Alright, Alright I will use the usb dongle. In all reality I just wanted to use my Ipod to control the MM like Shopbot does. :D

Seeing no one has mentioned anything about it tipping over I have a feeling I am good to go. Will start cutting it out Monday or Tuesday so I can paint it with the rest of the parts. Should be a pretty quick build.

Ken I had thought of putting it on the machine itself. But decided against it. Every few years I have to move because of work. This would mean removing it from the side of the machine and hauling it off. This way I can leave it attached in roll it into the back of a moving truck. I think even if I was staying permanent in one place I would probably mount it on the wall.

If you're really worried about the centre of gravity maybe move the pc forward and pull the control box down in line with it.

That way you could even push the screen back a bit so that there is greater horizontal separation between keyboard and monitor.

John

Russel, you can fix the penal under the table. That is exactly how I did it. from here, I can just push the whole rig anywhere on the fly. There are lots of room under the spoil board... Am seriously considering having a fridge down there...;)

if using a water cooled spindle it could be possible to run the water through the fridge to cool it, in a silmar way to a beer system.

Why didn't I think of that! Water cooled fridge!
While we are at it, maybe a pizza oven stove...... hmmm... sounds feasible :)

Guys,

Is it really necessary??? :)

Cheers
Tony.

...probably not.
But, living in Florida, USA like Russell, the shop almost year round is about 90-95F ambient with 100% humidity. So, any evaporator or closed cooling system that we use needs a little help.

Sean

It is necessary here... ambient temp daytime 30~35 C, 28~30C night...
BUT evaporative cooler doesn't work well here, our wet temp is 25~26C so can nly get 26~28C from the cooler... I'll be better off with just a huge industrial fan.

Ok guys, There will be no room at all under the table. It will be used for storing sheet goods.

I just need to put on another top coat on the other side of the cross supports and all the painting will be done. Well at least until I start nicking it up. I started assembling the table. Everthing is going back together nice.

I do not recommend for anyone to use Valspar Primer. It took way to long to harden and in some areas still soft. I do Recommend the Valspars Tractor and Implement Weather Oil Based Enamel. This stuff dries in 4 hours and is rock hard. I probably should have just painted and not worried about priming. Would have had a running MM by now. Owell live and learn.

Gotta go back to work. I want to mount everything except for the cross supports.

Here is how she stands as of now. I have to call it a night. Everything was going good up until the Ycar. It was rocking back and forth. Spent 3 hours trying to figure out what was wrong and then I noticed that to holes are slotted. :o Everything is fine now.

Im anxious to see how far I get tomorrow. Hopefully the rain will hold out so I can paint the rest of the cross supports and get them mounted.

Some photos of what a Gray (more like white) mm looks like. Flash makes it even worse.:eek:

Hi Russell,

Looking very nice!! love seeing good solid builds!!:D
Cheers
Tony.

Love it Russell. Great job and what a sturdy looking table you've got there. Now I can see what mine will look like too.

Take care,
James

Light at the end of the Tunnel
 

Well this is where I made it to after 2 weeks of working on the MM straight. I wish I could have been a little further on but I blame it on the paint and weather.

Today I mounted all the motors. At first this was a pain because all the hardware was behind the rails. Then I broke out my car jack and everything went smoothly. Well almost. I have to remove the Y car's stepper motor and grind away at the Y car a little. The pinion is hitting before coming in contact with the rack. No big deal just have to take a few steps back.

Progress will slow down because I have to go back to work, but I hope to get a little done each day.

What good is a post without pictures.

Russell

The table looks great. You have done a fine job.

Now lets see it cutting!!!

Russell, Make sure to flip your Gas strut over. It will fail in that position. Gerald will spot it soon. :)

Nice, clean build…..Congrat !
When the cutting date ??
Robert ;)

Well guys she is moving all on her own now. Took most of the day wiring the motors, proximity switches, e-stop and router power but it was well worth it.

It is easily handling 480ipm with a 15ips acceleration. I have to say it is kinda scary seeing it move across the room at those speeds. Especially when you know you dont have any hard stops set up yet. :rolleyes:

I have maybe 20 little things to do all over the machine. Mostly painting but a little cable management is needed in a few areas. I have all the parts except for the plastic for the motor connections. That is why you will see a lot of extra cable around the motors. I will be making something like Kims but more like these for my motors. http://www.dyengineering.com/IP40.html

I will be back in a little bit with pictures and possibly a video for tomorrow.

Pictures as promised.

Bravo! Brilliant job! You will be cutting in no time!

Well done Russell!

...I can't wait to see how nice the Bridgeport looks with MDF dust all over it! :)

Great work Russell - I'm going to have to plan a road trip to the west coast to visit soon. Your only 2 hours away!

That really looks very nice. Excellent workmanship.

Gerald, Thanks for posting, documenting and supporting your creation. I cannot tell you how many failed attempts I had over on the zone. I now just call it them learning experiences.

Sean, dust on the Bridgeport is nothing to worry about. The SWMBO washer and dryer are just out of photo range. Dusty clean clothes are not going to sit well with her. Dust collection is going to be priority number 1.

I still have to mess around a little with the distance. I think I am entering in something wrong with Emc stepconfig. The distance traveled is slightly less than predicted but close. Off by a few inches over table travel. I figure it out.

You will notice in the video I need to mess around with the accel and deccel of the axis. Other wise I end up with huge rounded corners.

Video as promised. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nInejjW7Ko

Cool !!! Put the stickers on it man !!!. Nice build !!! Next comes the number.

