Ciao Stefan,
Compliments for your building !
As you see I just completed the my Mechmate .... so I'm fresh on spindle buy.
I bought a 220 V - 2,0 kw. The choise between 220-380 it just relatet on what you have as line in your shop, the advantage of 380 V is that you charge less your supply line (3 wire (+1) inster of one) but concerning the spindle there is no difference (the spindle is always 3 phase 220 or 380 but both 3 phase). About the power I was considering a 3 kw but a friend told me that he has a 2 kw wich is perfect, so for an economic reason :-) I choosed a 2kw .... well it was a good choice it's very powerfull. no need for more power. Somewere Gerald said: the power of the spindle is related to the dimension of the mills you need to use. So bigger the mills bigger the spindle. Mine as ER20 collet that means you can use 13mm mills (maniy mills have the shaft of 12 mm but the head is much bigger).
So if you plan to use burs (mills) like those : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-HlvA...eature=related
a 2 kw it's not enough, but maybe even the Mechmate it's bit light for those heads mills :-)
or those :-) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mWA7...eature=related

Updated Builder's Log
 

Stefan,

Great build. Congratulations on earning Serial #73.

Here is the Updated Builder's Log with your entry.

Please review your entry and let me know any changes you want to make.

Hi John! Thanks for putting me into the list! The final (working) sizes are 2640x1640 mm.

Updated Builder's Log
 

Thanks Stefan,

Update complete, here.

Some other tests until I'll buy the spindle. I'm still not sure what kind of spindle to buy. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0uKL2p5lGEU

The Winter arrived
 

It's snowing! It's skating time! How is at yours in the hotter places?

That looks just like my yard right now. :)

First cutting
 

And here is the first cutting test! Sorry for the waiting...
I came to refurbish an old spindle which wasn't working and use it for the cutting.
Sorry for the low quality, I couldn't wait any minute longer!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZEVt_qriUI
http://img707.imageshack.us/img707/1281/dscf5013q.jpg
http://img831.imageshack.us/img831/8464/dscf5015l.jpg

Very Cool !!

And the first sculpting:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LonI_Amkq-k
I don't have the proper milling tools, so the sculptures aren't perfect.
That Bosch spindle has 500W, so I begged to finish the first cutting...

La multi ani ! O treaba extraordinara,felicitari, urmaream subiectul pe rhc. Andrei

Hi Stefan, it is really nice to see the machine hopping from end to end to produce these 3d images.

I would suggest you do the rough cut with a 6mm (1/4 inch is fine ) straight cutter. This reduces time to cut as well. The straight cutter take more wood away than a 6mm ballnose per cut.
Then the final pass you use a 3mm ballnose cutter with a 10% or smaller stepover...you will have a very smooth finish that hardly needs sanding this way.
Softwood will not give a nice smooth cut, but the hardwoods like oak finishes off very nicely.

Delta
 

@acs Mersi de urare!
@Kobus Thanks for your tip! I had a 8mm ball mill only so I couldn't do much. I managed to buy an Delta VFD022EL21A inverter at 158E. My spindle hasn't arrived yet... only the next year.

Salut Stefan,

Good job. I prepare myself to start a toy of 3000 x 2000 mm. I hope to come out just look like yours (and at least as good). I still have many unknowns but I'm sure I found the right place to overcome them.

Salut Stefan ???.... Some French in Romania !!! Nice ;0)

I’m no VFD expert by any means, but would too have more “faith” in a Delta than those HuanYang :eek:
Good luck !
Robert ;)

A "lately" Happy New Year to all of you!
I managed to buy a 2.2kw water cooled Spindle and some cutters.
http://img69.imageshack.us/img69/2567/dscf5208s.jpg
Now the last thing I need to do is to program de VFD. Does anybody have some experience in programming this VFD (Delta VFD022EL21A) with this kind of spindle?

http://www.motorsystems.com/docs/im_...quickstart.pdf

I found this quick start guide... only 25 pages lol :D !!!

For real though VFD are pretty straight forward if you sit down and read the manual a few times first. You will see things like Minimum Frequency, Accel and Decel Time, Max Freq etc. Max Freq for your unit looks to be 600Hz. Your Spindle is max rated at 400Hz so make sure you don't over drive it.

We do some over driving at the lower freq's like i have done here on my old South Bend Lathe here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FsR_V..._order&list=UL

Just pay attention to the specs on your spindle and the settings in the VFD. A few times over it and it all starts making sense.

Thanks for your help Mike!

I managed to program the Delta VFD, it is not so hard as I thought, and the spindle is running very silent (I haven't put the water cooling yet).

http://img403.imageshack.us/img403/9315/dscf5262.jpg

And here we go! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qeGTEcGjMBY

http://img267.imageshack.us/img267/6295/dscf5279.jpg

I've encountered some difficulties... While taking this on the camera, my clothe was catched and couldn't move. Luckily I took the idea to put more stop buttons and could reach it!

Nice,

What cutter did you use for FINAL cut..
I use 3mm ballnose with 10% stepover.
Another trick is to do final cut in X-direction and then another in Y-direction.

On Youtube I would call it GRAPE not Strawberries ..

Hi Stefan

Thanks for the video, you risked you life to do it for us by the sound of it
All that safety stuff a a complete waste of time and money.... until you need it:)

The new VFD and spindle looks great on #73.

Regards
Ross

And the last test: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9UqwF3Dbww
Took it 10 hours to finish those big grapes...
Thanks and congratulations for this outstanding project, Gerard! The MM handled this work without any problems and it's still standing!

You are brave to do such a big piece. Looking good, but I am sure that you should be able to speed it up a lot more. Once you have done your Rough cut and removed most of the wood with a 6 or 12mm straight cutter, your Final cut with a smaller Ballnose bit should only take about 1mm off, and therefore you can speed it up.

Hello everybody!
I was a little busy in the past months, but I still managed to do some great stuff with my MM.


http://img691.imageshack.us/img691/8379/dscf5722j.jpg

http://img835.imageshack.us/img835/5884/dscf5711ep.jpg

http://img692.imageshack.us/img692/8196/dscf5701v.jpg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Q-fs...layer_embedded

Sweet !! What are the run times for those?

I like I like Stefan. Is that the mirror from Fabrice ?

@Mike 10-12 hours, it depends how fast the feed-rate or stepover is.
@Kobus No, I received that model from a friend.

Very Nice Stefan

The Last Supper:

http://img196.imageshack.us/img196/3382/36540442.jpg