News Flash.
New product I have NEVER cut on the table before just arrived. I ordered 20 sheets...we will see how it does.
I even ordered fancy schmancy bits to cut all of it.
The product.
3/4" cabinet grade birch
laminated 1 or 2 sides with various types of High pressure plastic laminate. This way, my cabinets are prefinished on all of the interior surfaces. Tonight should be fun :D

"Compression" schmancy bits?

You betcha! Compression spiral 1/4" 7/8 CL, 2.25 OAL
I also order solid carbide, straight cut, 2 flute *onsrud* plastic cutting bits as well. Just in case.
It's all about the testing :)

Gerald.
Those fancy schmancy compression bits and 20 sheets of laminated core plywood are NO match for the MechMate. I flew through 20 sheets in 4 hours this morning.
Stats:
1/4" compression spiral and 1/4" carbide, 2 flute straight cut bits.
- both performed equally well.
- better cut edge with 2 flute
- better chips with compression.
- avg speed 180ipm with 2 passes .30 inch/pass

I will be cutting 3/8" polycarbonate, 1/4" acrylic tomorrow ( well, in about 5 hours :)

Surely the compression cutter only works for one full depth pass? From what I read of the regular compression cutter users, they rarely cut material thicknesses more than 2X cutter diameters thick. ie. a 3/8" cutter for 3/4" material.

Sean,

Can you give me the trade name for that laminate covered birch core ply? I would like to see if I can get that locally here in Cleveland.

Thx!

I buy from Quality Plywood Specialties. It doesn't have a trade name.

Essentially, this is an in-house product that they do for customers.
All they are doing is "laying up" cabinet liner (VT grade plastic laminate) on a sandiply core. 1 side or 2 side. In a very large press and roller machine for a very uniform glue up. Something I don't have inhouse.

They just are set up for it and reduce my labor on each piece by about 2 hours per sheet. Thus a HUGE savings.
Call your local ply supplier and see if they have this service.

If not, you can buy versions of the material "preglued" from TCH hardware in Buffalo.
Sean

Working hard for the money - and earning her keep
 

Okay,
The forum's been a little stale with pictures the past couple of weeks. So, I thought I would cheer up Gerald with some "dusty" photos!:D
Attachment 1112

Attachment 1113

Beeeyooootiiiiifuuuullll
:):):):):):):):):):):):):

Hey....2 brownie points for anyone that can name the 10 parts being cut on the left side of the bottom photo.

OOOh OOh OOh I Know! I Know!

push sticks?

Leko and JR win the prize. Push sticks for the boys in the shop!
For your reward, please go to the head of the class and please hand sand all the edges of the parts coming off the table. :)

You sure are a proud owner of a MECHMATE beast. Nice post .

See sean, now all you need is a vacuum table, line bore head and you will be set.

Vacuum table parts all sitting in the corner with the dust collection. I just have to have a slow week so I can get it all moved to the other building.
Line bore head....most likely I will add a pneumatic drill motor for pointing.

:eek: Thanks for reminding me about all the things I have to finish!

Sean, looks great what is your main business?

Andy of the the Green Mountains.
Theater, Museums and Themed stuff...and a little General Contracting thrown in for good measure. The GC part lets me follow the rules and get permitting with ease.
Burlington...I love that MicroBrew place in town across from campus where you can buy 80 beers and take a trip "around the world in 80 brews".....New Albans was a normal stop for me years ago.

Sean,
If you meanthe vermont brew pup across from the old Ben and Jerrys original garage which is now a parkinglot. Yeah the beer is good . My brother built the bar and his buddy welded up the old milk tanks that are now the brewery.
The new Albans of which you speak must be St Albans ? Life is good up here except winter feels like it won't end.

Will you be lasering any parts in the near future?

Yes, Lasering parts in the VERY near future. Hopefully next week.
But I will say, the Alabama connection is a great price! I can't beat it. I am closer to 400 (estimated) for all done here in orlando plus shipping. My laser/fabricator has had some challenges getting the new Mitsubishi laser to work consistently lately. Thus, I have been in a delay until they felt comfortable to run parts as an outsource and not for internal use only.

...and it cuts/pockets 1/2" acrylic sheet too!
Attachment 1184

Sean,
That upper radius looks mighty smooth. Your machine seems to be Cutting great. :)

Heath.

