wanted to have something powder coated. The chap at the shop took a piece of cardboard, put some powder on it and used a Heatgun to melt it....I am sure this Heatgun method will work on small items.

Also look at this

http://www.mdfcoaters.co.uk/one-coat...-coatings.html

John, gorgeous machine AND sign!

Kobus, doesn't the heatgun blow the powder off?

If it were me, I'd coat the MDF in thinned epoxy prior to painting.

... but I'm in boat-mode so maybe I suffer from "if your only tool is a hammer, all your problems begin to look like nails" syndrome.

Thank you guys.

I've never painted mdf so this will be a learning process. I was going to experiment with wood sealer, followed by primer, then rattle can paint. I'll let you know how it goes!

Jeff, what do you use to thin epoxy? And let's see some pictures of the boat!

John, your X and Y motor cables pass through your switch button boxes. This is okay if the motor cables are not joined (open cores) inside those boxes, as I am sure that yours are.

I just want to guard against some people thinking that the boxes are a convenient place to hide the joints in the motor cables. The motors radiate electrical noise, while the switch wiring is susceptible to noise.

Yes, that's correct, Gerald. My motor cables only pass through the box to keep things neat, but no joins.

John

John your machine looks top notch really clean slick work. The color blue you did is very brilliant in tone. Is that enclosure you used a nema 4/12 Wiegmann? Just purchased another box yesterday from Wiegmann and it looked familiar. If it is how did you find the backpanel, was it stout enough to tap? Was hoping it will be fine and I don't have to get some aluminum plate to replace it. Again, well done!

Brian,
I have similar issues on some of the back planes that come into our shop. I typically install riv-nuts when this happens. Of course, you need a riv-nut installation tool to use these wonderful little gems.

Sorry John, no photos yet, we're still in the modelling stage.

The best way to thin epoxy is to either heat the components prior to mixing or (better) heat the workpiece to about 110 degrees f prior to applying the mixed epoxy.

In a case where maximum structural strength is not a big issue, (such as your sign) you can use up to 5% acetone, denatured alcohol or lacquer thinner (the Gougeon Brothers recommend lacquer thinner, but I'm sure most any solvent will work)

http://www.seqair.com/skunkworks/Glu.../Thinning.html

I would test it on a bit of scrap mdf first because I've never used epoxy with mdf before and I don't know how the cut-edge fibers will behave.

Some are a joke some are very nice. This is my first Wiegmann box but from what I hear they come pretty stiff and nice to tap with large folds to stiffen them up. Hoping I don't have to buy an aluminum plate or use rivet nuts but those open ended knurled rivet nuts are nice.

Jeff, thanks for the info...like many things I learn here: Wish I knew earlier!

Brian, yes the box is a 4/12 Wiegmann. I didn't have any problems tapping the backplate and thought it was very stiff, even after cutting holes for the cooling fan.

nice, how big is that box?

Nice machine John.....I like the paint scheme:D

Brian, it's a 20 x 24 x 8, a nice comfy fit.

Wayne, thank you...You can say I was inspired :D

Tonight, I experimented with a couple new things, the bitmap trace feature in Vectric and the prismatic v-carving feature. Not bad for the first try, although I should have spent more time cleaning up the vectors because the lines didn't come out perfect from tracing. I just got too excited to cut.

The artwork is made by my friend, who creates ambigrams as a hobby. An ambigram is lettering that can be read forwards and backwards, like in the book Angels and Demons. This one is of his last name. Pretty neat stuff!

V-carving the letters sure was dusty. I used a 3/4" 90 deg v-cutter, and a 1/4" single flute bit for the profile. Material is 1" mdf.

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Nice john!

Thank you, Hennie! :)

Beautiful. :)

Push Button Boxes
 

John, Where did you get your push button boxes from? Those are clean and simple looking.

Looks great!

Hi Travis. I believe they are the boxes from FactoryMation, with WEG button. Hope your build is going well. I'm hoping to do some cutting on Sunday, so it might be a good time for you to swing by and help me lift some MDF. :D

Thanks Leo!

:eek:That's amazing.

This weekend, I worked on a two-person chinese checker set that I had designed and wanted to make for some time. I love the look of old wood-laminated surfboards, and like to incorporate the look into a lot of my projects. This game set is made with glued up strips of hard maple, bloodwood, and ebony. I have not decided on the finish yet, probably some Danish oil or the like.

This was the first time cutting hardwood on my MM...much more enjoyable than MDF. Less dust, more chips. It was also the first time I had to care about indexing the material properly due to the stripe down the center. This was nerve racking after all the time spent gluing up the board. I'll need to work on some sort of fixture for this type of work.

Here are some pics of the project, along with some MDF prototypes I made before deciding on the final shape:

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Final game board without finish...
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They are great looking. A cross hair laser would make alignment very simple?? Where did you get the pins?