This weekend I discovered a major mistake .
While I was reading “the basic cutting tutorial “ from Doug Ford (which is certainly very
useful – thanks for it ), trying to set the machine coordinates to zero, I discovered that I have put the gantry in the wrong way.
Looking at drawing 10 00 000 I noticed that my motor was on the wrong side of the 0,0 corner. ( see picture ).
It struck me that I could not use the entire work surface.
The first 10 cm could not be used by the router .
How could this happen?
When I installed the cable chains I looked at drawing 10 60 100 "cable chain assemblies” to mount them . Apparently this was the rear view.

Today I disconnected all the cables back and turned the gantry.
Tomorrow I will change the “X-cable chain shelf “ to the other side and extend all the cables and connect them back .

Just to be sure:
Looking at drawing 10 10 300 - the ( 0,0 corner ) is the ( left - below corner ) if you look above the table . That is the “home position”.

I also discovered that my dust collection is not strong enough (0,5 hp) which is much too weak .
So for the moment I use my wife's vacuum cleaner.

And the “back mdf “ as I called it , is the same as what Hennie uses “ Valchromat “ .

Sorry that we did not see your problem from the photo on 17 March. :(

On drawing 10 60 100 A, it is simply views of the cable chain assemblies. (But you can see the offset direction of the table cross supports 10 10 302 D). See the thread Cable chain location & orientation

Gantry is turned, cables back connected and no errors .
Did some drawingtests with a pencil.

Mmmm ... firts time was better .

Time to set the "Y-axis square to the X-axis” .

Is it advisable to :

- first glue the spoilboard on the supportboard
- then surfacing the spoilboard
- and then set the Y-axis square to the X-axis .


Or can the squaring be done on the support board without first surfacing :confused:

Squaring can be done before surfacing, it should not make any difference. On my machine my support beams were quite far out from dead straight so I surfaced the support board first (making sure the bolts were sunk low enough), then glued on the spoilboard and surfaced it again. Doing it this way only took one pass to true up the spoilboard (but 4 passes on the support board).

The squaring XY is completely independent of the flat surfacing - it does not matter which one you do first.

Thanx

I've finally finished the job.
It cost me some time but it worked.

The HBM 200 - 2 hp - dust collector works perfectly for me , better than all my previous setups.

The s-error was 3,1 mm so the 0,9 mm extra shims did their job fine.
The alignment is now , as good as perfect.

Surfacing the board was a different story.
I could not adjust the routerspeed of the” Kinzo”.
Rotating a cutter of 18 mm at a speed of 30,000 rpm seemed me not so wise.
Luckily I found a speedcontroler of 600 w to perform this task.

The first time , I surfaced the board in the x-direction.
It took me about 2 hours time with the cutter of 18 mm .
The first 20 minutes went fine but then , there appeared grooves of unequal depth .

The second time , I surfaced the board in the y-direction.
I milled about 15minutes and then waited about 1 hours and so on .
The result is better but not perfect and not the way it should be .

So , I think my latest investment will be a new spindle.
My preference goes to the already discussed "chinese water-cooled spindls ".
Especially praised for their silence (my neighbors think I've made already enough noise).

I ‘m thinking of a 2,2 kw because it has a collet ER20 .
The 1,5 kw has only a collet ER11 .
But , I'm not sure which is the best choice the :1,5 kw or 2,2 kw.
What I want to make afterwards are cabinet doors and closets.

http://cgi.ebay.de/a-water-cooled-sp...4.c0.m14.l1262

http://cgi.ebay.de/a-water-cooled-sp...d=p3286.c0.m14

Pragtige werk - mooi gedaan!