No chatter, no "arc pulsing" either.
Almost perfect.....almost.
I still have to resurface the machine sacrificial spoilboard. My depth of cut is still off a smidgen in different parts of the table.
The picture is a little poor on resolution, rest assured, it's a really nice finish. I was able to go straight to flame polished edge without touching the plastic with sandpaper or burnishing tools. :)

Sean,
What do you use to do your flame polishing? Does that just gloss over the cut edge? Haven't done too much with acrylics myself. Where on earth did you pick up all these skills?

an alcohol flame or a hydrogen fired torch set (trick is NO carbon in the flame)....just wave it by the DA sanded plastic 220grit or better...and viola!....crystal clear. The finer the sand, the better the finish.

Skills....nope...just too many years doing "stuff". :)

I have never seen it that smooth, but then, I have never run with gearboxes. Have been picking up from posts like yours that the gearboxes make the world of a difference.

Gerald,
Didnt you mention at one time you were going to try the geared motors on one of your machines? That still in the works? Or am I remembering it wrong?

That is still in the works - waiting for a quite time when a machine is free for a few days.

Sean,

Could you post an example of a "hydrogen fired torch"?

Also, I can't remember... Do you have the 3.6 gearboxes or the 7.2?

Thx.

7.2 gearbox
the torch is your standard oxy/act brazing setup. Just substitute hydrogen for acytlene. Carefully wave invisible flame over plastic sanded to 400 grit or better.

Ok, I have an Oxy/ Actl setup. Do you get a hydrogen bottle at any welding supply? Never asked for that.

Next question...

With 7.2 gearboxes, what pinion and what is your max ipm jog speed?

Thx again.

Welding supply...ask for it. It's not something they usually get requests for from non-commercial users. You may have to assure them you using it for plastic polishing and not making a zeppelin.

7.2 gearboxs I am using a 20T pinion @25Khz = about 225 ipm jog
@ 45Khz = about 275
7.2 gearbox w/ 30T @ 25Khz = about 340ipm or about 6 inchs/second Doug is getting his table to achieve about 12" /second with 35T pinions.

Now, these speeds are well below what you can achieve mathematically. But, at these speeds, with my computer, etc....These "sound" about right.



I hope this helps.

Sean

Sean,

I'm actually jogging at 15.5 inches per second but I didn't build it to jog, I built it to cut. If I were doing it all over again, I would get a smaller pinion like you did or a 30T pinion.

Doug,
Would it be that hard to change the pinions around and see which one gives you the type of performance you want? Sorta like tuning the gearing on a car. Or is it a lot more work than it sounds?

It would be fairly simple and I may do it one day. The pinions are simple to change and then a couple of software changes. Right now, I'm spending all of my time at work.

Schematic for installation:
prox_layout.pdf

I received a message from Ed, but have also fielded a few queries from others on how the Proximity relays really work and how to wire them to the PMDX using only 1 input.

1 - refer to the pdf schematic link above. You can also see pictures of the installation in post 247 of my this thread.

Steps (and JR will keep me honest - I am nowhere near my machine right now to check things)

1 - wire according to schematic.
2 - set your mach 3 settings in the Ports and Pins box to input 15.(or your setting. For example. Map x - home to 15, map y - home to 15, map z - home to 15.
3 - I'll check my configs in the morning to see if I have it active hi or active low....I can't remember right now.


Mapping all the homes to the same pin number will allow mach 3 to cycle through the homing sequence and set the z, then y, then x.

In the Mach screen you push the long vertical bar (near the DRO readouts) to "refall" and it will run this sequence.

That is all. It works well and all the time.

thanks sean, I have mine working now.

There were some issues though. I am using pin 12. Doesn't matter you can use any of the unused pins on J5 as long as you enter that pin in the ports and pins. Remember also (i didn't at first) to assign A to home to the same pin #. After grinding gears for a second I remembered my slave motor.

I had to reverse the homing direction by changing to home neg for X,Y and A in the homing window of mach 3. Z doesn't have to change.

Active low boxes stay unchecked so they be active high.

Only issue I have left is the travel to home speed is slow all the time not just the last inch.

got the travel speed set now for 80% that is better

Ed

Good progress.

That travel will always be slow as when the machine is homing, it does not know where the the last inch is, it only knows to look for a limit switch somewhere in that direction. Its best to jog close to the limits and then "refall".

If I remember correctly, the big iron machines like Multicam will not allow you to jog until it is referenced, but Mach3 allows it.

Alan,
Your very correct. If you lost the home on my big multicam, you could not jog the machine except at "seek" speed. Which is the same slow speed it looks for the home switch. A real bummer if you lost home in the parked gantry 10 feet away from home. It took 10 minutes to rehome the machine!

Ed....great to hear you got it all worked out.

SEan