Ok, got the table back together after the abrupt welding actions and am again trying to figure out the not square thing. I fixed my rails down and now have around a 5mm difference in the proxies hitting the targets on the X. Diagonal measurements from the rail ends to the holes is spot on.

I clamped some steel to the gantry at the 0,0 end of the table and pushed it up against the front cross beam and one side hits before the other does.

I have been *trying* to get out to grab a sheet of MDF but every time I get about half way to the store it starts pouring with rain. Tomorrow after work looks hopeful weather wise to finally get one, hopefully then I will be able to see what is actually off, the table or the gantry. Its getting bloody annoying I can tell ya!

The rain is a sign.... :D
People upstairs are jealous of your progress. :D

Don't worry about the absolute squareness now, you had done very well in deed.
The real squareness tuning will come after installing the spoil-board AND conduct your door skin ply test.

Your opening lines made me laugh Ken! :)

Just reread Gerald's thread on squaring the gantry and in tandem with Kens post I will now wait until I can get that elusive sheet of MDF to lock the base square.

Just bought a pack of 0.10mm shims so I can space the V wheels on the gantry if need be, I reckon 100 should be more than enough for the job :D

Sometimes we work so hard for a solution that the answer will present itself if we just get out of the way. Food for thought.

Too true Pete, sometimes I am my own worst enemy. ...

Don't forget to get 2 pieces of 1/8" door skin plywood while you get your MDF spoil board.

I would grab 2 6mm mdf sheets but in my garage they would be like 2 bananas by the time I used them. They will come when I buy the next 2 sheets of thicker mdf for the actual cutting surface.

Ken what's a door skin ply test? Is this something I should know about? Or is it known by another name?

Tom, its this .
I call it door skin ply test because I used door skin ply for the test :)
Sorry for the confusion.

Ok, shimming the gantry to square. I thought maybe I missed something.

*Finally* got my MDF, this time with a bonus. I bought a sheet of 18mm and 2 sheets of 16mm. While loading the trailer the guy at the store asked what I was doing with it. After telling him I was using it on a CNC has asked if I wanted 3 more sheets that were "fuzzy" on the edges, all for free. Hell yea I says and we loaded 3 more sheets of 18mm on to the trailer. One of the "fuzzy" edge boards is now my base spoil board, there is a few scratches on one side (now the bottom) yet all the edges are perfect. The others will be used for the shelf under the machine and other little things. That means I will have an extra sheet of 18mm to make things out of :) The 2 16's will become my actual spoil board after having T-track slots machined in them.

Now to square the base so I cen get that part out of my mind. Onward and upward!!!

WOW!!! People upstairs felt guilty for delaying your progress with the rain!

Don't forget to seal your mdf spoil board, this is the only chance you get to do it thoroughly.

you can pull the table square with a cum-a-long prior to fastening the sheets down, that usually works good and it will stay in place during fastening.

Al

Ray

What I did on my own machine was mount the T track to the top layer of my base. Then cut strips to fill between the track . Easier to do and easier to replace. I have a total of 3 layers.

Ed

Ken: I think you may be right, these sort of things just do not happen to me.... usually! :)

Al: Had to look up what a come along was but ye, didn't need one of those. My table is bolt together, I just loosened one side, jacked up the other and moved it the required amount. Did the bolts back up, checked and whalla! all nice and square.

Ed: Being a miser I am cutting my own T tracks like buibui I think. Next layer up from the 18mm will be a 16mm which will have channels cut into it. On top of that will go another 16mm which will have the matching slots cut in it. Depending on what I cut I will have other smaller spoil boards under the job to save the real top as much as possible.

Small progress report :)

Base spoil board drilled awaiting sealing.

Gantry stops made and welded on for the X, Y to be welded tomorrow.

X cable chain mount welded, bracket made to mount X cable chain to the gantry. The bracket will be drilled tomorrow as well as (possibly) mounting the cable chain bracket to the X.

Control box sort of started. I stripped all the parts I will be using out of the old machines box and started placement planning in the new box. Got a bargain on a brand new 500x500x250 box. I still need my on/off switch and a couple of other bits to start putting it together. I have a mate visiting at Easter to help pull all the voltages together so they work in harmony. Between now and then I have my 2 power supplies to make - 1x 50V for the steppers and 1x 12/24V for the pmdx 122 and the e-stop circuit. I just need brackets to mount the toroids which will happen tomorrow while I out buying other stuff.

Any progress is good progress....

Photographs, Bruce.
We want photographs:)

All good things take time Bruce.

A little more progress, that elephant is slowly disappearing :)

That's better mate.
See what you are talking about now.
A very nice workbench you have made:)

Great progress. Will you be doing the paint job anytime soon?

