Ross,
If you are joining pannels I think this can be a very interessing item ... it's not difficult to DIY something similar
http://www.compressx.com.au/

Thanks Sergio, a good hint.

Ross

Ross,

Very nice looking serving board.

An easier "DIY" way ( as time may be money to some.....see this.. ;)

even easier is just using 4 ( or 6) pieces of wood and 2 rachets straps.
No picture at hand, but you can figure it out. 2 beams on the top two at the bottom, 1 beam at either end, ratched strap ( these can create huge pulling force ). Off ya go.

Rachets are multipurpose ( you can tie your MM down to your trailer when you have to move :D) and endlessly adjustable.

Fox…..although your suggestion is to consider for those without “bar clamps” it has simply no comparison with a four way clamp system !
Ratchet straps will just not supply proper vertical forces in comparison with these and that goes also for “ease” of use !
Robert ;)

They do work for me, when my clamps don't reach. It's like an MM and a 100.000 cnc. They both work, but you can't compare.

Laminated Trophy Shields
 

Hi all

I was asked to make some trophy's (one day I might even get paid to do this :))
In order to make them a coveted award, the fine woods cabinet AKA Area 51 was opened for my perusal.

Some timber was reclaimed cedar windows, some was very old silky oak stock.
Other timbers were new silky (unrecognisable from the old stuff), also some mahogany plus whatever was around.

Size up everything, glue it up, use the Mechmate, sand and finishing gives you something like the pics below.
That's the first coat of finish by the way many more to come before they are handed over to the winners.

A single flute 4mm carbide bit worked very well on the various density timbers too.
A underestimated / underused tool for timber, give one a go.

Attachment 14505

Attachment 14506

Attachment 14507

Ross

Gorgeous! Thanks for sharing

What is the wood in the bottom pic? (on the right side with the quilting) It has a similar pattern like lacewood. (color is different too) Looks really good by-the-way.

Tom

That is the older silky oak stock, it has a very nice grain in it.
It is in the Grevillea species, not a true oak.

It is a softer timber than a true oak and has some very flowery and shrub sized relatives that our parrots love to feed off.
Silky Oak was used extensively for furniture as well as for external window frames here in Queensland.
It is a furniture restorers favourite due to the red color and strong pattern.

Ross

How old are you thinking? We have similar differences in our domestics based on old or new growth/harvesting.

Correct Tom, that would have been taken from a fully grown native forest tree.
I band sawed the original stock in half to make the best use of it.
The trophy's are for woodworkers that is why the older more exotic timbers were used.

Ross

Love the stripes Tiger !

Many moons ago when I was at secondary school, one of my classmates had a ruler with little square inlays of different types of Australian wood set into it.
Jarrah is one I remember.
Thanks for the trip down memory lane.

Laminated Timber Shields Video
 

Got the remaining two shields cut out today and made a video of it for you all to see.
http://youtu.be/_9gYc1NVuTc.
Each shield has it's own own personality with the different timbers that were used.

Someone has already commented on my alignment technique for the stock on the machine.
It is just something I have done for al long time now to avoid measuring, hope some of the Mechmate people can use it too.

Attachment 14508

Ross

Hi Ross,

Long time between visits, but glad I did visit. Love the work you have done on your shield plaques awesome and a very nice mix of timber colour and grain. :D
Nice work as usual.
I think we must be way over due for a face to face catch up:)

Cheers
Tony.

Not sure if you ever got an answer to the valve block question. Just found this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXpFgRmkMdI

You're doing some excellent work! An inspiration. Thanks

Hi All

Got back to reading some posts on the site and good to see the various new machines, incl a red ripper from racedirector.

Been making some stuff as the mood strikes me.
Our local Men's Shed needs some cash so my MM made eight large 200 x 50mm sleeper size street signs.
This attracted a generous donation so it was nice to see some social benefit from the big beast.
I know others have used their machines for charitable causes so it is rewarding to join the club.

