Hey neighbor, nice progress !! ;)

Melissa's working too hard to post updates, apparently. Be assured that the table is now standing, no bolts, all welded. She's not coming apart again. (Are Mechmates He or She? Boats are She, but they have way more feminine aspects than Mechmates.)

If you spend more time with your MM than with your wife, then the MM is a She.

First, the table bolted together and leveled, prior to welding. Also, three photos of welding the cross-brace assemblies to the table legs.

cross-bearers in snow
 

With all the winter pollen we've been having up here in Canada, my MM's cross-bearers got completely buried in front of the workshop.

I had to dig them out and bring them inside to dry off before cutting and drilling. Fortunately, after a few days of dripping all over the workshop floor, they're mostly dry now.

The x-rails were bolted on yesterday, in preparation for drilling the main beams. We used the rail off-cuts to clamp an alignment wire along the length of the table.

Not wanting to go shopping for just a bit of wire, I used a length of .030" MIG welding wire. It's a bit difficult to handle and tension well (and risky, prone to poking an eye out :eek:), but was accurate enough for this stage of assembly.

More photos, from my dad's camera.

Setting up the table, right side up. We hoisted one side, and braced it with 2x4 lumber. Each lumber joint was clamped and screwed together for safety. A rope at the bottom kept each frame from slipping out.

We also clamped a block of wood to the main beam, to give a predictable offset from the wall. This way, we could hoist the side and just push gently until it touched, rather than fussing with a tape measure while things were lifted.

Setting up for drilling the x-rails to 1/4". Two sawhorses on each side of the drill press allowed the rails to slide back and forth the full length. We used a laser level in the drill-press vise to set them all to the correct height.

Drilling Main Beams
 

I drilled one hole in the main beam with a handheld drill, before giving up and looking for a better solution.

Others have used small drill presses to drill the beams, and it works like a charm. The only hard part is coming up with a stand that's stable and portable. We adapted a roller stand normally used for a table saw.

Note the piece of plywood clamped against the beam -- this worked great to keep the metal shavings and cutting oil from flying all over the place.

The last photo gives an idea of just how LONG this table is :D.

First Accident
 

We've tried to be very careful when working around the MM so far. Well, yesterday, it finally happened.

We drew blood :o. Fortunately, it was only on the whiteboard :).

Brilliant clampology for the traveling drill press!

"Drew blood" -- did the dry-eraser still work, or was bleach needed?

Hmph, I knew it was going too smoothly.

I just finished drilling the holes in the X rails to 1/2".

Next step is drilling the proxy target holes. As luck would have it, with my bolt spacing, they'll intersect the second-last bolt at each end :(. They need to be symmetrical to work properly at both ends... so what to do???

Move the second-last bolt an inch or two out of the way, and re-drill the rails and beams to match? Any suggestions?

Move the second-last bolt an inch or two out of the way, and re-drill the rails and beams to match, as you say.
It might feel like backtracking, but anything more elaborate risks even greater backtracking if that goes awry.

For anyone who's curious, so much progress has been made in the past month that Melissa hasn't had time to post anything about it. As of a few minutes ago, I believe the table is entirely degreased, washed, and now drying before paint goes on (tricky, in that unheated aircraft hangar in what still is winter in the Great White North).

Here's what I came up with for the hole interference on the X rails. I had some 1/2" steel rod on hand, so I cut off four pieces, pressed them in with the hydraulic press, tack welded the back side, and then ground the top face flush. After painting, you won't see them anymore :).

Also a photo of the stop blocks welded in place on the X rails.

The cross bearers were cut from surplus steel, formerly used for pallet racking. I tried cutting the angle on my 14" dry-cut saw, but it didn't work very well. The alternative was my steelmax saw, but I didn't want to set up the angle 15 times. Instead, I clamped five channels together, and did one long cut.

With them cut to length, I opted to mark and punch the holes for the spoilboard bolts, rather than using a jig. I clamped them in sets of 8, and marked both sides before unclamping (I drilled holes top and bottom, so I can drill through the channel straight into the spoilboard).

Something that had to be done before installing the cross bearers: installing hanger bolts in the ceiling for the dust collection hose! With an 11-foot ceiling, ladders are scary at best.

