Sounds like a good idea. Maybe I should cover the gaps too... with vacuum hold down, I rarely use the clamps nowadays.

DB,

I would just screw the two pieces down close to their respective edge. I used all brass flat head screws and did not epoxy them in. I countersunk so the head of the brass screw as more than half the depth of the spoilboard. If you want a air tight seal, just use a sealant. I would not go to the added time of a joining method since this will be surfaced from time to time and is a consumable part.

About dust collection

If you use a dust shoe and it even hangs over the edge of the spoilboard just 1/2"(12.7mm), you have just eliminated your dust collecting capability.

Another thing is if any of the chips that do escape, they are on the table, this is good because 1) it is easier to clean 2) you will not let it pile up like you would if it was under the table (most of us use the bottom for storage anyway) 3) it will force you to clean it, reducing dust stir-up and fire hazards.

If your shoe is not collecting all of the chips, your shoe is not properly designed and should be re-made to work with the chip/dust extraction you have.

I really had to wonder with the ice storm we just had, if I would have even have electricity over the Christmas break. Probably got about 3/4 inch of ice.

Since I can't resume beveling the rails for another day or two, I have started on the control panel.

One thing I have not decided yet is if I want to run the BOB and the power supply on 120 or 220. I have 220 coming into the panel. So for consistency I am thinking just run 220 for those. Is there any reason why I would not want to do it that way?

The control panel itself will be mounted at the end of the table with VFD mounted mid table to keep some distance between the two. It will also minimize the distance from the VFD to spindle, which I hope will minimize noise problems. The only thing I want coming from the table is the power connection and ethernet cable from the EZ stepper.

Hopefully in a day or two I will have my first stepper motor turning for testing. By that time, the ice should be melted enough to start back up on the rails.

The voltage hookup is your choice, it will not hurt it either way.

Most quality VFDs the noise comes from the wires not the unit because they are shielded really well inside. But it would not hurt to place it there. Make sure the Ethernet cable is shielded.

Pete I notice that the VFD on my bandsaw hummms when I turn it on. Is there something I can do to reduce the noise.

If you are running it at a low freq it may. Does it change tone as the blade speed is changed.

no I do not believe so. My hearing isn't the best.

what, what did he say?

Must have been standing too close to his machine.

Reference here

Other than disconnecting power and checking to make sure all the connections are tight. You could check the VFD settings but some manufacturers lock them out. If so, call the manufacturer and tell them the problem so they will give you the code and most likely already know the parameter that needs to be adjusted. I am assuming you mean it is humming when the bandsaw motor is running and not when you just have power on to the unit. Some VFDs will make a low hum when no frequency is being called for.

hmmmm, I said I am hearing impaired. I have lost nearly 80% of my hearing due to virus when I was a child. I continually hear ringing that covers up and distorts what I hear. My hearing aids are no longer of much help.

Control Panel
 

Finally some sunshine. It alsmost sounds like a rain storm outside with all the ice melting from the trees. I was finally able to chip the ice off the ibeam I have been using for rail grinding.

During that time I have finally started working on the control panel. Since the VFD requiers 220V, I decided to run everything from 220V instead of doing 115V for the PS and BOB. No problems there. Just remember to switch to BOB to 230V and wire up the transformer for 220V.

There is a 5V power supply sitting on the rail. I thought I was going to need it, but it turned out I did not. The BOB can supply 5V to the smoothstepper.

I hooked up my ethernet smoothstepper to the BOB and was able to successfully connect to it using Mach3. No stepper motor tests yet. I did not have the crimp connects I wanted for hooking the stepper to the cable.

A hole was cut in the panel to allow the heatsink to be mounted outside. I did not see the point of having a nice big heatsink locked up inside the panel where all it would do is contribute to the heat load inside the panel. Hopefully this will also allow me to not have to attach a fan to the panel

Everything will get pulled apart one last time for some more hole drilling and painting. However the pics show pretty much what I will have when it is done.

I also had not posted a pic of the end rails and casters in place. That is below as well.

Man you're putting me to shame here, I can't even get from the front door of the house to the shop door without the wife having me do something. Your build is coming along beautifully! Merry Christmas!:D

Nicely done DB….Like this main kill switch !
Where did this one come from ??
Merry one to you too @_@
Robert ;)

I have a similar heatsink mounted in the same manner, and have never had an overheat issue, even when the shop hovers in the upper 90s F.
Everything is looking really good.

Thanks for the comments all.

Robert,
The switches were purchased from Metalhead.

Darren,
Your thread is one that I have looked at frequently for both technical information and inspiration. I am sure your pics of the heatsink mounted outside the cabinet influenced my decision to do the same. In fact your pic of the proximity switch setup reminded me that I need to get those ordered.

The Geckos need a heat sink if you are using 3A or over. I have one from PDMX that supports 4 drives and another from an old welder SCR for the 4th axis. Automation Direct is another of many suppliers for through the door disconnects.

First Rail Beveled
 

Beveled my first rail. I used the 36 grit sanding disk over a rigid disk and it cut just fine. Hardly any wear on the 36 grit disk.

One other thing I did was to use a big Magnum permanent ink marker to mark the metal so I could better idea of my progress and take measurements as I made the cut.

About 2 or 3 hours was spent setting up the skate and making sure I was happy with how it fit. It probably took about 1.5 hours to bevel the rail. Hopefully I can knock out the other three tomorrow.

