If there is only one design in this entire world that is acceptable, then perhaps we should all find another forum.

Synergy comes from a group of interested people helping each other refine ideas. No one person has all the best ideas.

Mike, you can remove my privileges if Kim's modifications are not worthy of being seen.

Lets not get all worked up here.

I just want to keep the forum focused on MechMate related builds and ideas. So if we stay in line with that I'll leave the thread open.

Kim I like your input and really want you to continue to contribute to the group. You have in the past and I hope in the future provide great information for those that are here building MechMate machines. You obviously have a lot of CNC knowledge.

I just think if we start to get off the topic of the MechMate design, this forum will become a free for all with Machine designs and start becoming confusing.

We could have had this discussion out of band and not created a stir. I try to keep things cool and not create a public debate on everything.

So feel free to PM me and we can talk about this some more if you like.

Mike (Richards), that post was not called for. There is a real chance that if Kim's (and some others) posting of their non-MM machines continues, that I (and some others) will stop reading and taking part in this forum. But to verbalise that as a threat to take my ball and go?

The collective forum is bigger than the people taking part in it. The forum must not loose its focus because there are some members who simply want to maintain their friendships & communications channels. Imagine the senior guys in a football club trying to turn it into a baseball club :eek:

Gerald,

I believe that my post was called for and that it was accurate. You bought a very inferior Shopbot PR. You modified and removed as many of the Shopbot's weak features as you could and called it the MechMate. Your design was vastly superior to the Shopbot. In the meantime, Shopbot threw away that faulty design and produced the PRT series and then the PRS series. Their improvements remedied many of the original design failures.

I'm no mechanical engineer, but I have seen and used the PRS series that are now on the market. They have no chatter. Their cut quality is excellent. They are vastly superior to the PR machines.

To ignore the fact that people can improve on a design and to require people to NOT improve on a design is to think that no other design has merit.

Everything that we own, including our cars, our furniture, our homes and our appliances are constantly improved. We don't drive Henry Ford's Model T anymore, nor would we be content to drive his much improved Model A. So it is with CNC routers. One design is tried and tested. Improvements are made and another design evolves, That design is tried and tested and the cycle continues. Some ideas work. Many do not.

There are many variations of electronics used with the MechMate. All variations are discussed and allowed. There are many different routers and spindles being used. All variations were discussed and allowed. There have been machines build with rack and pinion, at least one with linear rails, at least one with a chain drive, and at least one with a belt. All variations were allowed and discussed.

If someone wants to use a vertical gantry rather than a horizontal gantry, why would you be offended? He is the one sticking his neck on the line. He is the one willing to buy the materials. He is the one willing to put in the time and effort to see if a vertical gantry works better than a horizontal gantry.

If this forum is only about building an improved Shopbot PR, then that is fine. I always thought that this forum was about making a better CNC router and that the time and effort and expense expended by the experimenters would be appreciated. Personally, I find the motor mount design that Kim submitted to be interesting.

I just spent five days in the hospital in intensive care. Today was my first day home. Maybe I'm still not thinking clearly yet. If so, I apologize, but I remember very well all the times that I went to bat for you on the Shopbot forum and stood with you when you suggested improvements to the Shopbot. Many of us were greatly offended with the way you were treated. It is that same sense of fair play that generates posts like this. Kim has a different idea. It may be better. It may be worse. We'll never know if he is censored.

So, in one of my other lives, I moderate real world discussions among technical people in obnoxiously generic hotel conference rooms.

I recognize fully that I have no power to do this, but could we please have a 30 minute, er 30 hour, recess to allow a little back channel debate and perhaps even alignment? It seems to me the sides are closer together than apart.

Due respect to all. :)

I got a message that a few inhere still wanted me to make updates here.
So here's a small update.

Got all my pullys and belts for my machine the other day, today I got all holes bored to correct dimensions, and 3 axles made for them. Enjoy.

A small but sicnifigant update. My new Gantry design is now rolling.. Damn it's huge. :-D Just the way I want it.

hi kim can you post the dwg or dxf file of your design
i am interested in your design i hope that can make if this will be the new mechmate to support more than 4 axis may be 5 or 6 axis . thanks a lot

I'm not sure it's going to be the new mechmate as it does not ressemble the original design anymore. At this time, there is no DXF files for upload as I'm making things as I go along.
At some point there might be a set of DXF files but for now, everything is cosumized to the existing table I already have.

who said that a new design has to ressemble the old one . You may end up with a more efficient and effective design than the previous one ,that can avoid lots of missed things which can be hardly applied to the old design.keep on your work, and good luck

