[DJEkim33]

The plate looks nice. What thickness did you end up using for the plate? I don't have access to the equipment you have but I could drill out the holes, clamp it down to the table than face mill it "flat".

[atomarc]

The plate looks nice. What thickness did you end up using for the plate? I don't have access to the equipment you have but I could drill out the holes, clamp it down to the table than face mill it "flat".

I'll answer for my son Nick..it was his project. The material for the fixture plate is known as 'Mic-6'. That is Alcoa's name for cast and ground aluminum plate used for fixtures and jigs. It was .750 thick and I believe it's guaranteed flat and true within .002 over 2 feet...it's very flat and consistent in thickness, you wouldn't have to mill it or fly cut it..already flat. If you look closely at the pictures you can see the marks left by the Blanchard grinder.

Take a peek at Mic-6..and get the real scoop!

Stuart

[atomarc]

I wanted to share my excitement about my 'Alibaba' experience. I signed up with Alibaba and requested information about machine way covers..bellows. I was inundated with responses..all in some form of 'Chinglish', but still readable. I ended up dealing with 'Leo Li' at ShuangXTech Metal Manufacturing Co.,Ltd. I sent him CAD drawings of the way covers I wanted and received a very reasonable quote in just a day or so. The quote was for a 'Y' axis cover and a 'Z' axis cover. The cost was $30 dollars for one and $32 dollars for the other..another $37 dollars for shipping with a 10 day delivery window.

You can't beat that with a stick in my book. The covers came today and I was completely blown away. They fit absolutely perfectly, appear very durable and well made. If this foray into China had been a bust I would have only been out $97 dollars. As it turned out it was a super easy transaction, questions promptly answered, payment using PayPal and quick delivery through DHL.

Nick will post pictures tomorrow and I'll include a link to the company web site for ShuangXTech..the web site is very professional, they certainly have their ducks in a row. I'm happier than a clam at high tide!!


Stuart


ShuangxTech Metal Manufacturing Inc.

[atomarc]

Pictures....



(......)





(y cover)





(z cover, the little nub profiles fit the Hiwin linear rails beautifully...)





(Z again)










:cheers:

[lcvette]

Nice find! What is the compressed thickness on the Y axis? Looks nice and we'll made! Have any shots of the tops while extended?

Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk

[atomarc]

Chris,

Nick will probably take some more shots of the covers a little later. My drawings I sent show a 'Y' axis extended length of 200mm and retracted length of 40mm. The 'Z' is 300mm and 70mm. I haven't measured the covers yet but have no reason to believe they aren't as spec'd. Both covers will meet at a junction of Z & Y and will probably be attached to a block of ABS or some other 'dummy' plastic. Both covers are identical height and width so they'll look right when meeting up at the Z/Y junction. The spindle housing has to be pulled to install the 'Z' cover so it's a semi PIA to rough assemble.

Stuart

[lcvette]

Chris,

Nick will probably take some more shots of the covers a little later. My drawings I sent show a 'Y' axis extended length of 200mm and retracted length of 40mm. The 'Z' is 300mm and 70mm. I haven't measured the covers yet but have no reason to believe they aren't as spec'd. Both covers will meet at a junction of Z & Y and will probably be attached to a block of ABS or some other 'dummy' plastic. Both covers are identical height and width so they'll look right when meeting up at the Z/Y junction. The spindle housing has to be pulled to install the 'Z' cover so it's a semi PIA to rough assemble.

Stuart

I would not reduce Y travel for Z at all, I would put Y as close to the column as possible as that is actual usable work envelope you would be losing otherwise, any benefit to the spacer would all but be lost. A simple sheet metal bent bracket (or in atomarc fashion, a machined L bracket) would allow mounting so that the Z axis cover base was above the y axis allowing as much Y travel without implement as possible.

Remember a vise has a fixed jaw already eating up usable travel of the Y limited Y travel!!

Sent from my QTAIR7 using Tapatalk

[atomarc]

Chris,

It's hard to explain..pictures are worth a whole bunch of words so we'll post some pix of the covers installed. No axis travel has to be reduced for the sake of a way cover..all axis move their full extent with the covers installed.

