When it came to brush stock for my dust foot, I contacted a company called Sealeze (www.sealeze.com) and ended up buying some of their Ez-Flex flexible strip brush. It is pricey but exactly what was needed. I just cut a groove around the perimeter of the dust foot and pressed the brush into the groove.

Thanks Jim

Ross

Omg i just read your whole thread, great work! Btw i build my shape bot last month. Almost done.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQw5...e_gdata_player

Hi Jon

Thanks and enjoy your own personal CNC ride.

Regards
Ross

Z Slide Alternative - No Machining Required
 

Hi All

I was shown this profile yesterday from IVT.
One glance and it was obvious to me that I was looking at a Mechmate Z slide that required no machining and had some serious rigidity as well.
It also has a stainless steel runner for the V grooved bearing.

I will not go into pricing but in comparison to a per meter rate for the USA, you would NEVER machine a Z slide yourself.
Here in Australia we can not buy the raw tool steel for the price.

A tiny modification in the spacing of the spider plate V groove bearing bolts may be required.
The slide is 105mm (measured it at 104mm) in comparison to the stock Mechmate 100mm plate width.
The Spider plate has more than enough width to accommodate this tiny 2mm offset per side.

Attachment 13807

Attachment 13808

Attachment 13809

Regards
Ross

That is a nice piece. I had a lot of time in machining mine for the hardened V groove rails I used on my Z. That would have definitely been a nice alternative.

Looks nice!

3D machining
 

Not something I do very often but thought it was time to run this one through.
It is Red Oak 180x180x19mm tile size.

This is straight off the machine all I did was round over the outside cut edge with some 320 grit.
Machining time was very long done so just to see how good the finish could be.
Wax finished... of course :).

Attachment 14005

Attachment 14006

Ross

wow looks very nice Ross ! How about a close-up ?
Seems you did not sell your MM yet, what about the new 'secret' plans ? On the backburner ?

Hi Fox

Will try for a closer shot tomorrow.
I have been actively studying away just not putting any non Mechmate stuff in the MM Forum.

My plan was always to create some space as it is limited for me, so no new projects until that happens.
I enjoy using my machine so I am in no great hurry to part with it until the right person and the right offer comes along.

Ross

Ross,
What was your finish bit and stepover?

Pete

3mm 2 Flute Carbide Ball Nose
7.5 % Stepover
Approx 45mm/Second
20K RPM

Fox

Attachment 14011

Attachment 14012

Cheers
Ross

Ross, you can be Proud of that finish ! Keeps me going at my build these kind of things, lately I can only make a few hours every week ! Hope my mm will put out such nice finish straight of the machine. How big are these details in real life !?

Thanks Ross for the files
Fox if you put the effort and research Ross has into your build you should get similar results.

How about we let Ross put "non Mechmate stuff in the MM Forum" in this thread so we get a glimpse of where the learning from the MM build has taken him.

Regards
David

I don't thing there has been any photos that have not been allowed by MM builders.

@David, for effort and research I should be more then fine :) Learning a lot from all kinds of angles about CNC and MM in special the past half year, want it finished before my summer holidays.

@Saifl, David is more talking about having the non MM stuff in the future instead of the past. I personally never mind to see derivatives to other stuff in forums, but I think Geralds protection of this forum being strictly MM makes sense in all kinds of different ways, even though sometimes it's a bit cumbersome/counter productive.

Ross could always post a link to a CNC zone thread if he has one/make one, or some dropbox or flickr sets ?

Aluminium Proximity Bracket
 

One of my "do some day jobs" was wire up the proximity sensors.
Done that now but I was never happy with impinging upon the space behind the spider for the Z proximity.

I cut and bent an aluminium bracket to hold the sensor so here are a few pics.

