These are last year prices around Houston Texas...

30' x 40' total metal building with 14 foot high walls, one entrance door, one 12' x 14' sectional door and one 10' x 10' sectional door and concrete slab......... 27,000.00

40' x 40' building with the same doors and wall height... 34,000.00

This is only the slab and metal exterior. No interior walls, plumbing or electrical.... Site work and dirt pad cost me about 2000.00 and I went with the 40 x 40

Any pictures of it? I would like to see it. I am doing some waaaaaay in advance resesrch on buildings. Buying building etc. Thanks.

I will post some in my build thread Monday :)

Awesome:) Thank you so much.

Today I ordered 5x 9802 Motion King motors, they will be here by the end of june, I hope at that time also have the geckos.

Pablo, where did you order them from and how much did they cost (US)? Thanks J.R.

JR, purchased them from the local dealer here in Argentina, I contacted MK directly and they referred me to them. Considering shipping+custom duties the price was right.

5x gecko 203v ordered from Retromation Direct via their ebay account.

Now I will draw in solidworks Castone belt drive reduction then check against my CAD drawings and if everything is dandy I plan to order these materials too very soon.

I plan a trip to Florida/USA around June/15, any Floridian that wants to share some cold beers let me know :)

Just finished drawing and simulating Castone belt reduction, here is a short video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYumPNGrjmw

Motor is set to 100RPM
Reduction is 4.8 : 1 Ratio
Big pulley is 72 teeth
Small is 15 teeth


Now I'm going to order the parts :)

Bearings Ordered for the reductions and the grinding skate, found nice prices from an ebay dealer:

skate: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...m=370342643434 (10x $8.94)
castone redutions: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...m=370168966097 (10x $29.87)

Shopping spree continues :)

Now you see it, now you don't!

Telephone box in fron of lot was removed yesterday, demolition should start late this week

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3624504/vall...es-despues.jpg

:)

Yesterday received a 2.2KW spindle +VFD for another project, but Im almost sure this one will end in my MechMate, its too big and heavy for the other machine (8.2Kg)

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3624504/kinkda-spindle.JPG

So did the box come out completely? Or did they lower it into the street?

That probably added a lot of value to that property !!

they moved the box around the corner, they only left a service door at street level that it does not bother me, it can be seen in the photo, previously it was covered by the box.

I agree, the house lot to the left is 10m shorter (8.66x20m) and they ask $10K more than what I paid for mine.

Wow!! 8 Kg son muchos.

El coche de la fotografía, el de la izquierda, es toda una reliquia aquí en España es el Seat 127 De fabricación Española, Aunque creo que también se comercializó el modelo como Fiat.

Al igual pasa por ejemplo en Sudáfrica, se comercializa aún el Volkswagen chico que es un modelo que se comercializó en Europa por los años 80 como Volkswagen Golf.

Un saludo.

aqui se vendio siempre como fiat 147 y luego como fiat spazio.

Yes 8kg the spindle alone, hefty chunk of steel :) To refrigerate it I purchased a 2200L/hour (~600gal/hour) submergible pump at an aquarium store. Im still fighting with the VFD manual to make it work like I want, then I will move onto controlling it with the PC. I have a ton of RS485 tranceivers or maybe I purchase a cnc4pc C6 board, still unsure.

One question for the users of High Speed Spindles, I purchased a 2.2KW+VFD for another project but I will finally going to use for the MM, the spindle when turning does the typical whirling noise but this one also does an extra noise, gritty crackling noise.

I was told this should be gone with some warm up but Im not sure if this is normal or a defect in the bearings. Here is a small video I made: www.peu.net/temp/spindle-noise.avi Can ceramic bearings do this noise? I paid plus for FAG bearings but I don't know if they are ceramic or metallic
Can you guys give me an opinion?

Thanks
PS: If you peek at the background you will see MM lasered parts :D

sound like a bearing problem to me.. move it by hand very slow and try to detect any vibration. sound like dirt on the bearings. typical problem.

Does it make the same sound if you hold the spindle in a normal upright position ?

good question, I will be able to check this later today.

