Cutting starts
 

The obligatory picture of the Mechmate in the rough.

Cutting starts today. Finally.Need to put on a hard push for a few days as we have another monster order coming through today. I want to get it to the point where most of the 2 man work is done. Then one of us can go back into production.

Day 1 is over and the steel is cut up. Loving the revolution cold cut saw.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sp3nl5xqgXs

Found a simple way to get those exacting cuts. We use a Tigerstop cutoff saw in our shop so I just cut a blank the length I needed and clamped it to the steel.

Assuming that the rectangle tube is for the gantry, Gerald advised in the drawing that the 2 tubes be clamped together and cut on chopsaw in tandem.

Not that I'm saying you're doing it wrong. Often there are more than 1 correct way to do things.

How does the length of your 2 tubes matching with each other?

and too bad Revolution cold cut saw is not available here. But Bosch and Makita also sell cold cut saw nowadays, very pricey though.

I missed the part about clamping them together but the Tubes are dead nuts on.

Yes the saw is a few bucks more but I like the time it saves. My helper costs me $30.00 an hour so I need to make him productive.

$30/hr. in Big Falls? Holy Cow Mr. Rockefeller....

Ya git what ya pay for. 19 years he has been with me.

Day 2
 

Attachment 15524

Attachment 15525Well things progressed a bit today. Only one owwy.

Tomorrow we will turn it over. Just a few uprights and braces to install.

Here's the booboo.

Sounds like you are making smooth progress.

Ouch !!! Your progress is looking great. I gotta git me one of those saws .....

Now you have the required sacrificial blood dripped for a MM build <grin> ... Now the rest goes safely!

Good mornings work. Got the beast turned over, gantry welded, and starting to cut down the rails.

Used a skyhook mounted to a beam ahead. Worked pretty slick.

For the rail cutting I mounted 2 blocks to the skate. Lots of balance

Get some diagonal bracing in there Petey.

Day 3
 

Nobody told me this was a dirty job. Sheez.

Finished out the day getting the y car welded.

Got all 4 of the rails cut to size. Ready to assemble the skate and shape them.
Had to keep water handy to water down my sliders on the jig. It worked well though. About 3 hours to cut them all.

Yes Darren, the frame is getting bracing. Tony worked on that this afternoon. We rushed the turnover so we had a work surface.

Time for a shower and an adult beverage.

Welcome to the Black Hand Gang.

Well, got the skate together and the rails cut. Tony got the panel box cut out for the heat sink and the geckos laid out.
Coming along nicely.

OOPS!!!
I just found out I left the flat on the rails wide. I was sure I read .1 wide now I see the plans say .04 wide. Easy to fix on the y rails. They are still full length.

The x rails are a different animal. I have cut them to length. Will I survive with the .1 width or do I need to tack the ends back on and skinny them up?

Any advice?

I am not sure if .1 is okay or not. You probably will need to see if how the roller rides. If it looks like it will not work, you could knock down what you can with the grinder and then take a file to the remainder.

The challenge you may find is that the vee rollers dont seat deep enough and allow for your pinion engagement or motor plate to swing clear. If you cut them to the correct height, you may be okay.

The rails were cut to 1.1 inches tall. (Ha.... just figured out where I got .1 stuck in my mind.)

By tomorrow when I can get back on it I will have a solution. Hopefully.

Minnie steppers.
Building the Mechmate has helped me to understand these motors. These are for the laser machine we got in this week. Sucker is working pretty good. Now I will be able to logo the parts I make on MM.

I sure wish the orders would slow down for a couple of weeks. They are taking away from build time.

The elephant is getting smaller
 

Well a little more progress. Most of the components have arrived. Cable chain, air shock, motor springs, etc
Should be able to hit the spray booth for painting this week. Primer and paint should be here by mid week.
And we got some motion. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=clM-g_nIdBA

Looking good. You will be done before you know it.

Still shooting for April 1. I need that new employee.

Nice work Pete.

Well Tony got the transmissions welded up today. Getting a little closer.

Question? How did you prepare the metal for painting? Is mineral spirits to clean it sufficient?

When I initially bought my steel, I just cleaned with a pressure washer. When it came time to paint I put some grey rustoleum on it and then the regular blue paint. All from spay cans. It may not be the smoothest paint job, but it is still sticking.

The only part where where I did a very thorough cleaning was where I mounted the VHB tape for mounting the racks. I ground off the surface scale and cleaned with acetone.

Thanks DB. Some of what I used was old steel so we will be sandblasting that. Then a cleanse of mineral spirits.

Did you mount your racks prior to painting?

The racks were mounted after painting. I masked off the underside of my rails to keep any paint off. I also masked off the ground part of rails as well so I would have to scrape paint off afterwards

...same as DB did. VHB tape directly to RAW clean steel. I often use SIMPLE GREEN as a degreaser and cleaner.