I moved my scaffold into the open space of the mechmate, to be able to drill the holes and install the bolts. The scaffold is 2.5' wide x 6' long, and was able to spin around inside half of the table :D.

The second photo is part of the fastener collection for the mechmate. The other side of my storage unit is various bulk screws and bolts, but this side is all carefully selected for the mechmate.

How to paint in Canada during winter: build a tent inside the workshop :rolleyes:. The inside volume of the tent is about 1700 cubic feet, as compared to the workshop's volume of 17000 cubic feet! Much easier to keep warm.

The main support of the tent is the gantry crane, with various bits of 2x4 lumber clamped and bolted together.

The last photo shows before and after degreasing the main beams. If the water is beading like that, then the paint will certainly bead too :mad:.

Table and Y-car primed!
 

Finally, on to paint! It took 8 hours today to prime the Y-car and main table (sans cross-bearers). It's a surprising amount of area to cover.

Next is painting the cross bearers and X-rails, and then the cross bearers get welded in place. Progress!

1, Woohoo! That's a milesto-, um, kilometerstone.
2, That tent is rather more elaborate than anything we ever made from sofa cushions and bedsheets.

More painting progress: cross bearers and rails primed and painted.

The ends of the cross bearers are unpainted, as they still need to be welded to the base table.

Melissa, your progress is looking great! :)

Admirable work and progress.
Question, over your plastic bolt bin... " keine gefingerpoken!" Looks some what familiar :rolleyes:

I was waiting for someone to comment on the labels :). It's a reference to to the "blinkenlights" poster:

http://original.jamesthornton.com/fu...kenlights.html

ACHTUNG! Alles touristen und non-technischen peepers!

Das machine control is nicht fur gerfinger-poken und
mittengrabben. Oderwise is easy schnappen der springenwerk,
blowen fuse, und poppencorken mit spitzensparken.
Der machine is diggen by experten only. Is nicht fur
geverken by das dummkopfen. Das rubbernecken sightseenen
keepen das cotten picken hands in das pockets,
so relaxen und watchen das blinkenlights.

Come to think of it... I may engrave that and mount it above the mechmate! :D

Hey! cool... My wife and I looked at the link and both of us feel it is a mix of Plattdeutsch, English, Dutch and Deutsch! :eek:
She is looking at the site now and seems to be very entertained :p
Thanks for sharing that...

More blue paint... gantry and table.

No doubt the question's been asked before... so how long can a MM hold its breath?

Lookin' better and better!

Now we're really looking like a MechMate :). Cross bearers clamped in place in preparation for welding.

I used a tensioned fishing line to align the pre-drilled holes in the cross bearers.

Looks great! I wish I had the size shop that you have. What kind of heat are you running in the shop besides the construction heater?

Tim

That table keeps looking longer and longer. Great work Melissa!

Hey, that's ShopBot's colour! :D

Oops! :o

Tremclad paint didn't have a lot of choices in blue :rolleyes:.

Hey, just pulling your leg - don't change it now! :)

@Tim: Friction from the drill press when we're low on cutting oil.
@Gerald: Maybe we've discovered shopbot's corporate secret?

The cross bearers are now welded in, and the ends primed:

Attachment 11435

Also started on painting the control box, even though I haven't drilled the cable and pushbutton holes yet.

Attachment 11436Attachment 11437

About shop heating: I'm investigating propane radiant heaters, as well as solar air heating. My shop is about 18,000 cubic feet, so solar is looking really attractive!

This can be pretty easy to build, I myself just collected 240 cans for this and getting ready to assemble the unit.
http://www.cansolair.com/

Is this what are you using Michael?

Danilo,

I haven't actually installed a solar unit yet, but that's one of the models I was looking at. Right now, I'm trying to get the MechMate operational as quickly as possible :).

Melissa

Table painting complete!
 

I finished painting the table tonight: the ends of the cross bearers, and the outside of the main beams.

I'll post photos once I open up the tent again, so I can take a photo from more than 2 feet away :).

Next up is the spoilboard. I'm glad I own a full-size cargo van, as I need nine sheets of 3/4" MDF, total weight over 800 lbs. Installed, the spoilboard will weigh somewhere around 650 lbs.

Melissa,
Are you using 4x8 or larger sheets