[Khalid]

Khalid and building a Mechmate - no way - think he has another trick up on his sleeve. Just need to wait and watch!

RGDS
IRfan

Yes Irfan.. I am not hardworker like you.. and i have no patience to wait for a long long time building a machine like CarveOne and You... Mechmate building is not an easy task... It needs a lot of time and patience... As i am an hobbiest and my machine is in a spare bedroom i can't have a space for Mechmate too ..

I overhauled my machine recently (Just tighteinng of my skate rails) and i got drastic improvement in cutting... I will make the drawings for my third machine with 4.5' x 5' cutting area by using already purchased HIWIN rails....The third machine will be 1000 percent faster than the existing one (I have no patience to cut slowly )...

From tomorrow i will start making drawings.. Still i am confused to use Metal or MDF for next build?... I am thinking making the base same as CarveOne machine from the seasoned Wood...

[Khalid]

Thanks IRfan,

I already have a cheap Harbor Freight trim router that I installed on the first machine, a 1.5 Hp Ryobi, a 1Hp plunge router from Grizzly Industrial, a Sears & Roebuck copy of a RotoZip router, and a RotoZip Revolution router to choose from, plus about three Dremel tools. There is no lack of something to cut with here. When I find a good excuse to get a 2.5 or 3.25Hp router nothing will stand in my way for long. I'm a power tool fanatic at heart, although I'm on a low budget at times. Khalid will get his wish in due time anyway.

I have learned to expect the unexpected of our good friend Khalid. I was just trying to pry some early information out of him.


CarveOne

Sorry CarveOne.. I thought you have no power tools and you are using low horse power router... Your machine is looking great its cutting area is too big.. Small HP router can't work with your high speed machine unless you get it cut with low pass depth... Now i found you have best power tools at your hands..so pardon me...

In my area i just visited Hardware store and i found 2.8HP variable speed router with only 79 US Dollars... Hmmmm..I checked it thoroughly and i am satisfied with it for my future need... This is the first router i ever seen in market with 2100Watt and variable speed..My mouth is full of water when i saw this beast

Tomorrow i will buy it and post the picture of it... Currently i am using 1400Watt 25000RPM single speed router (40 US dollars only)...

Hmmm.. I know you will be amazed to see the prices... When i was in PARIS i went to one of the 7 stories departmental store... I saw branded tools Black n Decker, Makita etc.. Their prices were touching the sky.. No one below 300 Euro.. .. Thanks God we have CHINA very near to us ... The price has no comparision...

[contactirfu]

hey Khalid - I meant you would do lot better than JUST a Mechmate -

[CarveOne]

Yes Irfan.. I am not hardworker like you.. and i have no patience to wait for a long long time building a machine like CarveOne and You... Mechmate building is not an easy task... It needs a lot of time and patience... As i am an hobbiest and my machine is in a spare bedroom i can't have a space for Mechmate too ..

I am a hard worker also, just not so fast of a hard worker. I take lots of breaks to do unrelated things.

I overhauled my machine recently (Just tighteinng of my skate rails) and i got drastic improvement in cutting... I will make the drawings for my third machine with 4.5' x 5' cutting area by using already purchased HIWIN rails....The third machine will be 1000 percent faster than the existing one (I have no patience to cut slowly )...

That is roughly the same physical cutting area that I have, 50" x 62". It will be reduced a little after setting up limits. With the 4' x 8' table I can slide it to cut long pieces if necessary.

From tomorrow i will start making drawings.. Still i am confused to use Metal or MDF for next build?... I am thinking making the base same as CarveOne machine from the seasoned Wood...

Mine was not well seasoned wood initially. After freezing and baking during the winter and summer it will hopefully become seasoned by the time I start getting serious about alignment of the X axis rails. I recommend using lots of wood glue and decking screws instead of nails. The wood will shrink with time as it dries out. I went to the trouble of pre-drilling all of the screw holes because some of the wood was very hard. I used MDF for the top and will use MDF for the spoil board. I'm debating with myself about making a 24" square area of the spoil board into a vacuum area for small projects and installing T-slot tracks in other areas. (Set up a g-code file to have the machine make replacement spoil boards when needed.)