Stuart

[atomarc]

spent today doing lots of small things.... drilling holes..... grommets......seal-tite grips.....a super sick bulkhead fitting "trim ring" ......... basically a bunch of random pictures from the days work.




(glued the return line and made a fun bracket out of abs to support the pipe)





(its the little things in life... =))





(back to the tank)





(bling bling $$$)





(way oil and stepper wire)





(other wires.....?)





(other side)






(bracket to support power draw bar hard line where it transitions to soft line)






(cooked up a lil coolant block.... now to find a home for it)





(a gauge for gauging ones gauge)









(hard line and a crackin cool clamp!)













(a tin cover and some mock up photos...)


















:cheers::cheers::cheers:

[atomarc]

Checked a few more things off the list today!

- Made a modification to the stainless steel drawer the coolant tanks sits on, when the tank comes sliding out a cord comes with it..... had to remove a part of the back of the drawer to let the cord pass by..(chair)

- Final test fit all the drawers and made clearence holes in the backs.

-fit light brackets to inside of enclosure as well as grommet holes for power.

Other things...... going to go look at a local Blanchard grinder sometime next week........ the enclosure is pretty much done other than finish work, so the plan is to separate the machine from the enclosure and finish up the last bit of work on the mill its self.... "and then".....?

:cheers:

























(the drawers.... they still fit!!)




(the super uber duber schweet 9.99$ Chinese amazon prime "ip65" LED flood lights!....BOOM!! )














(the power for the light will run under the drip edge and pop out through the grommet...)

[atomarc]

feels like progress... removed the mill from the enclosure today, looking forward to working on something other than an enclosure!!! We used the rusty trusty cherry picker to pull the mill and plop it down on the original grizzly base. began work on fitting the back Y axis bellows.... started by machining dovetails in the column spacer for the bellows to pass.... and....


("wouldn't it suck if this strap lets go....")





(deja vu)





(you mean your not going to spend another 2 years working on this "enclosure"? .... lol :stickpoke)





(roughing pre-dovetail cutter)




(chomp chomp chomp)

















(something like this...)











(sneak peek! this will be next week = ) )















(it seems we have come full circle...)





:cheers:

[atomarc]

Nice pictures and post Nick..thanks. I'll add that Nick and I are leaving at 6:00 AM for San Francisco to pick up a 24" X 36" granite surface plate...a new shop toy to lay the 'pretzel' Grizzly table on to get some measurements prior to sending off for grinding. This surface plate comes with a factory castered stand so it will double as a 'faux' table when not in use. $100 clams for surface plate and stand...couldn't pass it up.

Stuart

[atomarc]

Made it back from the bay area safe and sound with a really heavy piece of rock.... 400 pounds worth (worked out to 25 cents a pound!!!! ). Looking forward to checking the table out on the plate. Back on the y way cover..... started making a aluminum bracket that will hold the saddle side of the bellows in place... ........... ......... ........... Can that really be all i did this weekend?.... damn lol




(Awwww yeah! live action video update! Show some love and subscribe!)

https://youtu.be/43lmjvq4iNs



(pretty happy for 100 clams. not that it matters to someone like me.... find out the surface plate is "A" / "inspection" grade!... nice!)





(its GMO free as well.... )













(Chris... i took your suggestion and machined this simple bracket instead of bending it! :stickpoke)









(some screws on the top..... either pop rivets or glue on the other side)








:cheers:

[jiggerinc]

Such a beautiful build, thanks for sharing it. I see you're doing a Y axis extension - do you know much rigidity loss, if any, it costs the machine to have the column mounted on a spacer like that? I know I've seen others do the same, but I haven't found details on accuracy before and after the mod.

[atomarc]

Such a beautiful build, thanks for sharing it. I see you're doing a Y axis extension - do you know much rigidity loss, if any, it costs the machine to have the column mounted on a spacer like that? I know I've seen others do the same, but I haven't found details on accuracy before and after the mod.

Thanks for the kind words.