I have a new joke now regarding my Mechmate.
In the past I have made skateboards, surfboards and recently a fellow surfer approached me to cut out some quadcopter designs.
He has some fantastic HD footage of our mid NSW coast's nearly deserted beaches and rocky headlands.
Red_boards will know them as Delicate Nobby and Queens Head as he surfs around there too.

My new joke is the MM has conquered the land, the sea and now the air ;).

It's not all conquering and laughs though as I had a machine controller start throwing the dreaded Mach3 Art xxxx error codes then crashing.
Swapped in my faithful netbook controller and all is well so something somewhere is not right.
It is being rebuilt rather than debugged as I suspect that will be way quicker than actually fixing the existing install.

Cheers
Ross

Got any pics to share?

Hi Darren

I have some quadcopter prototype parts that had errors in the drawings still laying around.
Will snap something for you tomorrow.

Used 3mm acrylic cut at 17,00 RPM with a 3mm HSS two flute upcut.
Blasted it with compressed air continuously and it cut completely burr free.
The final designs are to be cut in a G10 1.5mm epoxy and fiberglass sheet commonly used in the modelling world.

Regards
Ross

I'd love to play with some Quadracopter stuff sometime...
What about the street signs?

Quadcopter
 

The plans are available online here...
http://untestedprototype.com/2013/09...-h-quad-plans/

Some modifications like an extra plate have been made and as usual some tidy up of the DXF's is needed.
The cutter used is useful for the job as having a thicker 6mm shank it reduces flex at the small 3mm cutting end.

Attachment 14903

The street signs are all gone but they were cut with a 6mm downcut spiral.
The cutter gave a clean top edge and a smooth bottom of the lettering pockets in pine.

Regards
Ross

Good to see you back Ross, thanks for the mention re the red monster. She is getting some mods at the moment due to the abysmal shape of my PFC. More of that though in my thread.

Great use of your MM making some welcome dollars for the local Mens Shed. I have one down the road that I might approach when mine is done to see if I can help out in any way. Thanks too for the quad copter info, my son is dying for one of these and those plans will come in handy in the future.

Cheers

Very cool stuff. I sometimes wonder if time devoted to attracting that kind of business as well a the DIY speaker crowd would be worthwhile.

Hi Darren

There might be a reasonable margin in the copter kits and even more importantly the replacement parts.
The cost of the materials is low, they are light to distribute aaaand require expensive CNC machines to make a good product.

Speakers are fun, years ago I made some folded horn speakers that still are used daily.

Attachment 14904

Attachment 14905

Ross

I have never built an indoor speaker. Built many subwoofer boxes over the years for car audio. I always wanted to build a larger 3 way indoor speaker with a 15" or 18" subwoofer and radiator but have never had the time to study the design characteristics. Nicely done Sir.

Very nice.
I cut out all the parts for a speaker project called the "In-Khan Neato" for my theater room, but haven't assembled them yet.

I also made two 500w. 12" subs for the same room, all complete but have never been powered up.

I wonder if speaker cutting may have already become a commodity around here.

I was thinking the same thing on the copter parts.
A USPS "if it fits it ships" box would make shipping easy.

Quadcopter Parts
 

Hi all

The quadcopter plans have come along very nicely.
I am doing the highly customised drawings for someone else so can not share them.
Regardless sure everyone would like to see what the machine is making anyway.

Suspect the design is never quite finished as new electronics come onstream.

The G10 epoxy fiberglass sheeting is hard on the cutters.
The HSS bits I used for the acrylic prototype wilted and died rapidly.
Using carbide and air to keep it cool worked far better.
Serious work would probably involve PCD coated carbide.
Good air extraction to keep the dust down or wet machining might also help.

Attachment 14925

Attachment 14926

Regards
Ross

Very cool stuff. I'd like to try my hand at that someday.
I'm amazed at the ability some of these exhibit.