Branded 2.25 to 3.25 hp routers are between $250 and $350 usd in the Grizzly Industrial catalog. Good bargains can be found though. I'll be looking out for a really good deal.

CarveOne

[Khalid]

I am a hard worker also, just not so fast of a hard worker. I take lots of breaks to do unrelated things.

CarveOne

Offcourse you both are highly talented and hard worker friends of mine ...and i am really proud of you...
I have seasoned wood with me.. They are 4" x 4" X 8ft length and i am having 4 pieces of them.. These are salvage from some of our plant material shipped in it... 100 percent dry...

I hope they will not shrink and bend... what you think Carve One ..is it good to make the base of it?

[BobF]

Hi CarveOne I haven't been on the Zone in a while.
Here is a deal on the big Milwaukee router, my favorite. 3.5 HP for $268.

http://www.heavydutytools.net/Script...p?idproduct=99

If you don't buy it now, bookmark the site, they have deals often.

[CarveOne]

Offcourse you both are highly talented and hard worker friends of mine ...and i am really proud of you...
I have seasoned wood with me.. They are 4" x 4" X 8ft length and i am having 4 pieces of them.. These are salvage from some of our plant material shipped in it... 100 percent dry...

I hope they will not shrink and bend... what you think Carve One ..is it good to make the base of it?

As long as you feel it is dry enough and a type of wood with reasonable stablility I would say to use it. If it is used in a room that has fairly constant temperature and moisture levels it should not be a problem. Consider using it for table legs and diagonal bracing, then make the machine base from steel box tubes or angles that will be better for overall machine stability and accuracy. You would need less steel that way.

If my wooden work table is not stable enough for my projects I intend to transfer the steel parts to a steel box tube base that is the same size as the work table. Once I get the machine assembly completed I will start buying the box tubes as often as I can afford it and just stockpile it.

The aluminum bar stock I ordered for the Z axis is scheduled for Tuesday 7-28-2009 delivery.

CarveOne

[CarveOne]

The 3/8" x 6" aluminum flat stock arrived today. I'll spend some time cutting the pieces to size and maybe drill some holes. It's very hot out in the work shop this evening.

Next order will be for a power supply and four new stepper motors. Will do that real soon - like end of this week.

CarveOne

[CarveOne]

I haven't finished this vertical plate yet, but it's a start. I cut it to 5" x 8", milled the edges, drilled the clearance holes, and bored two pockets that fit over the bolts that mount the anti-backlash nut to the plate behind this plate. This plate and the router clamp plates (one assembly) can be removed for swapping out the 1.5 HP router for another plate assembly that has a larger router mounted on it. The trim router plate assembly will be made whenever it is needed.

There are four additional pockets needed in this plate for nuts that hold the anti-backlash plate to the carriages. I'll bore those tomorrow evening and mount this plate to the Z axis.

CarveOne

[CarveOne]

The plate is now finished. I bored the remaining four pockets and fitted the plate onto the Z carriage assembly early this morning. These prevent the nuts on the Z carriage assembly from being seen after the router plate is installed.

I'm not sure yet how I will make the 3.8" diameter hole in the router clamp plates yet, but it will probably be involve use of my 8" rotary table mounted on the milling machine. Those two plates will be made next.

CarveOne

[CarveOne]

I cut the two router clamp plates and milled them to size this evening. Tomorrow evening I'll work on milling the 3.8" diameter hole for the router in one of the plates. I'll probably spend more time on machine setup for it than actually cutting the hole. (All of this effort is because I don't happen to have a precision 3.8" hole saw on hand. )


They will look like this:

[CarveOne]

Ok, I went out to the milling machine this morning and cleaned it up, then set up the tooling so it will not slow me down this evening.

There are at least two basic ways to bore the 3.8" hole. Use the Aloris type boring head with suitable boring bit with the plate stationary mounted, or use a rotary table and a stationary rotating end mill in the spindle with the plate mounted in the 6 inch four jaw independent chuck that is mounted on the rotary table.

