Thanks Ger and Pete...sounds like too much water...
Mark

Manual test cut
 

I just finished the extended run up tests for my spindle as suggested at
http://www.pdscolombo.com/spindle-maintenance

Got my tupperware cooler setup. To deal with any sloshing issues, I have ordered some ping pong balls that I will add to the container. This may keep the water from building up any momentum and prevent excessive sloshing.

I mounted up a bit and did a test cut under manual control. Just using the pendant to cut a little square. Since I have not mounted the spoil board, I really do not have anything I can attach to to risk anything more complex.

Tomorrow(I am off this week), I will recheck the level, lock down the base board and put on the spoil board. I will not glue it on initially, until I am sure everything is working first.

In fuel cells for race cars they have a baffle like a sponge material. Try putting a couple large sponges inside the bowl. You'll need a place under the sponges as a pick-up area so a wire mesh on the bottom with a pickup tube below that should work nicely.

I thought about that, but I wanted to be be sure I did not pick a material that could shed particles that would get into the cooling channels. That is why I decided to try ping pong balls.

Continuing checks on the table.

Yesterday I rechecked the level on the table, torqued down the base board and have loosely mounted the spoil board(not glued yet). I also did some more calibration of the steps better than before. I have under a mm over 1000mm.

Up to this point I have not had the rails fully tightened down. With the table leveled I will start working on getting final alignment and level of the x-rails. A quick square check between x and y showed they are pretty much already at right angles. Hopefully I can maintain that as I get things tightened up.

Back to the Airplane
 

Did some more tests today using the plotter pen. A video of a test plot of a rib blank for the stabilizer for the Zenith 650B can be seen at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CH3-_zSZFqQ

At this point I am transitioning back to working on my plane. I will stick with running the mechmate as a big plotter for a little longer. I want to get more familiar with the characteristics of the machine and also get back into practice with generating g-code. I want to minimize the chances of ruining expensive pieces of aluminum.

Probably the first thing I will be cutting will be 14 center ribs and another 14 nose ribs for the wing. I was starting work on the main spar, when I decided to take a detour with building the mechmate. When I start actual cutting I will get a video posted. Hopefully by then Mike will have sent the logos.

Well Alright, time to get started!

Don't worry, MM can take more abuse then you would expect.
Get some scrap plates & start cutting some interesting but useless things. I reckon its the best approach in scaling the learning curve. U can use cheap router bits to start with.
G-code is the least problem in the learning curve, you will have to consider the hold down, lubrication, chip management, feed speed, bit speed... all which you will only find out after you had a go at it.

Believe what Ken says...

I'm interested in your plane build as well as your MM build.
Will you have a build thread for the plane going elsewhere?
If not, I vote for frequent updates on the plane project with pics posted here.
I believe we could all learn from your plane building experiences.
As far as useless shapes for practice, cutting gussets and brackets for shop accessories like shelves and other projects is a great way to kill two birds with one stone..

Edit: I just ordered a plotter pen holder for my MM, and I'm looking forward to doing some "Spirograph" type drawings.
For anyone who remembers those toys as a kid, I ALWAYS had the gears slip apart right near the end of a drawing...

They must have designed them to do that, mine did the same almost every time!

Ditto, the slipping gears.
Also ink blobs from the Biro.

Darren,
I had a blog on the Zenith website for a while, but for various reasons I removed it. I may start another build blog, but at the very least I will post updates here. Especially when the MM is involved in the process. Also what kind of plotter pen did you order? The thing I do not like about the one I have is it uses short markers. I would prefer being able to use regular sized ones.

KenC,
I already have some experience with CNC using a taig CNC mill. However it has been a few years since I had made any use of it. Of course this is a different machine and different characteristics.

May be doing some cutting sooner than I thought. A long time coworker is leaving for greener pastures and I was asked if I could make a little commemorative plaque with a quote on it.

If you search at CNC Zone, someone wrote a small program to output g-code for spirograph type designs. It's posted there somewhere, but it was over 5 years ago.

Thanks, Gerry,
I've got lots of couch time, so I'll find it.

Heres a link to the plotter pen, holds both sizes, mini and full.

I ordered because they are made and sold by a high school shop class.

https://sites.google.com/site/kylejune2011/

edit: here is a thread on the SB forum discussing it...

http://www.talkshopbot.com/forum/sho...hlight=plotter

http://www.cnczone.com/forums/genera...ograph-11.html

Spirograph, dont know why it did not copy as a blue text link.

Blue link, yes it did.:D

Post 117 on the last page has the latest version.

I like that pen Darren would be interested to know the type of sharpie it takes, hopefully we can get the same ones in Aus

When I get it, I'll post whatever info I can.
Should be any day now...

A few real cuts
 

Did some testing today to try to make this plaque I was asked to make.
A video of some actual wood being cut is at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IoMsmp2y9fM

If I had some logos to put on my machine, I guess I could get a serial number.

Real fine job DB. Have you ordered logos from Mike? If not, PM him a note. Its Serial Number Time!

Kinda a requirement

I have PM'ed Mike several times and he does not reply. He really should as I still owe him $80 for other stuff I have bought from him.
Worst case is I buy a swivel knife and cut my own.