In regards to the rigidity, I had a few concern as well. When I made the spacer, which is a solid chuck of ground steel, I made sure to tie it to the column and base with a tight fitting alignment key. I think if you look at it from a physics standpoint, the column won't even know the spacer is there as the whole enchilada is mashed together just like it was, sans spacer. The only thing that could change the dynamics of rigidity would be the increased length of the four bolts and any extra flexing that may cause. In my simple estimation, the addition of the spacer as I have done it will have zero detrimental effect on the accuracy of the machine. I'm just a hack so I may be completely out to lunch though!

Stuart

[atomarc]

"Work" continues.... drilled and tapped 3 - 6/32 holes to hold the y axis bellows to the back of the oil manifold.....bonded one side of the bellows to the bracket with VHB.... mounted the super awesome coolant schnozzle modulator block!!!........ put the column in the vise and and brainstormed ideas for the z axis bellows.



(drilled and tapped 3 holes to mount aluminum bellows bracket to back of manifold)





(nice, it fits...)





(after prepping both the aluminum and ABS, VHB tape was applied and then the whole biotch was clamped up for a few...)





(now to figure out the other side..)





(WHAT!!!!! is that a "coolant schnozzle modulator block" ??? )





(the bellows bracket is going to be easily removable to slide the bellows down to periodically access the grease fittings underneath)






("AND THEN!!!"....)





(Oh,,,,, and some more of this..... creating a topographic map )





:cheers: Duh end..

[atomarc]

Made some more progress on the bellows brackets..... cleaned the shop.....



(ummmm i love the smell of a soon to be machined bracket.... tehehe )











(easily removable....?)





(to access the grease fittings that are hidden underneath the bellows)









(a slap of VHB and bobs your uncle...)





(while eating lunch and watching you-tube, russtuff uploads a video about modifying his table end plate for better coolant drainage.... I liked it, so i did it.... still need to do the drip edge but you get the idea..thanks Russ )

(before)





(during....3/8 ball was used only for the corner radius)





( "after" )













(now that both ends of the bellows are attached to the machine, its time to figure out how best to connect the two together.... (still working on that one..) )









(the sticker never lies........................ )





Thanks for looking!!! Come back now ya hurr....
:cheers::cheers:

[atomarc]

A quick teaser till tomorrow... :banana:











:cheers:

[atomarc]

Worked on a few little odds and ends..... drilled some holes and mounted a disconnect......other than waiting for tape to arrive in the mail the Z & Y bellows and associated brackets are complete. Where the Z & Y bellows meet there is a "joiner" occupying the dead space.... the end of each bellow has a metal plate VHB taped to it, the plate has studs that have been silver soldered in.... the pins fit in corresponding holes in the "joiner" block and some set screws for retention..... trying for some easy service-ability?................. ........ ....... received the monitor that we will be using for the build, having tried normal computer monitors and finding them to thick and bulky..... landed on a ASUS USB monitor..... super thin, one usb wire for everything, great viewing angles, cheap, thin, thin, thin. I was concerned about the intel nuc computer being able to supply the juice for the usb monitor but i hooked it all up and tested the screen after installing a driver.... Iam happy to say it works!


(turkey eh...)





(yeah,,,, that looks about uhhh..........(chair))





(you wont be lonely for long "mr." disconnect! :banana





(bellows end plates before holes, pins and silver solder)





(found some neat ...airplane? "nut screw rivet idk whats its called thing" hardware that worked great as pins..steel too!)




(clamping and drilling / countersink holes for the pins....)















(silver solder was next....)











(a quick trip through the blast cabinet......and bob really is my uncle...!!!)





(and the cover plate "joiner" is bolted to the column)




(if only we had more "tape" lol!)





(oh chit! black spray paint kinda "done" right here boys! )





(monitor time..... really excited about mounting it to the enclosure... and all that goes along with it!! )







(NUC up and running with the usb monitor!!!)




- Nick :cheers:

[phomann]

Hi,

Nice monitor. I mount my NUC to the back of my touch monitor via the MESA mount. minimal wires and a neat setup. I then just run an Ethernet cable to the Smooth Stepper controller.

Cheers,

Peter