For this exercise I'll use the rotary table method, in which the plate being cut is rotated manually. Photos of the setup will be posted as I have it ready to start cutting and at a couple of stages during the cut. I find that this method usually gives a better finish inside the finished hole since the setup is very solid. The hole will be cut a little under size and then finished out to exact size after the round plug is out of the way.

It will take a bit of time to get the rotary table properly set up under the spindle so that rotating the table always stays centered at the center of the hole location. Moving the milling machine's Y axis (or X axis) in the correct direction will make a hole of the proper size.

CarveOne

[harryn]

Hi - Being a wood worker, I think of the Aloris boring head as being sort of like a variable diameter hole saw / boring bar - right?

My brother has a manual rotary table for his bridgeport clone. It is really accurate, but heavy as heck and takes some crazy number of turns to make one revolution. I think if I were facing that job with his rotary table, I would hook up a slow electric motor to the rotary table handle and let it do that part of the job.

[CarveOne]

Right harryn. I have the boring head but the carbide boring cutters are cheaply made crap. The brazed on carbide cutter breaks/crumbles off easily. Last time I used it I used one flute of a 1/2" 2 flute HSS end mill as the boring cutter and it worked like a champ on mild steel plates.

Crazy number of turns per revolution indeed. 360 degrees divided by 4 degrees rotation per crank revolution = 90 turns each time around the hole!

This one is an 8" rotary table with a 6" chuck mounted on it. The total weight I have to lift onto the milling table is around 70 pounds. I need a chain hoist and rail mounted to the ceiling. One day my little 4" rotary table will have a stepper motor turning it for a 4th axis.

CarveOne

[CarveOne]

Almost finished with the router mounting plates. Due to an unexpected day off work I started working on the plates after returning home at 11am. The only thing left to do is locate, drill. and tap three holes in the rear edge of both plates for mounting them to the vertical plate that I finished earlier this week.

The machining effort went very well today. As expected, the initial alignment took a while to complete and the second plate needed no realignment. Lots of hand cranking going on all afternoon. :tired:

The green tape was placed on the plug just before cutting through the plate. This provided support for the plug so it would not fall downward and bind the cutter. After the rough cut was completed (a little under size) I moved the milling table outward a few thousandths at a time to bring the hole out to 3.8". The inner wall of the 3.8" holes are now very smooth by finishing it off this way.

I'll work on the remaining six threaded holes tomorrow.

CarveOne

[harryn]

Nice work. I guess you are very patient. After 5 - 10 minutes of manual work, usually mess something up - change speed, etc.

[CarveOne]

Nice work. I guess you are very patient. After 5 - 10 minutes of manual work, usually mess something up - change speed, etc.

I have those spells also. That's when I quit until I'm in the right mood again. When things are going well I keep going until I mess something up due to being too tired to think about what I'm doing anymore. It's very easy to turn the wrong crank by mistake on a setup like this. I had the mill's gear head and X, Y, Z axis locked during the circle cutting just in case.

CarveOne

[CarveOne]

I was back at it right after 5am this morning to locate, drill, and tap the three holes in the edge of the two router clamp plates. I temporarily assembled the plates and router before getting ready for work.

When I got back home this evening I installed button head screws that I purchased at Fastenal during lunch break.

The results look pretty good to me. Looks like it won't fall apart when it runs up against balsa and Depron foam anyway. :cheers:

Over the weekend I'll be assembling the top end and lead screw of the Z axis. After that is completed I'll go back to work on the X axis to install the two lead screws and mount the anti-backlash nuts.

CarveOne

[Khalid]

Wow..beautiful..it is close to cutting

[CarveOne]

Thanks Khalid. I wish it were, and I'm at least back working on it to make it so.

I cut a piece of the lead screw material for the Z axis this morning and quickly learned that I must enlarge a couple of the holes to allow more "wiggle room" so that the lead screw, lower bearing mount, and the anti-backlash nut can be aligned properly with the upper bearing mount.

The upper bearing mount has not been mounted yet, and the stepper motor spacers need to be machined for it. More on this later this weekend.

CarveOne