Congrats! Dust at last!!!
Before I had my dust collector in place, I have think trice before I cut anything...
The dust is worst with MDF, solid wood makes wood chips which are lesser hassle but hassle nevertheless.

Well done Miguel - persistence pays off.
Now on to make lots of different stuff out of lots of different things.
My guess is you are going to learn your new craft very well indeed.

Regards
Ross

That's great !! You get #94 !! Nice looking build. I was out for a few days. Glad to see you got the VFD issue fixed !!!

Thanks Mike!!. I am still waiting for the Hitachi VFD but the Chinese one will do until then..

Congrats Miguel! :)

Congratulations!! Very well done!

Good to see that the machine works, did you solve the problems you asked about? Crank up the F (feedrate) in that test file a bit, I see you use good accel and velocity but the Feedrate inside gcode is slow for mdf, it will ruin your nice bit pretty fast if you dont keep him cool

@Danilo: Yes, the settings you recommended helped A LOT!!. Thank you for that. I do have to play with the feedrate a lot more but the MDF is making a complete mess out of my shop so I have to get a dust collector. I was thinking of getting something like this http://www.ebay.com/itm/Shop-Fox-3hp...-/150748076767 What do you guys think?

Builder's Log Update
 

Miguel,

Congratulations on completing your MechMate and earning Serial #94.

Here is the Updated Builder's Log.

Please review your Builder's Log entry and let me know any changes you want to make.

Thanks John!!!!!!!! Feels good having a number.

I just ordered my dust collector. I will have it in a couple of days. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001R23ST0/

Nice price dust collector. :D
If you are serious with good engineering practice, you should have a cyclone at the intake of the dust collector.

Really nice table.
Good job!

Lots of construction going on
 

I have spent a good part of the last week doing a couple major things that I felt were necessary so I didn't have to go back and re-do them in the future. I have wired three different disconnect switches on the wall to handle the MM, Dust Connector and a new machine I am building (secret will be revealed soon, I think it's and awesome machine).

I also ran the 3" PVC pipe overhead from the dust collector to the machine so it would keep things out of the way. One of the things I did which I think it's also pretty cool is I added t 1.5" vacuum hose to the system to be able to vacuum small stuff or even if I want to run a job without the dust shoe I can use the hole. Credits go to Sufcnc (Ross) on this idea. I am waiting for a valve/door/whatever you want to call it to be able to turn off the suction on the 3" pipe when I want to use the smaller hose. OHH and I didn't use your standard vacuum hose (Home depot wanted $32 for a 10ft section), online prices from what I found where not much better (specially with shipping) so I use sump pump pipe 1.5". $9.98 for 24Ft. I figured even if its not the same quality it's 1/6 of the price and after all it's only a hose :)

I received the replacement VFD this week so I will be installing it by the weekend so everything can come together.

Nicely done!
I like the 2nd auxiliary host. Will surely come in handy when clearing the table after each cutting session.

Miquel,

I have that exact dust collector. I would suggest that you think about using 6" pipe to the dust collector to get the best dust collecting. If you use the 6" metal AC pipe, you also don't have to worry about static or running a ground wire through the PVC pipe.

Nils;

My dust collector came with four 3" intakes. How did you connect 6" pipe?

Take off the input manifold and use a reducer from the big circular opening. Or better, reconstruct the dust collector with a phil thein separator - which you can cut on your mechmate.

Miguel

Your machine can cut the adapter.
When you stop laughing at my drawing skills that is.

Attachment 13120

Regards
Ross

Ross;

Thank you!!!. I see the light now.. I will try to do those cuts as soon as my new spindle arrives :(... Don't ask... Another electrical accident, and this time the magic smoke didn't stay inside the spindle..

Miguel

Ohh man.... be careful with the electricity :) as it can hurt the spindle it may hurt you. Maybe you should hire some technician just to get you some basic electrical wiring course. It may be cheaper than the new spindle and VFD :)

@Danilo: I actually think the problem had to do with the settings on the VFD :(.. I screwed something up. The wiring was fine since I had it working with the Chinese VFD but once I switched it to the Hitachi X200 all hell broke lose. The VFD spinned for about 2-3 minutes before it started smoking so I am guessing it had to do with the settings..

My first true cut
 

My son was so happy that he got his name engraved with the machine that he is taking it to school tomorrow to show his class. The whole time the machine was cutting all he could say was "thas sooooo cool", and of course a smile from ear to ear..

The name may actually look a little screwed up but it's actually the font I selected. I wanted it to look different.

Handsome sign ... handsome boy. So cool!:cool:

Good job! (son & sign)
How about a 4" name tag medallion for him. :D

Great Job Dad!

Thanks guys!..

@Ken: Metal materials to be cut soon.. :D

I spent most of my day tunning and fixing things on the MM. Not the best of videos but you can see what the end of days results were :). I started the day not being able to cut a circle. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWYZOXud72s

Hi Miguel

Expected nothing less from you, straight up the last supper in 3D :D
And I can see those circles you cut on the spoil board too.
You have shown such vigor in your Mechmate construction and remained unfazed by setbacks (I also see the router on the Z slide), it is a credit to you.

