Nice ! What kind of thick sheet material is that between the top of your support board and the bottom, of your vac zones ?

Thats a lot of valves

Excellent looking vac table arrangement. Congrats.

Fox that is just MDF with a coat of sealer paint over it.
Ken yes there are 10 valves 9 for the zones and one on a quick dump. I only have 2 LH7123-13 vac motors in the system so wanted to be able to shut down as much of the un used portion as possible. When I went looking for the slide valves my local water and pumping supplier had a book price of $43.5o a valve.
ShitSo I told him that this is just a hobby I would work on a different plan. Oh let me work on a price for you...
He came back with $325 for all of the all class 18 PVC Fittings pipe (80mm main, 50mm branches), elbows, T's, and slide vales at $$11.75 a piece.

It is a beautiful setup.
Do you think the quick dump valve is necessary?
My understanding is it is used to be able to quickly cycle sheets on the machine without constantly cycling the vac on/off...
The lighthouse motors won't hold a vac when shut off, they bleed off almost instantaneously.
Not being critical, just an observation for someone who may follow your lead, but only cut 1 or two sheets a week.

Bleed-off is like an alternative "vacuum Off " without switching on & off the motors too often which is not a good thing for the motors.
I only have 1 zone, with an open end bleed-off pipe I just throw a close-cell sponge (from packaging anything which can be a good gasket) over it when I want to close the bleed off ; I cover the unpopulated plenum with floor vinyl carpet. If I want to ensure better air tightness, I just tape the mat to the plenum & the workpiece.
my piping cost me less then US33. I spend the saving on vacuum gauge (US5~20, can't remember exact number, its bee too long). so that I will know if I have enough suction power which I think its more important.

BTW, the vinyl floor carpet is great for covering your spoil board to keep off dust & dirt when not in use.

You are saying the same thing I said, Ken.

Darren I know what you mean, with the lighthouse motors as soon as you kill the power the vac is gone. just that my power switch is at the other end of the shop and it should be much quicker to pull a valve right there at the table swap sheets and go again.
Ken hadn't given idea of damage to the motors with constant cycling on and off any thought but you are probably correct.
I wish I had this up and running 2 weeks ago, I did 15 sheets in the day. clamps and hold tab were a pain.
So when I got the order for 360 205mm 12mm ply circles I made the time to get the vac working. The circle work starts tomorrow so will give a report on how my system works

Word of caution: please note with the lighthouse motors you need some bleeding on your vacuum or they will burn up themselves up over time. If you do not have enough leak ( if you created a "perfect" sealed system ), you could use a sintered bronze air blow off for the purpose of a controlled leak. See the shopbot forum or the lighthouse guys for info.

Lighthouse on this matter:

I snapped my first bit off yesterday, I was running in plastic, single flute all was cutting well no melting or anything just while cutting a 20mm grove chip removal was a problem. I was manually blowing chips away with compressed air, got distracted and as quick as that snap. So a quick steel from the milling machine and a dirty install I now have air on my Mate.
Attachment 14970

Now for the vacuum hold down I cut 8 sheets of 12mm marine ply yesterday, 2 passes 1 at 11mm and them 1 at 1mm at 2500mm/min with 3/8 up cut spiral. I could not be happier with how things worked. Never lost a piece, quick change over, no clamps or screws to worry about. Just need to redesign my dust extraction, it just couldn't keep up with the chip load.
Attachment 14971 Attachment 14972

Love it.
Great job.

For a hobby there are not many weeks that the Mate does not get started for some reason. One day I may even get paid for some of them.
However I just wanted to pass on a new attachment that I added today. I HATE sanding at the best of times so when I surfaced some new laminated tops for work benches at the local woodworkers club I set out to find a way to sand with the Mate. Well I took a Triton RO sanding attachment for a 4in grinder added a spigot and no more hand sanding on large flat surfaces for me anymore.
https://youtu.be/E8CBDUr8mEk

Cool!

Wow, it's been over a year since your last post. Any other examples for inspiration? I like the sanding attachment. How much pressure did you apply to keep the stress of the bearings?

Pete hard to tell exactly about pressure but very little just enough to get the random orbital part of the sander to work. After the 30 minute run time to sand the top a checked and there was now heat in the bearings of sander or spindle.

A selection of the jobs put to the Mechmate over the past year.
A few trophies
signage flat and 3 dimensional
flat pack furniture
Some work in polyurethane (scale model of Gallipoli)
a little two sided carving.
And even some glass etching.

http://mechmate.com/forums/attachmen...15427&stc=1&d=
http://mechmate.com/forums/attachmen...60281445806028
http://mechmate.com/forums/attachmen...1&d=1445806028
http://mechmate.com/forums/attachmen...1&d=1445806028
http://mechmate.com/forums/attachmen...1&d=1445806028
http://mechmate.com/forums/attachmen...1&d=1445806353
http://mechmate.com/forums/attachmen...1&d=1445806353
http://mechmate.com/forums/attachmen...1&d=1445806353
http://mechmate.com/forums/attachmen...1&d=1445806353
http://mechmate.com/forums/attachmen...1&d=1445806353

As someone who has a keen interest in world war 1, I find the Gallipoli cutting very impressive. Is the elevation of the terrain to scale?

