Good to know you are back on your feet.
You made a good choice to build the table up-side down, a lot safer & less back-breaking. Just make sure you have enough hands & pay extra safety precautions when turning it over, body parts won't stay intact when the table fall on them.

Solid looking.... great to see you are back to building

Well Im back from my Composite School and building away. It was a very slow day. The heat was crazy. It was 93 outside and about 106 in the garage. I had 4 fans blowing on my almost the whole time.

I was able to finish all the welding on the base table. I just need to drill around 100 holes. I was really surprised on how well everything stiffened up when I started to bolt in the cross supports between the legs. They are bolted with 4 1/2 bolts on each side. I welded the nuts on so I dont have to use 2 wrenches install.

I was lucky and found out that the 3" C channel fits very nice in the 4" I beams. I used a solid piece on each side. I drilled the holes in the legs to 3/4" but I could have easily gotten away with 9/16". All the hole lined up perfectly.

Russell,

The table looks great! You will be cutting in a very short time.

Thanks Nils.

Well I might not use the leveling feet. After adding on a nut and a base plate it looks like the spoil board would sit right at 36". It seems a little tall. There would be no straining of the eyes or bending over but just a little ackward loading a board. I have to give this some thought. Anyone else come up with pros and cons for the height. Do any of you wish you built yours taller. This was kinda piss poor planning on my part. Owell live and learn. Back to drill some holes.

Forgive me for this, Russell, but ...

Six modest size holes in the floor oughta take care of that for ya! ;)

I have to load over the rail, due to limited space. My spoil is at around 32"; the rail is at 38". I generally load by sliding over from a nearby table saw at 35".

Sounds like you'll be no worse off than loading to a table saw.

You could remove the plates off the botton of your legs and cut them out to recess down inside the legs on the inside of the table just above where the cross braces are bolted in. This would still let you adjust and level the table.

Just use a tip-and-go loader cut from ply on the mm while your learning to use the table. Shopbot forum
Had the plans sometime ago on their site.

Hi Russell

You are well and truly getting on with your build now I see.
The C channel in the I beam looks nice and solid.
Smart use of materials.

Regards
Ross

Just a small update.

Last week I was able to get my father over to flip the whole machine over. Had to take it all apart and put it back together. Took about 3 hours. The I beams have been great. Using a tape measure I am comfortable to say that I only have a 1/16 difference from one end to the other but it more like 1/32. Its in-between the marks on the tape. :D

I did end up mounting the leveling feet and 36" is not bad at all. Infact I think it will be very comfortable as far and not leaning over and working with boards. This might help someone else out to. I used a car jack to lift the whole machine to install the leveling feet. Worked like a charm.

Today I was able to put together the z axis and prep the gantry for welding. I have to work a 24hr shift tomorrow so maybe this weekend I will be able to get to it.

update
 

Russell: Good to see you back on the forum. I think that I have cut on everything flat in my shop. :D Time to go to the box stores and get some more flat material. Jimmy

Russell,

Those are some feet!

Yes they are Nils. They are about 5.25" round. I cut them out of a sheet of 1/2 aluminum and chucked them up in the lathe. I also have some thin rubber on the underside so there will be no sliding across the ground.

Finished welding up the Gantry today and was able to mount the rails on it. Also finished the Y car.

Tomorrow I would like to mount the x rails and all the racks.

Didnt get to the racks but everything is rolling. I have to say its nice to see the parts pile quickly shrink. I have gained back a whole work bench.

I am really starting to like my height mistake. It looks like I might be able to do tool changes without even bending down. If the table was another 3 inches taller I would have to keep the garage door closed because the Z axis in the full up position would hit it.

For those of you that are building Castones belt drive you will want to weld up your spider a little different. The motor plate lug needs to be welded so that the tab that sticks out is level with the top of the spider. This will allow the motor to swivel without hitting the Y car. I have to figure something something else out.

All in all things are going quick and the build is starting to be a lot of fun.

Some pictures.

Russell,

Very nice and sturdy. The rest of the build is going to go quickly. You will be cutting in September. Road trip.

Don't be having the workman standing around when you take the pictures??????!!!!

What color are you painting it?

Last pic, nearest legs, right side, that 001700 A992 marking . . . .

Suggest you try and wipe that marking off with thinners before spraypainting. We very often find that those types of markings bleed through spray paint and multiple coats just don't kill them.

Nils, The build is going to have to go on hold for awhile after this week. I have to go to the Bahamas again. Im hoping for early November being done with everything.

The color is going to be Gloss Tractor Ford Gray. I have a gallon left over from a friends project that I will be using. He bought 2 gallons for a small project and left the left over with me.

Thanks Gerald. I will get it off. The primer that I am using wants me to knock off all the rust so I planned on sanding everything and wipe it down with some thinner.

Well I just remember what tool I hate the most. Its a Paint Brush. The primer was suppose to be hand painted but I gave up on that after 10 minutes. Broke out the spray gun and had at it. Took about 10 minutes to prime everthing. Its taking about 2 days for it to harden all the way. Hoping to be done painting by Saturday. Some progress photos.

Man Russell - that is one stout table....makes me want to mount and industrial robot on top for some really exciting 5 axis work.

Yeah I might have gone a little overboard. Wait until its all together. :D

Russell it is looking great buddy! Cant wait to get back on this again but still in the design process trying to draw it up. I have decided to make it a plasma table because all my designs that I do in wood is what people seem to want in steel.. So this should be fun but I am mostly enjoying seeing your progress..

Keep up the good work. Cant wait to get a welder here in a month or two and give that a try. Never done it but I will soon find out.

Keep the pictures coming...

