What are those "lumps" on the wash line pole?

Yeah she didn't find it funny when I asked her to get all the washing off so Icould hang some stuff up. But on the plus side our MM is finally getting ready to go BLUE!

PS Gerald if you are referring the silver lump above the handle winder it's a peg bucket the old guy that owned the house before made up :)

We don't even have the handle winders here.

Here in Australia we have so many people from all over the world living happily together, what this means is we have women folk of many varying heights, so Mr Hills designed the Hills Hoist to allow the height to be changed so that they could get the clothes line to the correct working height and joyfully hang out the washing. This results in our women being wonderfully happy and welcome us with open arms when we get home every night... :D

Its also handy to raise things up a little when painting.

Z Plate finally happening
 

We have managed to get a good price on the plate for the Z axis, found a dealer in Melbourne who was overstocked and happy to sell us a piece delivered for less than any of my quotes from Adelaide. Also thanks to a friend who races cars we now have his machinist to machine the plate up for us. Just need for finish the paint job and it will soon be time to start final assemble.

Chris

Mechmate in a booth!
 

Well another day on the MM build. Today was the last day of cleaning up the last bits of surface rust, she has been sand blasted, rainex rust converted, wire brushed and sanded. Then wheeled it into the temp spray booth I made and let the primer fly. Interesting thing to paint so many angles and sides, seemed like every time I moved there was another bit I'd missed. Well finally got it all primed, u can see it in there somewhere.

Chris

Z Plate is done
 

Phone call from the machine shop and a quick drive down to his workshop and we now have our Z-plate. Just need some time of work and we can get the spider finished.

X rails set up
 

Hi all, just looking for some feedback. I was setting up the x rails the other day and its seems despite all our care and measuring and previous rough trial set ups, that some how we have ended up with the tapped holes in the x beams being 6mm overall to close. Meaning I cant get the y carriage to sit down on the v rails.
2 Possible solutions we have thought are
1. Just use 4-5mm of shims on each v bearing
2. Elongate the holes in the rails to slide the rails out further and back to 2 - 2.5 mm of shims.

Any thoughts everbody?

Chris

Did you make sure you didnt swap the rails to the other side? What was on the right is now on the left and left is now on the right. A slight offset would be doubled when swapped and could be where you came up short.

Option 1 would be a whole lot easier than elongating a bunch of holes just be sure you have enough on the X axis pinions to come in full contact with the rack.

I wouldn't recomend enlogating any holes on the x rails. Do you have any 'shims' between the V brg and the Y carrage? It is a bit hard to tell from the photos. Somewhere I read use half of a nut if necessary.

We still have 20mm of overhang each side so with the rack being 15mm space shouldn't be a issue. We have tried it in the current holes and can get the y carriage to ride correct with 4mm of shims each side. I was going to look into getting a shim nut if possible. The rails were clearly punched so they are back in the right spot. Im leaning more towards just using the 4mm shims or a nut, was just concerned cause I have seen it mentioned about 2.5mm of shims should be all you need. But that is a lot of holes to elongate.

Chris

4mm of shims, or a standard heavy washer + shims, should be quite acceptable

Thanks Gerald,
I Was thinking it should be right but its always nice to get advice from experienced folk. 4mm washer and shim to true it up it is, back in the shed on the weekend and I will get it rolling again.

Chris

Its Rolling
 

Well we finally made it out to the shed, lost most of Saturday the wife came back from a holiday and wanted to spend time with me.
After sorting the shims for the Y carriage bearings, I got the X - Rails on and shimmed level. Then Leon came down today and we got the Y carriage on and the rails fitted and shimmed level. It is rolling real nice and smooth. We then decided to start looking at testing the motor mount, which all seemed to go fine as well.

Yes we have decided on a different colour scheme, one of our local auto stores was clearing out 3M paint for $10 a litre and they had Metallic Charcoal - Hammer finish. We thought it would look nice with the black accessories.

Chris n Leon

Hi all,
I have been quietly working away on the MM in the background. Sorry I haven't posted any updates but there is good news. Our Mechmate has made the dust fly and is up and cutting, I still need to tidy up some wiring and bits but its definitely cutting. Will post pics and maybe a video as soon as I can get a chance.

Chris

Can't wait to see the dust!

Running and stickered!
 

Hi all,
Been playing around with the MM making lotsa dust. Purchased a up/down compression cutter, cut melamine board real nice. Been doing a bit of engraving and just mucking around. Have purchaed some acrylic to play with and have orded some strip LED lights for making some signs for fun. Thought I best do the square test and check the machine, had just under 1mm difference on the diagonals and after a quick adjustment and some changing of shims it all squared and ready to go.
Have put the stickers on and now await to see if we have earned the honor of a serial number and which one 98, 99 and who's is goin to get the 100th?

Oh yeah and the last photo is something from one of my muck around sessions.

Great job!

If you want #100 you need to ask Mike if he will reserve it for you :)

Great job, Chris and Leon.
I'm in the running for #100.

Would be nice to have the #100 I will leave it up to Mike to make the decision of who will have that honor (Hi Mike). After 2 years in the making I am just happy and excited to see it finally cutting.

Congrats 2 Darren, I have been watching ever ones posts as well thinking who is going to get the #100.

And we have this machine in the running for a number as well . . .

Well done Chris!
I was 'holding back' on the second machine so I could swipe #100.

Yes I was wondering how many people were holding of before posting they were done, as I said b4 I'm just happy to have it running. Although if I am not mistaken do we not have 3 Aussie builds in the running for the #100?

I reckon that 99 is more "sexy" than 100.

In a flash I can can produce photos of 4 unlisted machines, stickered and cutting, and grab the next 4 numbers :D, but I won't do that ;).

I was thinking the same Gerald, #99 does sound nice I would be happy with that. :)

I hope you all realized I was tongue-in-cheek about the serial #.
Whatever number I end up with will be fine with me.

A 100series machine sounds just as sexy to me....

I just want a running machine like the 100+ before me already have.....

Gerald, are you holding out for #111,#333,#777, and #999? :)

Brad, holding out for the mark of the Blue Beast #666

Now that #99 has been allocated, this must surely be #100? The photos in post #77 are the qualifiers.