*if your configuration is close* Cut a profile around a 90 x 40 shallow rectangle in your spoilboard. Measure the actual result. Call the results X and Y. Divide 90 by X (90/X) and 40 by Y. Average the two dividends. Open the EMC *.ini file that stepconfig created in a text editor.

The ini file has a section pertaining to each axis (x,y and z) EMC calls those three axes, 0,1 and 2 (respectively). Look in each section for the value "Scale=(value)". It is my understanding that these values represents microsteps per inch. Multiply the numeric value by the dividend you found in the previous step. Assuming all three axes have the same hardware, replace all three instances of "scale=(value)" with "scale=(new value)

For instance, if your cut result was 89 x 39.5; 90/89=1.0112. 40/39.5=1.01266. Those results average to 1.0119. Multiply 1.0119 by the scale value shown in the .ini file.

Cut a border around another 90x40 rectangle to verify your results.

The rounded corners are probably not acceleration. They are probably because g61 (exact path) is active by default. Try "g64 p0.003" instead.

http://www.linuxcnc.org/docview/html/gcode.html

Looks Great Russell! Hurry up with those labels, #69 is so close! :)

Just a sticker away
 

Russell: Your build is looking real good. You're probably making dust as I write this. I have also turned to more dust collection. I have converted an oil drum (maybe 15 gallons) to a dust collector with a Thiens separator this past weekend. Have ordered a Wynn air filter like Nils and others have used. Have a older Jet dust collector at shop that needs some bearings and may do the same thing for cleaning the floors. I have completed one mirror and working on a second one that is a little larger and some what different. Still working my way up to the floor model. The kindling pile is a little smaller:D. A couple of weekends ago my grandson and I were in Mobile, Al. for a Renaissance Faire and must have been close to the airport and seen a USCG plane pass over. When we left the Renaissance Faire it took us one hour to make it home. Hope that helps if your second choice becomes first so Heather can stay in the Florida school system:) Again your MM is first class. Thanks Jimmy

I think we are going to have to have a Florida MM meeting and celebration.

Thanks for the kind words guys. I truely couldnt do it without the members in this forum. If it wasnt for the help getting the control box figured out I would have probably stopped and sold off everything.

Ok so the peer pressure got to me. I was going to wait until everything was done but figured that would probably be never, I mean are we ever done working on our machines :D

Btw: The cables hanging for the Y axis are being dealt with. I am waiting on snail mail to show up with cable ducting but I wont be able to take care of it until the end of December.

#69 It is !!!
 

Man that looks great !!!! You get #69 !! Congrats on your build.

Well done and enjoy it. Let's see lots of dust soon.

up and running
 

Russell: Congratulations on your #69 machine. First class as well as the builder.:)

Thanks,
Jimmy

That's a good looking machine.....you've done a great job with the build.

Congratulations on #69

Russell,

Congratulations! It is nice to see there is another MM operating in FL. You have done an excellent job on your build. I am looking forward to driving over for a personal look to see the details of your machine.

Great & happy for you RUSSELL :)

Now, phase 2 starts….. Enjoying, understanding & developing operational skills….another fun part !!
Robert ;)

Well done! This is such a delightful build to follow.

I bet you are all fired up to plunge into the sea of machine operation...

Builder's Log Update
 

Russell,

Congratulations on Serial #69. Looking good!

Here is the Updated Builder's Log.

Please let me know the cutting dimensions for the Builder's Log.

And, please review the Builder's Log Entry and let me know any changes you would like.

Mechmate is under control of my Ipod
 

Well guys it seems like I never get to work on the machine until today. I was able to find tune all the Proximity Switches, Set the right size step (I forgot about Pi):rolleyes: and get my Ipod to control my MM under Emc2 and do a couple of test cuts. Next will be a dust collector before we do anymore cutting. I know the dust is going to drive my wife insane.


Well anyways if you guys are interested about making a Ipod Touch as a Pendant you should really check out HippoRemote. I wouldnt purchase just yet because I am having problems with Jogging the machine. When under constant it seems to move like someone is quickly and randomly pushing the arrow keys. The developer and I are working on a solution. For now I set it up using Increments and repeating keys. It takes a little while to get from one end to the other but its not that bad.

Some of the good about the app is you can assign multiple keystrokes to a button. You will notice in the video that I am able to turn on Emc2 with one button when it usually requires 2 keystrokes. I was also able to do a touch off with one keystroke. This usually requires a keystroke, Number input, enter key. So when I do the touch off in the video the remote is pressing the End Key, 0.0, Enter. You could also set the 0.0 to what ever set off that you would like.
I havent tried it yet but you can have 25 keys on each page with a total of 5 pages. I think 12 per a page isnt to bad on the eyes and I dont for see any accidental pushes.

Well anyways here is the video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVj8JvKpqW0

Russell,

Are you sure you want that high priced phone in the working conditions of your MM?

After the holidays and the latest job I have to finish, I will drop in on you and see you how your phone works. Set up a camera and you could be cutting while you are at work.

Nils, no high priced phone here. Just the Ipod and it is the least of my worries.:D Lots of nice precision things and laundry around the machine.

I use it mostly use the ipod for entertainment but figured I save a few bucks over using a dedicated pendant. Like I said there are some flaws but I am working on making it better.

Definitely have to get you over here once you can. Anytime between the 29th to Jan 3 is good for me. I need to check out that new snazzy truck. By the way my neighbors mail box is pretty close as well;)