Painting tomorrow? - Centurion, S.Africa
 

Thx to all the members of the forum, Gerald for the plans, I will be starting this week with 2 mechmates.

I was going to build one for my Dad, but desided I also want one, mine will be smaller for I only want one for my Model building. But i guess thats up to the steel merchant tommorrow, hope he is gentle with the prices. I will start with the one for my Dad.

Lasercut parts on order. will have them by wensday, if the laserguy delivers on promise.

If all goes well Base table will be started on tuesday. Completed on thursday.

Wish me luck.

And thx again for info.

Dave,

Welcome. Sounds like an ambitious plan. Best of luck on your build(s).:)

Dave: Welcome to the club. It is a great adventure!

Good luck. Can`t wait to see many detailed pictures of your machines.

Welcome Dave, Do you have a beard like all the other locals? Or maybe a motorbike? :)

No beard, no motorbike, but i hope to have aworking mechmate soon. I think driving the mechmate will be safer than driving on our roads with Motorbikes.

We have a local company providing stickers for cars that says "Think Bike" to try and imprint into drivers to watch out for them, I can't help but smile everytime I see one, cause most of our drivers can't think.

http://cache.daylife.com/imageserve/...XMfcg/610x.jpg

"NEED I SAY MORE"

Update:
Ordered the following today:

2x 6mx180x70 channel R 2464-00
5x 6mx76x38 channel R 1942.50
Total R4406.50

So i will have my table base parts tommorrow.

Still have desided on table sizes, how should i split the 6m 180x70 channel. Cant make up my mind halfies,,,,halfies.

Laser cut parts with bending came to R 1425.21

Engineering shop up the road said he would gut my angle iron rails for me for R800, I think i am going to make use of him.

I think my day was quite productive, amazing how the steel prices varies from area to area. Fleetsteel must mar "Steel the northern surburbs" the won't get away with steeling Centurion. Can't wait to get the dust of the tools and get started.

Split the 6m beam with the ANGLE.....not 90 degrees.....this way you get a little bit extra out of the 6m length

Kobus what is the bigest board size available in south africa

Kobus can you pass on the supplier for runners(and bearing kits) please

Board sizes ask Hennie or Gerald or Alan-C.

Wheels from Rick at Superior Bearings in America....http://www.superiorbearing.com/
E-mail Rick and mention MECHMATE...He will send you the correct stuff chop chop.

thx

Standard MDF is 2750 x 1830, I think there is an option for a longer board (about 3m) but have never seen one myself.

how much do you loose on the sides due to router not being right at the end of table?

With the stock plans, the Mechmate is designed to be able to move 2 inches past the spoilboard on all sides if I remember right.

Have seen 3600 x 1850 mm, but very rare (and expensive!)

Gerald they still charge per sq meter price on the 3.6 boards wel that is in my town and that is sometimes when there is a supply problem with the std 2750x1830 boards.I must say that it is not verry easy to work with that size it is heavy and space is always an issue.Dave cut your rails down yourself it will be R800 that goes towards some good electrical cable.Ask Johan what happened to him with some of those taxi`s

Good luck Koos.
I hit Taxi head o on Friday. The car is a right off but it look like I will make it. Ankle and chest are a bit damage but it doesn't hurt when I swallow my beer. :)

Sorry to hear about your accident, hopefully it wont affect your build completion, very releived to hear your beer drinking is not affected, that would be most traumatic...:D

Glad to hear you are OK...must be that build in AIR BAG that us men carry around all the time.

beer beats painpills

Got steel today for table, was dry when they delivered it now it is WET, first rain here in Centurion. Hope my plans to get table sorted tommorrow does not rain out like the cricket.

The weight on that 180x70 channels is hectic. "Sal maar more moet pap eet voor ek daai treinspoor tackle"

How did u guys manage to cut the 180x70 channel. I wanna gut the 60 degree angle on the beams but does not wanna fit in my cusoff saw, I dont trust a handgrinder enough to hold by hand, plus I know I will stuff it up. I know I dont need to gut the 60 degree angle but I wanna stick to the plan. But looks like i have to resort to using gas, but I am only good with one sort of gas.

That gas aint going to cut it :D

Try the angle grinder, it's really not that bad especially with the thin pferd disks, just make sure you have the beam well supported so that there will be no movement after cutting through. I was always weary of using an angle grinder to cut big sections but these new disks realy make the job much easier.

Ok here come the dum questions:

on drawing 10 10 300 i see the board is not centered, why is this, i can not seem to find the sizes for the offset.

Any help welcome

Look at drawing 10 10 300 W B for the amount of offset.

As mentioned in 10 10 300 W B, the offset is for the offset of the Spindle/Router in the Y Car.

The only dumb question is the one you DON'T ask.

Thx jhiggins7 am i right in saying 100mm to the left(in the direction of (0,0)

Thats correct.

thx for the help

First boobo my math let me down only placed 6 cross beams will it be enough om a 3350 X lenght.

Stupid i did not check just started to drill the holes

You need 10 beams for 3350 length. 10 beams will span 9 spaces of 368mm each.

(At a pince you can have 9 beams spanning 8 spaces of 414mm each)

Crap another boobo my X is not 3350 it is for a maximum board size of 2750 so I have 6 spans on the X where X is 2750.

Gee never thought i would be dealing with X's and Y's, after leaving school.

How does one upload pictures I only get to link it via HTTP://???

The message box under this thread is for quick replies (no pictures). Use the "Go Advanced" button for a facility to upload files.

Thx Gerald

So here is what i did today.

Should have eaten more porage this morning, those 180x70 channels is heavy. got permision from the misses to use the side of the house for our grinding cutting, gasing of the steel.

I starred at the drawings and made a mistake of making my own scetch of waht needs to be accomplished building the table.

Lucky me, had my dad here to gut the beams , he is a wizard with the gas gutter. I was amazed he cut trough the steel like it was butter, with a 2mm gap as he continued cutting.



i mesure the bottom of the beams moved 100mm to the left and made that the center point of my board measuring 2750, then i made stuff up of only putting in 6 supports for the board.


pic 1 : Dad gutting with gas
Pic 2: Dad falling over the Mechmate drawing file.
pic 3: After grinding the cuts game out great, deside to take away the sharp 60 degree cut with 45 and took away the sharp edge.

Dave,

Looks like you and your Dad are on your way. Excellent!:)
Thanks for sharing the pictures of your progress. Happy building.

Said i would be finished on thursday with that table structure, had to go work to pay for all this. Came back and she's got legs but not walking yet.

Great to have my dad here, geee is he presise, were talking half a mm but this monster needs to be sqaure, he is a wealth of knowledge, learn alot of ways and tweeks to get everytjing all square.

Welding went slow had to sharpen my skills, havent done this for ages, took me half an hour to get dust of welding machine.

The young one is the light of my life, always willing to give a helping hand cleaning up daddys mess.

Have to work tommorow so will finish of the welds over the weekend, still havent received laser parts, hope to get it tommorrow the tackle that over weekend as well.

Dave, it looks like you have the tips of the 76x38 channels flush with the outside of the beams? Actually, they should have been 5mm short. Or, put another way, the dimension across the outside of the main beams should be 10mm more than the length of the cross-supports. Not a serious problem, but you should knock 10mm off your Y-value for the gantry if you havn't left the 5mm gap.

Good eye.

Thx will do.

Julle is lekker besig. Mooi so en sterkte.

Wife very impressed with build, she said she would support anything that forces me to tidy up the garage.

Production stoped, havent received laser parts yet.
Think i will do some painting, mount the board on table.

cut the rails,primer,using the quads,dril ,tapping,control box:)