Thanks Guys :)

Ken, yup almost ready. Just have to make and attach the mounts for the last bit of the cable tray and painting will start to cover what I have done so far. I am not going with the std blue, mine will be red and black as that is my favorite colour. Bought a can of KillRust Delicious Red today to see how it looks.

Continued the day making more brackets and cleaning things up ready to paint various bits. As one of the last things I wanted to double check that everything was good with the X rails and what I found wasn't that great. After a session of as accurate as possible measuring I found my proxy targets are off which will cause the proxies to reach the holes at different times. I am seriously thinking about redoing both X rails from scratch, taking what I have learnt so far and applying it to the new ones. Would mean spending another 90 odd dollars for new angle I didn't want to spend but I feel it would be far better than trying to patch these ones up. Will think overnight and decide in the morning after sleeping on it.....

Did you use excenters !? Does not sound like anything a welder cant cure.

Excenters?

You did get me thinking however, a 20mm bolt would supply the required disc of steel to weld into the holes and redrill...... will grab one tomorrow.

...or some 20mm structural steel washers and use them as fill material.
If you really want to get crazy.
Leave the one side alone, then eccentrically drill the 20mm plug and you can "dial" the plug until each is spot inline to each other.

NOTE:
In operation, it's not that important that they line up to each other as long as the one that is used in the homing routine is the 1st one that the proximity sensor "see's".
The proximity sensor on each side during operation detect a "derail" which is a vertical change in sensing, which the hole doesn't apply...and in an overrun situation, the target will be seen regardless.

yes, the plans show this eccentric disc for aligning the proxies.

Thanks guys for all your input however I have started to replace the X rails due to not only the proxy targets but also some mis-measurement that would only cause me grief later. I have both new rails cut down to ~28mm now and will continue this afternoon to grind the required vees in them. After that is done I will be back where I started albeit with better rails this time round.

If this weather continues tomorrow I should be able to get on with cleaning and priming the base ready for paint.

Oh, just one things for the Aussies out there, be very mindful where you buy your steel. This new set of X rails I bought are absolutely perfect pieces of angle iron unlike the previous ones. We get alot of Chinese steel down here and that is usually crap quality. Just make sure you buy Aussie made stuff, it is streets ahead of the Chinese imports......

I'm not an Aussie, but we too have the same feeling about our US steel over the chinese steel.

Thought I would price some vrail in Australia as another option for my machine but I almost fell off my chair at the quote. $595 per 3m length +10% tax plus $445 per 2m length (Y axis) + 10% tax making the cost for vrail alone around $2200 without shipping. Needless to say it aint going to happen!!!!!

Wow, break out the skate again.

The v rail I purchased here was $475 USD (512 Australian Dollars) and it was enough for all the axes. Induction hardened running surface. Drilled every 3 inches. I had (2) 10' [3m] pieces, (2) 6' [1.8m] pieces and (1) 4' [1.2m] piece. The price you were quoted seems a little high. I had (2) 10' [3m] pieces, (2) 6' [1.8m] pieces and (1) 4' [1.2m] piece.

Hi Pete

Unfortunately the prices are indicative of buying hi tech stuff in Aus. I did get another quote from Aus but it still comes in around $1500. I have an email in to Rick at Superior Bearings to see what he can do for me in terms of shipping although I suspect 3m will be too long to ship to Aus. We shall see when I get a reply.

Pete, I have received the pricing from Rick @ Superior and they are outstanding, 3 times cheaper than the cheapest price locally and 6 times cheaper than the dearest. Now all I need to do is figure out how to get it to Aus :)

Smuggle it in using a block of foam used for a surf board, lol;)

Productive weekend. New X rails cut to length, motor mounts drilled and tapped, Z spider, tube and plate drilled tapped and countersunk. Will be welding the various bits on to the spider this avo and surfacing the bearing mounts today or tomorrow.

Ordered and paid for my gas strut today as well. Tomorrow I am hoping to drop my pinions into the engineer to have them drilled to 12.7mm. Will also hopefully get some 2mm plastic for the motor mounts in the next day or so. Currently racking my brains on what else I need to buy but can't think of much, could I really be at the end of major spending?! :)

Nope, the major spending maybe, but there is always a bit more left than what you were expecting. Generally little small options or changes you find you want now that its complete. I ended up spending an extra $400-500 I wasn't expecting, could have been poor planning on my part though.

You're right Tom, I have already thought of a couple of things. Just dropped off my pinions, he's going to bore them to 12.7 and install grub screws as well, all for $80.00 cash. He also does laser cutting so I am going to get him to quote me for Ross's (SurfCNC) reduction plates.

Two guys have now mentioned Ross's reduction plates. Anyone have a link to a relevant thread?