Remaining rails beveled
 

Last three rails beveled today. Took about 1.5 hours each. It took two 36 grit sanding disks. However in hindsight I think it would have been better to have just used a fresh disk for each rail. I am happy with how the rails turned out as is. I do not plan to polish them down with finer grits.

Tomorrow I will go into town to get mdf and plywood for the support and spoil boards. I plan on going 3/4 inch plywood for the support board. I do not trust MDF's long term durability and stability in humid Oklahoma. However I will use MDF for the spoil board since it is cheaper and will be milled down from time to time anyway.

DB
I see you have 120 VAC running into the PMDX-126. On the side where the Smooth stepper is mounted you have wires running from the power supply to the PMDX-126. Is this a 48vdc? What is it connected to?

Actually the BOB(PMDX-126) is running from 230V. You can select between 115/230 on the board. The power supply, an Antek PS-5N42, was also wired to use 230V.

The yellow and green wires running from the power supply only go to motherboard. I suppose the picture does make it look like it is going into the 126 though.

This was just a rough setup of the control panel. I have to pull everything out one more time to paint, drill some more holes and neaten up the wiring.

As long as it is not getting wet, MDF should serve the purpose. Plywood has an amazing ability to warp in humidity also plus the laminated plys can separate. So I think it is a catch 22.

Marine ply don't warp as much but comes with a biggest price tag.
BTW, MDF does work... As long as you do your sealing properly. If you need confirmation, I can be one.

I've had an MDF support board now for 2 years in humid St. Louis, Mo.
I rolled on two coats of Minwax polyurethane on all 6 surfaces, before installing and it looks as good as the day it was installed.

MDF in florida....and doing just fine.

Darren, do you have a Z-zero plate that you use to keep from cutting into the top surface, or do you just periodically roll on a new coat of Poly?
I've had no problems with my MDF, but then again, I'm just running a surface program periodically.

I have a spoilboard above my support board. The spoilboard has a vacuum grid machined into the underside.

You guys in some humid area, you should consider EXTIRA.
An MDF alike made for outdoor usage :p
Since I've moved ( 3ys ago) I'm using this extria as in summer time I get easily 80%++ humidity on a regular basis !:eek:
It's a little more money then regular MDF.....but cheaper than coating one :p

Hope this helps !
Later ;)

Support board in place
 

Support board is added. Pic attached. I used elevator bolts for the attachment. I purposely did not say support board attached, because I am waiting for some bevel washers to come in, so the nuts will sit a little more nicely on the C-channel.

I did stick with the plywood for the support board. I guess we will see how well it works. If I could say there is a downside to the plywood at this point, is that it is more prone to tearing.

Another thing in 20/20 hindsight is that it probably would not have hurt to allow extra 1/2 to 1 inch overhang from the ends . The edges of the elevator bolts are a little closer to the edge than I would like and there was problems with tearout being so close to the edge.

Because of the C-channel, it was not possible to fit a drill to drill the hole. Instead, I used a short piece of 3/8 rod with the end well coated in permanent marker ink. I put this in the hole and pressed it against the board. This left a mark on the board that I could use to drill out the board when flipped over.
To countersink the heads of the elevator bolts I used a forstener bit attached to a drill guide. A sacraficial board was also attached to the drill guide to contain the forstener bit since a hole had already been drilled by that time. It did not come out as pretty as I would have liked, but it did the job. Of course, most of those bolts will be covered with MDF.

Next up is to cut the x-rails to length and verify my measurements so I can cut the tubing for the Y axis. Tomorrow is the last nice weather day I will have and I would like to get the Y axis welded up and painted.

Looking good DB!!
You'll be making dust in no time....

The elevator bolts is a nice touch :)

Small bow in x-rail
 

While checking my X-rails straightness with a string, I am seeing about a .5mm to 1mm bow in one rail and a 1.5mm to 2mm bow in the other rail.

The bow is in the direction of the long side.

How should I deal with this? Should I just try to straighten it when I bolt it down or do I need to do some heat straightening? I do not have a MIG welder, but I do have arc, TIG and aceylene.

No rails are perfect. When you say bow, do you mean up and down or in and out. If it is in to out, you can slot the rail holes you will be able to set them when you use your pre-cut spacing bar and lock down the rails. Up and down, first make sure you are using either piano wire or a really good mason cord and it needs stretched very taunt (gravity is a powerful thing). Shim with any good shim stock, many use aluminum cans.

There is some bowing up/down as well, but that can be handled with shims as you say.

The bowing I am concerned about is in/out. Specifically the peak of the bow is on the is in the direction of the long side of the rail.

If those deflections are considered small enough to handle with the spacing bar and slots, then I will handle it that way.

Mine had a bow of 3" end to end. It pulls into place with a little muscle. I had to slot some of my holes to align. Some of it was stubborn and I had to use C-clamps to pull it to position.

Your rail is perfect, a perfect rail is one which bow, curve & twist before you shim & line it. I use plenty F-clamps to persuade my rails to conform with my fishing line.

DB, not to change the subject, I lived in Oklahoma for 13 years in various places, Yukon, OKC and Tulsa, college in Stillwater. Where in Oklahoma do you live?

Tom,
I live on the far southeast side of OKC. Except for my time in Air Force, I lived in OKC area since 1980.

Around Tinker I guess, or Midwest City? I lived in SE for a brief period too.

Actually about halfway between Tinker and Shawnee.