It does cut, here's proof. Got tired of looking a file, this one comes with mach3.

J.R.,

Doug's first project showed a picture of the machine "actually" cutting. How do we know you didn't get that from somewhere else? ;)

Just yanking your chain guy. Looks great. I guess you get S/N 4 (Only Gerald makes it offical).

Maybe I'll get 6 or Lucky 7. :)

Now you make me feel really bad....I did get it from somewhere else and paid good money for it.....darn

Just joking:D:D See if this works. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z80NUVcCn1M

J. R.

Your cutting looks great. Any serial number is a great number.

Hey J.R.
I just wanted to say, Congratulations!!! I am mainly a lurker on this forum but am constantly checking in to see what is going on with the MM builders. I grew up in Wilmington (Hoggard HS graduate), although I live a couple hours further up the coast now, I have been checking in to see how your build was progressing as well as Gene's in Wilmington. This forum is a perfect example of how small the world is, as I also went to graduate school with Sean Reish. Next time I am in Wilmington I'll have to come and see what you have created (no worries though, I barely get back to Wilmington every three years or so). With what you and Doug have completed in the last week, I think I will have phone orders in to Gecko, Oriental, Antek on Monday morning.
Gerald's design ... along with this great forum, beats the other NC machine ... (no names mentioned) ... hands down.
Happy cutting,
Carl McCoy

JR
Just watched your movie. Congrats! You've done an excellent job. Work of art!

Paul

Okay J.R., I'm officially banning you from the forum. :D You aren't satisfied with just cutting a couple of words into an old 2X6, you have to cut a work of art for your first project. I think you purposely waited a couple of days until after I posted a picture of my junk just so you could embarrass me again.:rolleyes:

Bravo J.R.!
Looks great!

If Greg J. is looking at 6 or 7....guess that puts me somewhere around 10:D

If I get number 50 in about July, I will still be absolutely thrilled!!!!!!!!!!

Doug, I like people with a good sense of humor. You make me laugh and that's a good thing. Thanks :)

JR,
Great looking sign. Congratulations. Hope mine will cut as well as yours. :)

J.R.,

That video will get nominations at next years Cannes Film Festival. ;)

Seriously, my wife said it was " a cool thing!!". I think it's a cool thing also.

Your putting allot of pressure on me. I'm spending extra time and effort on my cable management system just to keep up with the "4's". :D

You made me sit right through the video...........and about two thirds through there was a glimpse........
.
.
.
.
.
and then right at the end . . .
.
.
.
.
.
.
the logo!
(had to verify it was your machine) :)

Help yourself to a serial number sir! :)

Your MM is Great work of art J.R.
Congratulations on being # 4.

Four! Doesn't roll right off the tongue, does it? Sounds more like someone about to get hit in the head with a golf ball. Tooooo bad. I guess you didn't hold off quite long enough. You are soooo right. Five would have sounded a lot better.

:rolleyes:.

Better start on another. Maybe you can get #1o. That would sound pretty darn good.

Great Job. Fooooooooorrrrrrrrrrrrreeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!

JR 4 JR4 JR----4 JR's4 JR'rrrrrrrrrrrrrrr4 JR......4

Marc U rrrrrrright

JR U need to start working on the next one.. :)

BTW ......... Great Job.

JR, that "o" in Artsoft, is there a glitch at the 3-o'clock position, on the inner curve? Any signs of machine resonance and rough cutting, particularly on those slow curves in the word "Mach 3"?

Had to giggle at the amount of z-travel you used to pull the cutter above the surface between one letter and the next. A very safe way to start - it should miss the g-clamps! :)
(As you build confidence, and the customers start lining up for their signs, you will reduce that height to about 1/8" to save time ;))

1. No glitch. It's the point where it raises and lowers each Z move, I corrected some be extending the X & Y travel. It's rounding the vertical corners, there is a setting in Mach that fixes that just can't remember where, but I'll find it.

2. Not much, it will easily pass my scrutiny test.

3. Remember I didn't setup this file Art did. That was the second thing I changed (to Z.25) the first was the feed rate from F1.3 to F35. I've got to assume the file was setup for a milling machine and Alu.

For anyone who wants them here is the original Art'slogo.tap.txt and the one I modified version Art'slogo3.tap.txt
This logo from start to finish took 2 minutes 5 seconds to cut.

The "chatter" marks look worse than what I am familiar with for the direct-drive motors - how tall is that "M"? About an inch?

Have you tuned the Gecko's to get minimum motor resonance?

Gerald you may want to get that eye adjusted the M is 15/16" ;) You're covered this time cause you said "about".

I have not tuned the Gecko's yet. :o

My eye is metric, it judged it at 25mm, but the conversion to inches is not so good. (I use the word "about" very often because guys like you are checking me....:))

Mentioned the Gecko tuning in Doug's thread this week. Very simple to do.

And after we tuned the motors, it sure appeared to be smoother.

way to go on number 4!! Im shooting for somewhere between 40 and 400.

Found it. It's called CV setting (Constant Velocity). When used it tends to round corners a bit. Seems like I had to run the lathe with it turned off :confused:.

Did it soften the little bit of chatter? Or get rid of the "glitch" in the O?

Didn't set it yet, just remembered where it was.

Mounted and wired all 3 limit/home switches to 1 pp input. Next I need to add the bumpers for the switches, then I will post on how well (or not so well) they work.

I know everyone is wondering why it takes me so long to do things ..... it's cause it takes forever to get stuff custom made, example the ford blue ac cord going to the router. :-)

JR,
It would appear that your fabricated a replacement "hard machine stop" to mount the x axis switch on. Did you cut that from a section of Tee or add-on to an existing piece of angle iron?
Nice work - I will be interested to see how the homing sequence works with using only 1 input.
***Anxiously awaiting results for the North Carolina institute of advanced machine technology and specialty fabrication! :)