Attachment 14106

Attachment 14107

Attachment 14108

As I have never posted a video of my machine cutting aluminium here is one to ponder on.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iaAz2...LTcB6p4n339KvA

If you are wanting to do it easy then using an air and coolant mister like the one in my thread is the absolute go.
Note in the video you can not see the mist it is so fine.
I got impatient and tried to cut it dry first time, what a mess.
Big black patch burnt into the spoilboard, smoke alarm reminding me all was not going smoothly and some wasted stock.

The sensor will need to trigger at two different heights, one for full travel and a reduced travel setting when the dust foot is being used.
This part is still in development but will probably end up being a small fixed angle with two triggering holes.
The unused hole will be blocked with a magnet for a fast swap over.

Ross

Nice work as usual Ross :D
Good to see you are still working away on your big blue MM. Great work on cutting the ally.

Cheers
Tony.

Hi Tony

Good to hear from you and hope you have had some time to enjoy the perfect weather we are being treated to recently.

Ross

Nice going Ross, what bit, feeds and speeds etc for the ally?

Hi Alan

12,000 RPM
4mm single flute HSS cutter
Feedrate 25mm/ sec
Plunge 7mm/sec
Depth of Cut is a tiny 0.3 mm

It should be possible to feed quicker at like 40mm/sec or maybe take 0.5 mm DOC.
The cooling and lubrication is the key as the heat quickly builds in the stock causing it to get gummy and stick to the cutter.
Using compressed air at 10 -15 PSI through 0.6mm to 0.9mm MIG tip is a start.
The addition of a water based glycol coolant reduces the friction and provides additional evaporative cooling that oil does not provide.
The stock will go from branding iron hot when dry cut to cold using air and coolant, at that point it all starts to work well.

Ross

Cool stuff Ross,

Thanks for sharing !
Always so nice to see what people do with their machines. Really motivating.

Z Axis Proximity Sensor Target
 

Hi All

Attached is a pic of my Z axis proximity sensor target.
Sometimes simple is good so I went with that as a design philosophy.

The target needed to be easily adjustable depending upon if the dust foot was on or not.
A 12 x 12 x 1.6mm aluminium angle and 4 rare earth magnets worked well as an easily adjustable target.
A long time ago Gerald asked me to test the sensing distance for aluminium so I knew that it would work.
The rare earth magnets are so strong they work right through the 1.6mm thickness and hold it to the steel.

I'm certain this can be improved upon and time will tell if it stays in place as it needs to esp with a dust pipe flogging around.
Maybe epoxying the magnets in place or even putting in a few screws might be the go.
For now it works as good as it needs to.
Hope someone can use the idea.

Attachment 14114

Ross

elegant - simple solution.
I just might have to borrow that one!

Thanks for sharing Ross.

Ross,
Is there any particular reason you used an extended head prox? It does not look as if you were worried about an increased sensing distance or side sensing. An embedded model would tighten up the sensing for better accuracy.

Nice implementation. I had to mount two milled down angles to the back with slotted holes.

I like it. I might be stealing the ideal to!

Thanks Sean, Pete and Russell

Pete my design path tracked down that slotted option too at one point.
The proximity sensors were just the type that we were using some time ago.
I see that you can get the recessed ones but it was just a matter of monkey so monkey do :).

Ross

Pete

I tested the sensor extensively for side sensing as that was a possible source of problems.
It simply only triggers front on and can be laid flat on steel with no effect.
Drawings on the web also indicated that the magnetic field the sensor produced was highly directional.

Ross

Always good to rule out any problems. Nice work. I made a tray for under the pinion on the Y-car that is attached with neo magnets a few months back. Its purpose was to catch any grease spatter that happens at rapid. It worked wonders. Magnets are great for application where they can be utilized.

Sergio Creates Interest in The Mechmate Brand
 

Sergios visit to the Maker Faire has sparked interest in the Mechmate design.
My Youtube channel, full of Mechmate videos, has seen a lot of hits from Italy over the past month.
This is presumably from some of the Maker Faire people thinking about CNC and wanting to know some more.

cheers
Ross