Post plenty of videos and photos of your projects as it helps to inspire others.

Regards
Ross

Motors are tuned
 

@Ross: Thank You for your kind words. I have to say that it's addictive working on the MM :), Hey, I figured what do I have to lose if the 3D carving didnt work, right? I didnt even have the right bit for it but I thought it came out pretty nice.

I just couldn't see myself waiting a week for my new spindle to arrive so I made a trip to the local hardware store and I bought myself a 1 1/2 HP DeWalt Mini-Router. And I can even change the speed. It's the closest thing to my spindle I could find (12,000-24,000 Adjustable RPMS). I made the mount that I am showing on the pictures as a temporary thing BUT ****WARNING*** I wouldn't recommend anybody making their mount like that as it flexes a little when the router goes at any decent speed/depth.

The material I use for the carving was just plain old 2x8 pine wood used for framing/etc. Not what you would want to use for a carving like that but thats all I had.

Great looking MM. I see that your x axis rack is painted but the teeth appear to be free of paint. I am just about to paint my rails and rack and want to leave the rack attached to the rail. I need to keep paint out of the teeth of the rack and my best guess of a way to do this would be to take spare rack and use it to mask the teeth by engaging the teeth of the installed rack with the teeth of a spare rack. The problem is I don't have a spare lenght of rack to use. How did you keep paint out of the teeth of your rack?

Jim; Thank you. I actually used painters tape to cover about 1/8" above the teeth and then over the teeth. After I painted everything with the air gun I removed the painters tape and I used one of those 1" foam brushes you can get at your local hardware store and painted the area under the tape. It looks perfect and I am the only one that know since you cant tell by looking at it.

Miguel, thanks I'll give it a try.

After some more adjustments I am creating a prototype mold for a machine I am making.. Let me know what you guys think. I will post more video of the final piece and some pictures


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62LO67lnXLc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cg5fPDltW0Q

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rd4407Di7yE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3QwM79loK0

I see you are experimenting with collecting the foam - wise move.:)

Ross

Mold Finished
 

@Ross: Foam can get very messy as I quickly found out :). This week I am getting the acrylic so I can finish the dust shoot.

I am attaching a couple picture of the first try at making the mold for my first prototype. Although it came out fairly nice I think there may be a few things that are setup wrong with the machine. The edges of the mold are far from perfect, I am guessing it either has to do with the bit choice, speed or something not leveled with the machine, Does anybody have any idea as to where I can start looking? One thing that I noticed is that after about 5" or so a pattern would occur at the edge of the mold. I have to look more into this..

This is what I used for my Mach settings

Rough cut
1/4" Flat / Double fluted end mill
200 IPM Feed Rate
40% Step over

Rough cut
1/4" Flat / Double fluted end mill
100 IPM Feed Rate
25% Step over

The material is Insulation Foam..

Lastly, here is another quick video of the finishing pass.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPWqA2xm1Jc

Is this prototype going to be used for the "car wash, Lube, or Parking"?

Looks good so far :)

James.. Two out of the three :). Thanks..

Hi Miguel

As a challenge try slightly redesigning the door so it is suitable to cut in 2.5D.
I can see the bevel on the "screen" would change but virtually nothing else, then it could be cut far more quickly and accurately with an ordinary flat mill.
The bevel could be also cut if you purchased a 90 degree V bit. With 2.5 D you can also cut your part out of the parent block to finish up.

For an improvement in 3D finishing turn the finish tool path 90 degrees to the roughing tool path.
Also nothing says you can't run several finishing paths using different tools until you end up with what you want

PM me if you are unsure what I'm on about here.

Ross

Step over down to 7~10% & maybe you should look at bullnose bits instead of end mills.

I have to agree with Ross. A 2.5 would have turned out much better results and probably a little quicker with the machine time.

Is the edge pattern happening along the whole X axis that it is cutting at the time of the pattern or just along the outside edge?

If it is happening along the whole X axis of the cut you will want to check the Y Cars wheels for anything that might be on them. Each revolution of the wheel is around 5 3/4 of an inch along the rails. Something wedged in the wheel will lift the Y car and could produce the results there. The deeper the Z axis the more of the angle will be compounded.

Thank you guys for your feedback. I just received the new spindle from China and will be installing it tomorrow. I found out the project for my burned spindle was that one of the wires inside the spindle connector came lose and shorted the ground wire. Something told me to double check the connections before connecting the new spindle.

I must have a problem somewhere in my configuration. I was cutting some circles over the weekend 1/2", 1/4", 1", etc.. and they all cut smaller than should. My 1/2" circle is actually 0.44", my 1" circle is about 0.92" when measured with a caliper. My configuration is as follows:

--KL34H280-45-8A Motors wired Parallel Bi-Polar
--Boston Gear YA30 (30 Tooth, 20 Pitch)
--3.33:1 Reduction Gears (from Mike)

Based on the spreadsheet from the forums my Steps/Per should be 1414.69 But that's when my measurements get screwed up. I been playing with some numbers and the number that gets it close with some initial testing is 1475 steps/per. I don't really want to keep on guessing number since I am sure there is either a problem somewhere or I am missing something. Does anybody else have this setup?