DB it is all to scale. I just downloaded the data from the US GeoService. There is a whole lot of info on the vectric site running through how and where to get the data and convert it to tool paths.

Well impressed.

Great work!!!

Nice work, would like to see more of the vacuum table set up. It's the one thing I would love to have.

Outstanding work, the beast is certainly working nicely. Would you mind sharing your cut file for the vacuum table? I am in my own planning stage and am stuck on the zones and squares...... I'll be running 2 motors to start with as well.

I 2nd the motion for the vacuum table drawings, look's great

Looking at that vacuum table set up again, very nice. Do you still run a thin spoil board on top or is depth of cut set accurately as not to damage the vacuum table?

"Well I took a Triton RO sanding attachment for a 4in grinder added a spigot and no more hand sanding on large flat surfaces for me anymore."

Love it....quite cleaver :cool:
I just may try this too....thanks for sharing ;)

Have attached both vectric crv file and a dxf of my vacuum table layout.
I then cut 8mm deep with a 12in cutter. I cut the sections up on the table saw which gave me a 3mm kerf that I filled with silicon as a divider between sections.

Thanks for sharing these files !!;)...
May I ask, when time permits, to offer a vectirc ealier version, say 4.0 or 4.5 !
For me and some others, opening it in V-8 may not be possible :o
Tks

You should be able to open the dxf into what ever version of vectric you have but I will try and work out if I can save a file in a lower version the 8.

ooupss...your absolutely right....my mistake as I don't often go that route ( opening DXF in vectric ....and posted a reply a little to fast !! :o
I was able to open the dxf with my 4.5v :rolleyes:
Thks

Brilliant, thanks for the files Mich. One step closer to having a vacuum setup now!

Thanks for the files, it's a great option for the future!

Thanks for the files, just imported the dxf will do the tool paths later. Can't wait to try out, may even do a small test section first.

Well Have had the time to do a little upgrading to #116.
Finally got around to making and installing some 3:1 drives on all axis.
I have had the gears and belts on the shelf for the past 18 months but could not find the time that I thought I may have needed to fit them up and get them working. In the end, they only took about 45mm to fit up, calibrate and get back to work. And like a lot of other people, now wondering why I waited so long. She is running so much smoother. I haven't increased any cut speeds, but did increase rapids to 12000mm/min.

Upgrade continues..
I installed a front vertical vice and put JointCAM to work,
Short video of the first through dovetails cut.
https://youtu.be/lJAVdww2TVo

Nice vid !!....nicely done work !
About your trany, did you cut the alu yourself on the MM ?
If so, care to share your cutting strategy !
;)

Robert they were cut on the MM. It was the first aluminium I had machined so probably went on the safe side, but feeds and speeds were set from GWizard. Which were 1/8 OFlute Aluminium up spiral cutter, 14500RPM 1.5mmDOC 210mm/min. I didn't want to use a mister on the MDF table so just used a jet of air. I did break the cutter on the profile cut of the last plate, but I worked out that the little 1/8th cutter had done over 2km of cut so I think it had done a good days work.

Thanks Mich for this detailed info !
2km….ya, I also think it’s acceptable to break after all this service in alu :p

For my part, It’s been so many yrs I want to try cutting aluminum, but a few main factors is slowing me to give it a go !
A – Mostly.... to busy working in the shop ( full time woodworker)
B – Since never tried it, I’m a little intimidated…. But honestly this is crap excuse :rolleyes: !
C – “B” is also motivated by A + fact is, I’m not fully in need to make some alu part….aside changing my tranys outfit ( at this point there still made out of UHMW :eek: ) !

Cheers ;)

But wait there's more..

I also managed to install a rotary A axis.

There are so many new possibilities with this MM now, to be honest I don't know what new projects to start with.



https://youtu.be/CHSoeyCV2HI

MORE....:eek:

Great new add on to your….fun machine!:D

Odd enough, if you peak at my machine, way back in 2009, I design mine with a deep valley with the firm intention to incorporate one on the X axis. At the time, after build done, I decided to go one step at the time and wait to see if there was/is a commercial request or potential in my neck of the world !
Over 6yrs now, I can tell you….it was a sure bet to keep my expense low back then, never had a single request since, but must be honest, neither did I pushed hard to offer the possible capability. I still have in a box with some upfront purchase material for this set up…..still waiting to see daylight !!:o

Anyway….all the best with this new toys of yours I envy !!

Later….;)

Nice machine! Mind sharing the belt reduction dxf?