[sdantonio]

I have been very poor in regards to taking pictures. I tend to work till late in the night and then say "I'll take a few tomorrow". But when tomorrow comes I'm back at building again and only late at night do I realize that I not only forgot to take pictures of the day before, and so the cycle continues.

Attached are the 2 Joe machine pictures. The big one is mine (32" X 6ft), the small blue one (the one Joe says liike like a pinball machine) is my girlfriends (12" X 24"). It remains to be finished. But I'm using the big one to cut parts for it.

I'm also attaching a shot of the old manual router that is being replaced by the CNC. Photoset 1

[sdantonio]

And the finished product waiting for modifications and rebuilding. The z-axis hasn't been painted bacause, by the time I reached this point I was already planning on rebuilding the entire gantry. In the last shot you can see the new verticle ribs cut on the finished machine.

To make this I carefully cut out one prototype of each repeated part the then duplicated then by hand on a manual router table (not the one pictured in the first set). I'll take better shots of the power supply soon.

When the girlfriend asked "What's my machine machine doing", I don't think she was overly thrilled by my answer "it's holding the monitor"

A few upgrades. t-track, Higher gantry sides so I can deal with slightly thicker stock, angle iron reinforced gantry sides, HDPE parts where there should be HDPE, 2 start screws (possible ball screws), angular contace bearings... and this time I'll use the correct pipe (3/4 instead of 1") on the gantry. (It was really hard getting the z-axis on over the 1" pipe).

[sdantonio]

and now It's time to clean up down there so I can work more comfortable around the new machine.

I also think I need to have a long talk with the girlfriend. She said something the other day that sent shivers down my spine. She was talking to a friend about the CNC and said "oh... it's all computer controlled. The good thing is that you can set it up, start it running and go off and do something else..."

We need to have a talk about shop safety and machines that can do serious damage if they get out of hand, before I turn her loose on her machine. The father of one of my closest friends, a wood worker for longer than I have been alive, slipped up on the table saw last year and had 3 fingers degloved. May be she needs to be reminded of that incident.

[ccsparky]

I also think I need to have a long talk with the girlfriend. She said something the other day that sent shivers down my spine. She was talking to a friend about the CNC and said "oh... it's all computer controlled. The good thing is that you can set it up, start it running and go off and do something else..."

Steven

Maybe you just missed the rest of the conversation, you know the part where she said ..."while Steven keeps and eye on it"

Looks like you've been busy! Keep the pictures coming!

Bob

[joecnc2006]

Steve the machine looks good, even the monitor stand looks sturdy... lol

How do you think the machine performs, and also performs being stretched out a little, I do not see anyproblems with anyone doing that, heck even the ones with the machine now can build another one larger and just take their time doing it.

Joe

[Madclicker]

and now It's time to clean up down there so I can work more comfortable around the new machine.

I also think I need to have a long talk with the girlfriend. She said something the other day that sent shivers down my spine. She was talking to a friend about the CNC and said "oh... it's all computer controlled. The good thing is that you can set it up, start it running and go off and do something else..."

We need to have a talk about shop safety and machines that can do serious damage if they get out of hand, before I turn her loose on her machine. The father of one of my closest friends, a wood worker for longer than I have been alive, slipped up on the table saw last year and had 3 fingers degloved. May be she needs to be reminded of that incident.

The operator won't get hurt setting the job up, starting it up, and walking
away. How can you lose fingers if you're in another part of the shop?

However, you can damage the machine or ruin your work. Been there, done that.

More often than not, my machine is running in absentia and everything works out fine. Sometimes a piece gets tossed off the vacuum table, but I'm watching o'reilly, survivor, the idol, midget races, or something and my fingers are nowhere near.

[sdantonio]

Steven

Maybe you just missed the rest of the conversation, you know the part where she said ..."while Steven keeps and eye on it"

Looks like you've been busy! Keep the pictures coming!

Bob

That actually wouldn't suprize me at all

I will keep taking the pics

[sdantonio]

Steve the machine looks good, even the monitor stand looks sturdy... lol

How do you think the machine performs, and also performs being stretched out a little, I do not see anyproblems with anyone doing that, heck even the ones with the machine now can build another one larger and just take their time doing it.

Joe

The only thing I have found so far is that the y axis seems to be a little sticky. It got better as I relaxed the preload spring. So I suspect further loosening would help. Other than that it runs nice. I still have to test if for actual backlash and accuracy. Judging by the 9 or so verticle ribs I cut the repeatability seems to be right on. I also did a test cut on a circle, about 5 inches. Going around it with a caliper it seems to be quite accurate.

[sdantonio]

The operator won't get hurt setting the job up, starting it up, and walking
away. How can you lose fingers if you're in another part of the shop?

However, you can damage the machine or ruin your work. Been there, done that.

More often than not, my machine is running in absentia and everything works out fine. Sometimes a piece gets tossed off the vacuum table, but I'm watching o'reilly, survivor, the idol, midget races, or something and my fingers are nowhere near.

Having grown up with manual tools where the operator is the motor, and where a bit of inatention can prove to be a serious problem, I may be being a bit overcautious. I'll relax as I see the thing in operation more and prove to myself that it is safe to walk away for a while.

As you can see, right now the dust collection system is manual, so it's probably best to hang around and at least keep an eye on that so as not to fill up the furnace filters with to much dust.

Also, her main substrate to work in is probably going to be aluminum which is not an easy cut on these things. So I would rather have her keep an eye on it to make sure nothing in the machine, like the gantry, loosens up during the cut. I have seen a few reports of considerable shaking while cutting the nonferrous metals with these.

[sdantonio]

Steve the machine looks good, even the monitor stand looks sturdy... lol

How do you think the machine performs, and also performs being stretched out a little, I do not see anyproblems with anyone doing that, heck even the ones with the machine now can build another one larger and just take their time doing it.

Joe

Joe,

Once I get all the upgrades done I intend to map the lead screws. Then I expect that it will perform quite well. The Acme precision screws are something like .009 per foot or better, I should be able to map most of that out and could possibly get .001 per foot if I'm careful. Dumpster claims zero backlash (I'm still thinking of making my own though). I was thinking of making the bearing supports (motor end) out of something hard, delrin, possibly aluminum. This way I can really clamp in the AC bearings so there is no backlash their. More along the idea of mounting a ball screw. Might even be able to let the free end float in a bearing like most ball screws, rather than clamping it down with a spring.

But so far I still haven't cut anything bigger than 12X12 inches. Everything moves along the full lengths and I assume it will cut nicely along the full length too.

Powersupply pics this weekend I hope.

[ger21]

Keep in mind that the ±.009 is worst case. Chance are you'rs could be much better.

[sdantonio]

Keep in mind that the ±.009 is worst case. Chance are you'rs could be much better.

Yes. I'm hoping for better. Gerry, Did you see the DRO i found on ebay. I linked it to the leadscrew mapping thread. I was wondering if it would work for the purpose if doing the repeated measurements. Looks like it might with the right fixture.

[ger21]

I saw it, but don't really know how well it would work. It's a bit small, too.

[sdantonio]

I was hoping to move in incrementally along the table. Anything else you would recommend (this seller also has them up to about 3ft long). I saw this and thought it would be much easier than my dial indicator (with a travel of 7/8 inch).

I might not even need to map it at all with the accuracy of some comparable wood router systems.