Shows you "ek jaag al weer aan." stirring where I should not.

This one is for our english speaking friends.In Afrikaans there is a saying "moet nie aan die koei se g.a.t. krap nie."and that means don`t scratch where you are not suppose to.And what happens we just did!:D
So to all our friends from over the big oceans if someone looks for trouble you can use Afrikaans!

Hou matigheid voor oë

Done one of the X-rail's rack last night. Decided that I would like a bolt on each side, but are not prepared to to the rail off to do drilling and tapping. I drilled a 6mm hole on the side, opened it up with a 10mm for the allen cap head and tapped a hole in the side of the main beam. Some shim washers between beam and rack, some double sided tape and the rack is on.

Just got in from the cold, but could not wait...here is the proof...:D:D

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10 weeks ago you said:

You are a liar, Sir!

Congrats Kobus,

But all I see is a MechMa ... :)

She looks beautiful.

Congratulation Kobus. :)

Caroline is the MechMa :)

You really pulled out all the stops this last two weeks!
It is a good looking machine. :cool:Congratulations.
I am extremly jealous.

Thanks guys and sorry Gerald, but this thing is ADDICTIVE....once you start you just cannot stop.
Now I need to get MACH3 to do what I want, fit the router and level my worksurface.
Gerald, do you have a count of MM build to date. I would love to put a number on old BBB....Brakpan Big Blue.

Look at the thread title for the count - it was posted 9pm yesterday :)
Your thread is now also a "sticky", it stays at the top together with the other "numbered" machines.

Wow # 6...Thanks Gerald for making this available for the man in the street like me. This dream came together thanks to all the wonderful people on this forum. This is not a speech, but I have to mention Greg that donated 4 x Gecko's and Riaan that donated the main table steel. My total so far is under R 25 000.00. Later when...not if BBB generate some income, I will go for a nice spindle.

THANKS to EVERYBODY !!:D:D

Hi Kobus

Bakgat!!

Now I am going to be in trouble even more to complete mine.
"geniet hom swaer"

Well done Kobus,

pretty good, even for a Shark :D, judging by your speed of progress you should have mach3 and the router sorted by Friday?

Thanks Alan, I was fortunate that other people did all the hard work in designing and de-bugging the build process. I just kept my mouth shut...like a good Shark...got down and dirty and ended up with a superior toy...something that will keep me close to mommy for years to come.

Mach 3 sorted by Friday...come on man I am a Shark supporter...tonight is the night !!!:rolleyes:

Careful with that Shark remark Alan! :)
There are more than one on this forum

More than one anti-Shark too :D

Shame

nice job Kob it's time to mount a router or a spindle :)

Hi Mickey, brackets for router is at the lasercut company. Will pick them up around Wednesday. In the meantime I think it is safe to play around with a pen and paper until I fully understand and can drive the beast without crashing and breaking things.

i'm ok kob, i do the same with my first CN, and it's real, breaking is expensive, but with router, you learn feed's and speed, this is i think the hard to learn.

Kobus,

Congratulations! Job well done.......!

Congratulations Kobus, Eisch that is nice, Sure it is warmer in your heart than outside, enjoy

Thanks guys, its now up to the old grey matter upstairs to get a good grip on the software.

You see Koning, I am a man that cannot wait for something to happen..as a project manager... I MAKE things happen:)

I have some learning to do, but at the moment I play with MACH3 and the wizards / programs that come with it. From the calculations of my rack/pinion/motor I get about 32 steps per pulse. I then set up my velocity to about 3048mm/min (120inch/min). I think the Acceleration is about 101mm/sec.

When I use the WRITE Wizard the G-Code is posted and I start to CUT//write with my big pen plotter. The motors are ticking over very slowly and I have to increase the FEEDRATE manually to get the thing to move / write. Is this just a problem of this particular Wizard?

I also tried to make a design in CorelDraw...exported it to a DXF file. Opened it with LazyCam, but did not see my design.

I then opened up one of the DXF file as supplied by Gerald for the laser cut parts, and this I can see in LazyCam.
This part is the steep learning curve I have to battle with at the moment.
Thanks,
Kobus

The velocity, that you set at 3048mm/min, on the motor tuning screen, is the peak, or jog, velocity of the system.

To set an actual "CUT//write" velocity, you need an "F" statement in your g-code.

Thanks Gerald, that's correct, but the Wizard put a F=1 in if I remember correctly...so that lies with how the wizard was set up. I could not find anywhere to change the feed rate on this Wizard. Will edit the file manually and then try again. Will also play more with Lazycam tonight.

If the wizard doesn't ask for the speed (or the material), then be grateful that it adds a F=1 in the g-code.........makes an easy place for you to edit. :)

Editing g-code files manually for speed is fairly standard practice, unless you want the "wizard" to ask about your material, cutter bluntness, surface finish needed, etc. We don't use the Mach wizards (nor Lazycam) so I can't tell you if there is a better way of using that wizard.

Hallo Kobus,
I am working on my import list.
Did you import the motors from Oriental?
What else did you get from the States?

Hi Johan, Correct, steppers from China directly and the wheels from America. The rest all local. Phone/mail me if you have any questions....will see if I can help.