A small update today again.
I have finally gotten my Gantry painted, and mountet. Also the Yaxis linear Rails have been mounted, they look awesome. Test fitted the Gearing system today, again, Awesome. Did have to make an adjustment because the belts are a bit too long afterall. So a running pulley made of 4 small skate bearings have been added. Works beautifully. Enjoy

Looks a lot like a Multicam (or Shotbot alpha)

go ahead :) kim i already bought theses supported round rail size 20mm and open linear bearing 1 month ago from zap automation. I like your design , I am watching your progress,good luck

Hehe Sean. You are dead on. I have based this Gantry on the Multicam version. The z axis will also be almost 300mm wide to accomidate both a spindle and a drill type tool that I have not yet figured out how should look. :-D

The Rails are very nice, and at an affordable price. If you see any of the China made routers, most of them actually are made with these linear Rails.

This is nice of you to take your time & share your progress, congrats
Robert ;)

Good job!

Well, now I'm almost at the end construction wise, still need to setup all of my electronics again, but that's just a small obstacle. :-D
Here's a few renderings of my z axis. It will be quite heavy. Enjoy

Kim - how are you making sure that the pinion is engaged always with the rack, in mechmate its the spring leverage mechanism do you have something like the off centre (eccentric hub) for the big timing pulley you have mounted??

just wondering!

No this time I'm trying to use a fixed position for the pinion. So All calculations have been made to make sure the pinion is in the correct position at all times, pinions have been made to specs in order, so those should run 100% true along the axis. I have already testet it on my x axis where it is made in the same manor, and it works perfectly. I have adopted the function from Industrial made machines where they also do not have any spring action to hold it in place.

Kim, the industrial machines are done as you say but they have spring loaded split pinions, this eliminates any lash between the pinion and rack, without it there WILL always be lash, you will be able to reduce it to a point, but without the spring loading its unavoidable..

I have worked with several different machines in the industry, and I have seen several without any spring loaded action. But I'll see how it will work out, maybe I'll make another set up uprights for belt drive instead. I already have the parts for it just in case this design will not work. :-D

they have spring loaded split pinions :confused:
Got my curiosity on that…..
Can someone bring some photos of this ?
Robert ;)

Tks ;)

Good point gerald. However, this is the helical track from the multicam, and that's not spring loaded as far as I can tell.

You don't a spring to make something springloaded. Sometimes you just use the flex in the mounting to keep a load on the system.

A bit more has happend now. My Y-Car have been mounted, and also the Y rack and pinion system. Working perfectly as it was supposed to. I love when things are going together as they were intended to do. :-D
Enjoy

Will you have any kind of measures to seal the linear bearings from dust? They are infamous for dust choking...

I will be having some kind of dust extraction made at some time, probably a Bill Pentz Cyclone, maybe I'll try and make a rolling curtain in front of the rails to keep dust away. I have however not figured out how to do that yet. :-D

THE BEAST LIVES......

I finally got everything hooked up, motors tuned and so on, and now it have already planed the surface of the table. Next up, I'm going to make my own Cable Carriers from recycled Plastic sheets. :-D

I have a small video on youtube for you guys.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-zbHE3OYKQ

The reason for the change in sound as it planes, is that the ends of the table have been turned around, so now It's has zero position diagonal to the old zero.

Enjoy

Hello Kim,

that looks very nice. congrats with this success.

great machine kim i am also in the process of designing a similar machine to yours . i am really inspired by your design.can you add a 4th and 5th axis to it ?
as this will be so great ?

Great & happy for you….that when up FAST :eek:
Keep us updated !
Robert ;)

Depending on the way you build it, then yes, a 4th and 5th axis could easily be made.
a 4th axis would easily be mounted on top of the surface. It will however only take the maximum dimension of the clearance of the gantry. I reused the table from before my machine was gutted by thieves, so I had to confine my self to the table size I already had. Who knows, in the future I might build another table setup so I can take a wider plate, or maybe a higher Gantry to take it to real 3D cutting.

Hello Robert..

Yeah, it went fast, but I also made the construktion quite easy with my puzzles on the build parts. All things did not need any allignment as it was made to fit together without having to measure anything.

And here's a picture of the entire machine. Almost completely finished now. Only a few things remaining, home switches and things like that.
The wires you see hanging loose underneath are the wires from the previous installation before the thieves were in my garage. :-(

Needed some cable carriers for my machine as I have not been able to find some at the right size and the right price... :-D
So I have embarced on making my own cable carriers in 6mm HDF.
This is my Solidworks rendering of the cable carrier. 42x80mm outisde and 30x68 inside. It can be scaled as wide as I want to.

Nicly done KIM ....and in blue too :D

Very nice machine and looks very solid too. I did the same thing but with PVC. I have never used HDF but wouldn't it be a bit on the heavy side for something like that?

keep up the good work.

Don