C-Ya
James

table flip
 

Russell. Good to see you back on your build. Looks real good. Good thing that it is a bolt together. Easier to ship to Pensacola/ Mobile area:D. There are some nice homes and schools in our area. Still working on my MM. Been playing with the mirror project. I am building a table top version first. Good thing. Have plenty of kidling instead of logs :p. Thanks Jimmy

Thanks for the compliments guys. I need the Humidity to drop so the primer can cure. Everything that I can move out to the sun is drying but the Base is still wet. I set up some 100watt light bulbs so hopefully we can start putting some color down tomorrow.


Jimmy that is going to be the most expensive mirror that I know of. :D

So 3 days and the Primer is almost cured. The 91-97% humidity is just not helping. The topcoat will have Naptha and a Hardner mixed in so that drying time is cut way down.

So while I have been bored watching paint dry I figured I would make good use of my time. What does every great battle ship need? A command center! I have enough scraps left over to make the proposed photos. The control box will be on the back side along with the computer. The table top is 36"x18". Monitor is eye level for me when standing up and a slight look up when viewed from the stool. The bottom is made up of 4x4 I beam and 2x4 rectangle that was used in the build. I am hoping that it will add some weight to the base. The rest is made out of 2" square tube. Ultimately I want to get ride of some left overs and make a nice place to control the MM.

So what do you guys think? Anything that you would add or change if you could?

"Cup"holders?

Looking good, but I am glad I don't have to work with those FUNNY measurements....66 49/64 and 40 23/64....:D

beer fridge,

LOL, When I was done and started to throw on the measurements I was scratching my head to. I will be rounding to whole numbers :D

Cup holder is a good ideal!

Russell

Looks good but you need storage for bits..... place for keyboard that you will use very little if you have a pendent.

How are you loading the files onto the computer, network or memory stick? If memory stick you need easy access to the computer.

How about computer high and control box low? Cleaner up high, and shorter cables ( or greater range).

Nils, It does need some storage. Once the machine is up and running I will put a draw under the table top. I will do something nice simular to this http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/...500_AA300_.jpg

I will be transferring the files via USB dongle. I have 3 options for this. 1st is I have a monitor that has built in usb ports that I could use. 2nd is I have a usb hub sitting around here somewhere. 3rd is I could always skip the dongle and just access files through a home network that is already in place. Will need a wireless card for the computer though.

I am hoping that I will not have to touch the computer once it is all set up. It should power up automatically when I press the green button on the control box. (Power will be run off the control box)

Brad, very good point. I will swap their positions. My thinking behind it was I didnt want to bend over to work on the machine. But after giving it some thought I was going to have wires and cables running all over the place. This should clean it up nice.

4 days and the primer still hasnt cured. I was starting to think I had bad primer or a bad prep job. Well after some searching it seems like everyone has this problem. Normal cure time is about 6-8 days it seems. Not the 24hrs on the can. Its dry to the touch but the paint can easily be scraped off. One thing they all agree on is once its dry it tough as nails. I just hate watching paint dry!

Russel, watch out for the network option, especially wireless. The computer keeps polling the port (I think thats what its called) which causes interference with the running of Mach3. This doesnt hapen with wireless mice or rumblepads but with networking. Best to have the computer totally offline with no network connection.

We use sneakernet at work for these kinds of file transfers. (A USB Stick and sneakers on your feet to bring it to the computer :) ) No interference that way and computer is not online at all. :)

USB sticks!, hah!, sniff!


In my day sneakernet was floppy disks, proper floppy disks 5 1/4 inch really were floppy disks.

USB sticks, you don't know you were born!

Waiting 10s of minutes as the computer transcribes data to the floppy disk, discovering that the disk was bad, wasn't really meant to be bent or used as a coffee coaster then having to walk back and do it again. that was real sneakernet, mind you we couldn't afford sneakers so we cut up car tires and put a rope through them and used those as flipflops. We called that the digital highway!

USB sticks, hah, humbug




;)


John

John,
You must be younger than I am, we started sneakerneting with 8 inch floppies. You remember those don't you? :)

The reason I mention usb or flash storage is that is the most reliable, and available small sized portable storage these days. :)

John, you had to go there, huh? Okay, Sneakernet was pulling the 800BPI 9 track tape reel from one system, walking across the room while creating a 3' tape tail, and ...
- opening the door
- reaching through the center of the reel to pull the latch open, sliding the reel down your fingers onto the hub, and snapping the latch closed with your thumb.
- Grabbing the 3' tape tail at the 3' point and running it down, up, downright, downleft, up, down, and onto the takeup spool.
- Spinning the takeup spool to grab the tail
- Closing the door which pushing the start button.
... in about 10 seconds if you were any good at all.

Sheeesh. Kids these days. And yes, it was uphill both ways in the snow for 10 miles everyday to school, too!

;) :)

Brad,
Yeah, you must be a little older than I am then. :) I do remember those tape drives though when I was in school, they were in the junk pile gathering dust. :) People these days do not have any appreciation for how far computers have come in the last 20 years or so. :)

Heath, I may not be. The computers in question were over ten years old when I was first exposed to them in my pre-teens, and still in service when I graduated high school. Those machines were used for nearly 20 years of continuous service.

(Russell, sorry for mucking up your thread with reminiscences!)

watching primer cure
 

Russell. Powdercoat tough. When part has cooled off, ready to put in service:). More time to make kindling from mirror project:D Jimmy

Love your table.
I pulled an old computer table with castor wheels from the store for the PC. but it's just not cool... I'll work something out some day...
I Personally prefer to have the control panel mounted on the MM, there are just too many cables come in & out of the penal. PC on the other hand has less, & one printer cable to the control penal is as clean as anyone can get.