Stencil

I have a vinyl cutter, and could probably cut them for you, but I don't want to step on any toes...

Somebody has feet?!?

Dust Collection
 

Even with the little bit of cutting I have done so far, I am starting to see a fine film of dust starting to appear on the machine and other places. So time to deal with dust collection.

While I would like to get the one of the big dust collection systems, installing that could take a considerable amount of time. For the interim at least, I am getting a Oneida Dust Deputy to be used on combination with my shop vac. I have bought some extra hose and will get a mount setup so that the hose can travel with the gantry.

Puzzle Piece
 

Attached is a pic of what I am working on. It is cut from pine, which is probably not the best material to use for lettering. The edges look a little ragged because I did not have a router bit long enough to to get all the way through the wood. So it is rough cut. The lettering was cut with a 60 degree V-bit. I had to do a leveling pass because the wood was cupped.

The only issue I have with the piece is that I got some paint bleeding along the grain. I cut the piece, painted over with black and then sanded it down to wood again. I think I will try it will a layer of clear coat to seal the end of the wood grain, before overlaying the black.

The size is roughly 6x6 inches.

I am open to any suggestions on how to improve this. I have until next Thursday to have it ready.

Seal the wood before applying paint (Seal Coat or some other sealer. Two coats minimum. That will stop the bleeding. Check the end of your V bit. A lot of time the 90° bits have a smaller flat that the 60°.

And get dust collection.

I tried a 90 degree vee bit first, but it seemed to hog out too much material and letters with inner areas were getting cut out. That is why I went 60 degree for this one.
I went to the box store and bought some clear coat. I also grabbed some red oak, which is much harder and I hopefully will cut better than the pine.

I mostly cut pine and poplar. Oak is just as painful coloring letters if not worse. The grain is more open and the paint will find those little groove and is almost impossible to remove. The key with all it is sealing. As long as the paint can grip what you seal it with you will do fine. Whatever the wood, it is about understanding its properties and how it reacts. I only use carbide bits and clean them after every cut. Soft wood tends to film on your edges and it will cause some issues. I also run my v carves sometimes twice with pine and it helps clean up the lettering. Remember the cutting is the quick part. Finishing is the time consuming part. It can't be rushed.

Some aligning to do
 

I will have some aligning and gantry untwisting to do.
I noticed that one of the wheels is riding about 1.5mm high when unloaded. At first I thought it was just the V-wheel out of alignment, but it turned out I have some gantry twist. Obviously I should have caught this problem sooner, but I have to deal with it as it is.

Also doing some squareness checks, I am also about 1mm out of square over about 600mm.

For the gantry twist, based on what I have read in the other threads, I will need to do the following.
1. Block up the gantry off the rails and clamp the three resting corners down.
2. Apply down pressure, using a clamp, to the high corner until the twist is removed.

Once the gantry is untwisted, I can recheck the squareness issue. If I am lucky, maybe everything will be square. If not, then I shim the gantry rollers to rotate the gantry until x is square with y.

Plotter pen came today.
Seriously nice piece.
Hope to get to the shop pretty soon to play with it.
I'll post results.
DB: we can move this to my thread but the discussion was here, so I came back...
Let me know if its too OT.
http://i1106.photobucket.com/albums/...psklstg6y8.jpg

The thread is fine here. I will be interested to see how well it works for you.
The brass barrelled one I bought from widget works, before I bought my mechmate, has too much slop in it. I was trying to do some layout tests for on aluminum sheet and I was seeing as much a millimeter of variation that I think was due to the pen moving in the holder.

I bought one from http://www.rockcliffmachine.com/product/cnc-pen-holder/ and will see how it works. If that one does not work and you have good results with yours, I will buy one as well.

Is that holder spring loaded?

There is no spring with it, But I'm thinking one behind the pen would be a good idea.
We'll see how it works.

Got my logos in.
 

Got the mechmate logos in the mail from Mike today.
Will have them on soon.

Yahoo!

Checking Gantry Twist
 

I took some more measurements to understand why my gantry is not sitting level on the rails. The first thought was that I had twist because the gantry tubes were not level. However I do not think that is the case.

I used a machinist level(.0005 per 10 inches) to take a more direct reading of the twist and see if the readings correspond to the gap(about 1.5mm) I was seeing between the roller and rail. The amount of difference between opposite ends of the gantry was .3mm. Not enough to account for the gap I am seeing. The measurement was done by shimming up at the rail until I got a level reading.

I also checked the level on the x-axis and I am seeing about a .3mm twist as well.

This leads me to think that it is not that the gantry tubes that are out of level, but that I got the end plates out of level when I was welding them. This would lead to the rollers being out of level.

This makes me think that the solution for me would be to file a slot in the holes for rollers rather than trying to bend the gantry to get even contact. If I tried to bend, I would have to shim up my rails by 1.5mm!

I would be interested in any comments on my analysis to see if I am looking at this correctly.

On all fours again
 

The gantry is now sitting on all fours again. The first thing I did was loosen all the gantry rollers and retighten them. I wanted to be sure they were all resting in their lowest position. That really did not make much difference in the gap.

So I went ahead and did a little filing on the hole that was high. It did not take much and now the gantry is now on all fours.

For the moment everything seems to be resting nicely. On to the dust foot and getting the logos on.