Dit was echt onmogelijk geweest zonder al jullie hulp.
Dank U Gerald :)
and thanks to everyone .:)

Yep, as Gerald puts it, nicely done.
I’ll add; patience pays. One thing I know to well….:rolleyes:
Congrad Bart, a year in the making…now a happy man satisfied of his accomplishment…
Let’s all raise and make a toast with one of those nice begum bear :D
Robert ;)

Hey Robert,

You can be sure that I am a proud owner of a mechmate 36.
And each time I've finished a particular job, I always toasted with my favorite beer .:D

Bart,

Congratulations on completing your build and on Serial #36.:)

The Updated Builder's Log is here.

Please review the entry and let me know if you want any changes.

Hey John,

Thanxs , it's perfect for me .

Congratulations Bart! :)

Well done ..nog een piljse ?

Bart,

I have sent you a PM regarding the offer from Lasertek. However I cannot see the message in my "sent messages" box.

If you did not receive it please let me know.

Bart

Bart,
Congratulations. That big blue colour looks good in an any country! Don't forget to show us a lot of pictures of dust soon.

Sean

Bart,

Congratulations. Machine looks great. How about a close up of your dust foot.

This is like a dream that come true for me .
It was only possible through this forum and the dedication of all those people.
Thanks to everyone.

Here are some pics of my dustfoot.
I chose a fixed foot regardless of the z-axis.
Most of the ideas are from this forum that I have joined and adjusted a little bit.


As you can see I added an extra bracket, on which I've screwed a clamp .
The clamp must hold the tube of 100mm .
The idea of the clamp is based on “Wooden Handscrew Clamp “.
http://www.justclamps.com/Graphics/0...hand_clamp.jpg


It works great for me, until I will buy a new spindle.
Afterwards, I will make a new dustfoot based on the same principe but closed at the end .
The same model as yours, Nils.
Because , I noticed there was much dust at the end of table ( x – direction )during surfacing .

Bart,

I don't think you need the skirt.

Bart,

Nice looking machine, Have fun making dust.

Nils,

At this time the skirt comes in handy.
When I remove the front piece , dust flies around .
Currently , it stay this way .
Afterwards , I make one like yours.

Hi Bart,

Can you let me know were you bought your Lapp cable (you mention a local store :))

Thanks,

Bart

Bart ,

Breva Antwerpen
Noorderlaan 31
Tel 03/540.02.90

Is the place to be ;)

Bart

First Signs
 

Here are some signs I made.
A simple start to begin with.

1 ° pic: 6x signs for people who went on retirement.
2 ° pic: 2x birthday plate.
3 ° pic: some puzzles.
4 ° pic: a doorsign .

All made of MDF .
For the signs I used a V-bit 90° and a feedrate of 600 mm/min or 10 mm/sec.

I had to reduce the feedrate from 1500mm/min to 600 mm/min, because the machine was making too heavy movements , in my opinion.
Afterwards I have decreased the acceleration of the X-Y- Z axis from 1300 to 500 (I think this is better)

What is an acceptable feedrate for making such signs with a V-Bit D= 19mm 90° ?:confused:

Thanks

Nice work Bart!

We do cut such signs at around 1500 mm/min and the machine does shake around a lot. We only reduce the speed if the quality of cutting gets bad. (If you reduce the speed too much, the cutter leaves burn marks)

Thanks Gerald ,

I was a bit afraid that I would damage the shafts of the motors with the feedrate of 1500 mm/min and all that shaking .
But now I know that it's alright .
A feedrate of 1500 mm/min will be the standart .:)

“ kitchen table"
 

Hello Bart,

Could you please give me a draw of the the conections you have made with this Mach 3 card? I am new in this adventure and looking at the pictures there are many things I dont know,
I live in Amsterdam and I am planing to use the same components as you, the box looks great man, congratulations.
Thanks very much

He ,

The only plan I have is drawn by hand.
To make a input “ high” : just make a connection between the + 24V and desired input.

If you download the manual from the link you have a short but good tutorial about this BOB in dutch .

http://www.leeuwinga.nl/office_tekst...ach32dbob2.pdf

Good luck

What size of square tubing did you use for the 'cross angle brace-cut' wich are visible in the picture on the right (10 10 304 S A).