Sounds like the bearings. It could be that they are dry or have old grease in there. If the spindle has sat for a long period of time, getting lube in there from may take some time to slowly warm the spindle up up by running it slow. Either way, you will be getting in there to replace them sooner or later. I would run it in the upright position so if there is any grease in there it will have a chance to spread the lube around.

Good luck.

today I ran it slowly for about an hour and then at 18000RPM for about 4 hours, the noise decreased substantially but its still there, Im not sure if the right thing to do is ask for a replacement or keep it. Will ask for the exact bearing model and research if its common to have that noise.

I agreed with the seller, they will send a new one at half price, they pay shipping and I keep this one as a backup unit, fair solution I think.

On the shopping side of things I already have at my USA friend the following items:

5x gecko 203v
5x parts for castone reductions + 1 extra belt just in case, this includes flanged bearings
1x PMDX 125 + flat cables
1x PMDX 107 spindle speed control

What else should I buy in the states to save money? this question is aimed at overseas MM'ers that have to buy stuff only available in USA.

Pablo,

I didn't look back at your thread, but I had to buy or planning to buy:

- Racks, I bought these in Japan, quality in Ecuador was really bad or 50..150usd/meter
- Pinion, also from Japan (you mentioned you have that...)
- Flexible cables for steppers, I had to use normal 4 core cable, un-shielded
- Cable chain
- Gas-spring
- How odd it may seem, a fully soldered printer cable of some length, you have flatcable already I do read...
- Small form factor computer to run EMC or Mach, so it can be build into the control box (I use a laptop)
- Various bits for your spindle (I can only get HSS here..)
- Transformer to drive your steppers/gecko's (I bought from Antek in the US)
- Proximity sensors, ridiculous expensive here at 150USD each I was told, didn't look further and use micro switches.
- Turbine for a vac system if you are planning to make one instead of buy one.
- Gauge plate, I used a substitute that was straight enough :D
- V Rollers if you don't want to make them (I think you have them though....)
- Good shielded ball barings, I am using normal ball barings, I will just reply more often (they where 1.25 usd each)
- Teflon washers (I am now using some self cut plastic...)


Some items we just didn't look good enough because they where easy to make
Other items we asked around, and decided to substitute, or just leave out.
The above list is just a list of items I wanted to buy here, but bought somewhere else or was not important enough for me to have.

hope it helps.

Thanks Ries!

Today while playing and configuring the VFD (already configured external on/off control and 0-10v speed control) I saw the need of a visual flow indicator. So I made a design that could be machined on 1/4" acrylic using just a 1/8" endmill

Here is an animation of it, tomorrow I will post the gcode for the parts:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=puKDPkP77Ys

Intake and Outake need to be drilled to desired size after assembly and gluing.

Suggestions are encouraged :)

Here is the G-Code, its in milimeters, also included the DXF if someone wants to modify it a little. Its designed for 1/4" acrylic and a 1/8" cutter.

Here is my 1st try, not as transparent I wished, but I managed to make it visible by burning the acrylic a little:

http://img693.imageshack.us/img693/4456/img6060d.jpg

nice isnt it? well, it does not work :D at least not with my pump pressure, I will make a new one based on this design:

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/...500_AA300_.jpg

Pablo
I don't know why this flowmeter didn't work for your setup but i ordered
this one for mine : http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...=STRK:MEWAX:IT

You can give it a try or wait till i receive it and test it for you :D

Another try, this one is better, BUT, sometimes the helix does not start to turn...

http://img337.imageshack.us/img337/740/flowmeter2.jpg

Check the video I made when I visited Nils (SailFL) at his place in Orlando last week:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D42LLgTdhwk

On the building side of things, now I have the electronics to build the control box and also the belt and pulleys for the reductions. I have to check with the stepper motors dealer but they should be here too.
After seeing Nils control box I will source a bigger one and start working

:)

Pablo,
Control box is never too big. No matter how big it gets, you will alway have space to stow them away by the MM. Go for the biggest you can find you will never regret this..