Decided to have some fun instead of working on the vacuum system.

After seeing Darren #101's gear I had to make one.

Cool, nice patina, only too perfect to be real, maybe stain it with some black particles And a few lighter smears ?

Typically when I start free handing stuff it gets messy and I have to repaint. I'll give it a try. It does need some scraping where it was pulled off the shaft and where the teeth mesh.

If you have AutoCad, there is a AutoLisp free online called TrueGear. It runs as any lisp does and design many different gears. I used it where I work at since they have Cad. Not much use there for me, but I have used it to draw gears for cutting.

Thanks Pete,
I used SolidWorks to create multiple gear sizes from 10 to 70 teeth then created a 2D dxf file to import into Aspire. Have yet to try an stl file from SolidWorks directly into Aspire.

Very cool gear.

Thanks Darren

Decided it was time to do the spoil board. Set it up to use the gantry to carry the board across the table.

Also heard it was good for the environment to go green so I tried that too.

Lookin good!

guao your excellent work friend. I hope someday to finish mine, and buy everything but my wife came back pregnant and can not do anything. MechMate guta me much if it were not so expensive and would leave the armaria to take photo lol but good'm working slowly and I am making the holes to bolt the rails angles. hope to get started soon hard to the finish, hopefully stay like this. materials that you have used is equal to the morning put my photo mia probre progress. but there will your greetings and good job ..


Greetings to all community MechMate

att Hevert galue from Venezuela

Thanks Jack and Hevert,

Congratulations on the pregnancy Hevert. You do know that the more you work on the Mechmate the less time there is for pregnancy. ;)

I recently cut a sign 24 x 20. Raster cuts sure do take a long time.

lol hello if you do not have time, I'll dedicate my wife, hahaha mechmate wait hopefully not much. and your very nice work greetings

Sign for my garage. Sign is 14" X 72" (355 X 1829).

Started cutting clock gears and ran into a problem. Haven't had much time to investigate but maybe some one has seen it before. The MDF cuts are smooth on curves but I'm getting gear tooth distortion. The teeth are supposed to be rounded but they should be symmetrical.
I made a test piece with 1/4" X 1/4" teeth to define the problem and it shows up when cutting in the X direction. The red circle is the start/finish and the arrow shows the direction of cut. Top and bottom are reasonable but the sides are not good at all. Its some kind of overshoot. Can even be seen on the inner square cut. Using an 1/8" cutter.

Don't know if it helps but here is the preamble to the file.

( Sq test Pattern )
( File created: Sunday, October 19, 2014 - 04:03 PM)
( for Mach2/3 from Vectric )
( Material Size)
( X= 12.000, Y= 12.000, Z= 0.490)
()
(Toolpaths used in this file:)
(Profile 2)
(Tools used in this file: )
(2 = End Mill {0.125 inch}MDF)
N100G00G20G17G90G40G49G80
N110G70G91.1
N120T2M06
N130 (End Mill {0.125 inch}MDF)
N140G00G43Z0.8000H2
N150S10000M03
N160(Toolpath:- Profile 2)
N170()
N180G94

Looks like mechanical slop.

A few things to check.
_z slide v bearings
_loose grub screws on pinion drive gear
_board moving on table?
_check Mach3 configuration file and see if you set on on ABSOLUTE or Incremental (2nd column, 1/2 way down on page.

Sean,

No play in Z Slide or spindle mount.
Grub Screws were tight last week (will check again tonight)
Board is secure on table.
Have no idea about Absolute or Incremental. (will check tonight)

Thanks, hopefully it will be one of these.

I agree with Sean. You have backlash somewhere. I would definitely check your pinion set screws.

Unload the pinion from the rack and put a pair of channel locks on it.
See if you can move the bugger.

It's almost 90% showing mechanical slop.

Sean, I don't want to sound stupid, but what are you talking about when you say "absolute or incremental"?

Attachment 15101

Toggling these values has different speeds affects on how mach handles curves at velocity.

Thanks Fellas

Sean and Pete,

You guys nailed it. Loose set screw on one of my X drive reduction pulleys. Going to double up the set screws.
When I first saw the bad cut I knew it had to be some mysterious design flaw or control configuration instead of a simple set screw. The teeth on the cut gears are perfect now.
Happy you guys are here listening.

Thanks again

Use a knurled point set screw and blue loctite

I also use Blue Loctite. I even put it on the shaft and pulley. It doesn't stop the pulleys from ever coming loose but makes it much further between tightenings. I have thought about putting tack welds on the spur gear and shaft so I could remove them from the trouble shooting.

I roll pinned my pinions to eliminate set screw problems there.

I'll give the hollow (jam nut style) set screw with a knurled one a try.

<- put a tig tack weld at the end of the shaft and pinion after using the knurled set screw.

I trashed one 40 hour foam cutting job in the 38th hour due to it shifting.....welder got turned on after that one!

Another option is LOCTITE 680™ Retaining Compound. We use it on flywheels to retain bearings that even when press fit would spin after sometime that are on press gearboxes. I can tell you that when applied right, we have to heat the flywheel for 20 minutes to compromise the compound enough to press the bearings out even after 20 months of 24/7 operation.

Loctite is great and bit of heat will release it.
When I put a tack on that pinion - on the z - it was 3am and I wasn't keen on waiting til morning! LOL.

Thankfully it was a foam cutting job, so I able to save the part by using HILTI 2 part foam to fill in the overcut....restart the machine and recut the area.

"foam is a bit more forgiving when you mess up"

Finally got around to hanging the sign on my garage (dog house).

Nice!!

I like it!

Are you in the doghouse aga John?!?! ;) looks cool.

Mechmate with Laser?
 

Past couple of weeks I've been installing a Laser on the Machine. The circles were cut with Mach3 moving the machine and me pushing the button to fire the laser. The holes were made with me hitting the button as fast as I could. all done at half power.
Did some research last night and found out how to interface with Mach3 and Aspire's post processor. Thanks to a guy named Tweekie.

That's some Mad Scientist looking stuff right there.
I'd love to know more.

Holy Christmas! I hope you have great eye protection. And I thought my 48" Z axis was pushing it!

The laser tube is 47" long.

What are you using for a focal lens?

Without the addition of safety glass to defuse or block the wavelength, be careful of scattered radiation from reflective surfaces.

•Zinc Selenide (ZnSe) - transparent in wide spectral range from yellow (visible) to far IR. ZnSe material is a chemically inert, non-hygroscopic and highly pure product that is very effective in many optical applications due to its extremely low bulk losses, high resistance to thermal shock and stability in virtually all environments, easily machined. To obtain superior transmittance, ZnSe crystals are grown by Chemical Vapor Deposition process . Zinc Selenide is polycrystalline material, demonstrates superior CO2 laser transmittance and is employed in the transmission optical components used in CO2 laser processing.

Standard stuff off the shelf. The one I'm using has a 2" focal length.

Pete,
No doubt on the eye protection. You get two shots as long as you keep one eye closed. This frequency of laser burns the lens off your eye and it is invisible.
Thanks for watching out for me.