[morphious69]

this is a new design I have been working on for some time. it uses a lot of components that can be obtained at just about any hardware store. But there are a couple of components that are custom, tying the whole design together, giving it a lot of both stability, while still being very adjustable for both accuracy and longevity (in theory). Of course once I have it built I can put those both to the real world test.

ok now for some pictures.







(these next few pics are of a design with some frills to make the parts look more interesting.)




(with my makeshift vacuum shoe. learning a lot of important stuff about what makes them work really well and what happens to be some very nasty mistakes)

[morphious69]

got some parts cut and more cad for the next set of parts done today. pics coming soon.

[PaulRowntree]

I love the 'steam-punk' look of the bracket in the final frame. What is the finish? Do you have to seal the hardboard?

[morphious69]

not sure if I had to or not but the MDF is sealed with a coat of Thompson's water seal. then I sprayed it (to answer your question about the type of textured paint I used) hammered gold. plan was to go in with some sort of stuff to antique it like rub and buff.

not sure if I should have used two coats or more of the thompson's or not. just did not want to change the surface of the indention for the drill rod. might not interfere as much as I thought though and the paint might go on a bit better for sure. the hammered effect was not as pronounced as I would have liked as I have used it on something else before and it was a very steep divot-ed effect then. might be a different brand though or the fact that it was over a painted plastic and fiberglass resin (repair job on a cheap scooter body. kinda wish I had pics of it now.) anyway, that is my story and I am sticking to it

[morphious69]

also quite by accident. (still looking into what caused it) I found that I can run a 1/8th carbide end mill about 0.1" or more per pass in MDF.
I really did not know this.
I am guessing this will cut down on the wear at the tip of the endmill for sure. not to mention it will speed up how fast I can run through this material to make these parts.

I guess I should have done a bit or research to find out just how far I can and should push these bits. Would also be good to have a tachometer for my rotozip since it does not have one. To keep from burning up bits I am running mine off of a dimmer switch with the setting about half way to the cut off point for my rotozip tool. So it is not running at it's max speed so I have no idea how many RPMs I am running it at.

to anyone else running a similar tool on house hold power note from my mistakes

*to make sure that a brown out, or dip in power, when the house's central air and heat kick on, causes the tool to shut off completely. had that happen once. only once. the mill kept running but thankfully I was running the cuts so shallow that it did not make much difference. if it had been cutting deeper ofcourse it would have snapped the bit. *

[RomanLini]

Congrats on the machine! It seems to cut very well for such a simple construction.

Re the tachometer, if you get a SuperPID speed controller to control your Rotozip it has an accurate digital tachometer AND will provide good speed control and good power at low speeds. This should be considered a shameless product plug as I designed the SuperPID and receive some money from it's sales.

[morphious69]

cool you have a link to the SuperPID? I definitely need something to keep track of that, so I can calculate depth and speed for my mill and bits on various materials for sure. I know MDF is a bit of a mixed media, as being mostly wood it still throws occasional sparks from my band saw when I am cutting it down to load it on my mill.

[morphious69]

actually I have another question about the SuperPID. it says it can be controlled by mach3 but I am wondering if it can be controlled by say turboCNC? this is what I use mainly being that it works well for me. I would like to have access to control like this on it, but not seeing anywhere that it can be done. I am running a stepperworld board (FET-4) and it has inputs, so I am wondering if the SuperPID can send a speed signal to that for turbocnc to know what the RPMs are? just wondering. would be cool if it can do those things. otherwise I would probably just get a manual ran unit to know what my RPMs are for calculating my feeds and speeds.

[morphious69]

I guess I should note too that I found the site and I am definitely getting one just want certain information before I make my selection is all

[morphious69]

here are those pics I kept promising. sorry I have been negligent on my updates

[RomanLini]

cool you have a link to the SuperPID?
...

The sales site is;
www.SuperPID.com

This forum has a popular thread with lots of SuperPID users and tech support;
http://www.cnczone.com/forums/diy-cn...ontroller.html

Ok, re TurboCNC, sorry I'm not sure what features it supports. If it has a feature for an output pin, to turn the router on/off, then it can be used to control the SuperPID to turn the router on/off.

The other feature is to control the router speed. Many people (like myself) just use the manual knob that comes with the SuperPID for that. Generally you use the same RPM speed for the whole cutting job anyway.

If you want TurboCNC to control the speed, then TurboCNC needs to have the feature where it sends out a PWM signal to control spindle speed. This is often called a "VFD" control signal or "VFD voltage".

Re the stepperworld board, if it has inputs that send a signal back to the PC then the SuperPID has a "TACH" output that sends the tacho signal back to the PC. Then if your PC software has the feature to display that tacho signal then you cvan display RPM on the PC. Note that RPM is already displayed on the Super-PID display.

I have to ask, what are the cool looking little bracket things for?

[morphious69]

sounds good, I will definitely look into each of those.

The bracket thing (if you are talking about, what I think you are,) are rail supports to keep the drill rods from expanding when the bed carriage is rolling back and forth on it. the head of my mill you see there, has only really one problem stability wise and that is the flex it has from side to side. so these would eliminate that.

[RomanLini]

Ahh I understand now. Isn't it great when the machine makes stuff to improve itself?

Next it will making babies.

[morphious69]

indeed one day I hope to be able to make machines that can fully replicate them selves using metals as well as other raw materials XD

here are the last pics for now

[PaulRowntree]

indeed one day I hope to be able to make machines that can fully replicate them selves using metals as well as other raw materials XD

Reminds me of the scene where Will Smith in "I, Robot" learns that the robot factories are completely automated : Just how good an idea is that?

[morphious69]

parts I cut out today on the mill, before taking them to the bandsaw to trim off their trees.

up for tomorrow, cut out the rest of the parts to finish one of the 3 carriages needed to build this machine.


@PaulRowntree I seem to remember that as well. ah well when has something, not being a good idea, ever stopped a human from doing it anyway heh heh.

[morphious69]

had a fun day today.


on a related note, does anyone know where I can get a good quality endmill for wood and plastic that is carbide, affordable or cheap, while still offering good chip removal and a good shipping price? 1/8th inch is what I need now but I need a good solid supplier that I can buy a few of for various work and when I step up my game I can count on them for 100s if not 1000s of them every month.

[microcarve]

had a fun day today.


on a related note, does anyone know where I can get a good quality endmill for wood and plastic that is carbide, affordable or cheap, while still offering good chip removal and a good shipping price? 1/8th inch is what I need now but I need a good solid supplier that I can buy a few of for various work and when I step up my game I can count on them for 100s if not 1000s of them every month.

I haven't ordered from him yet, but I plan to....

drillman1 | eBay

Enco is a good long term reliable source.

Check out the info on the sites that sell $$$ bits to get the info
you need to make a decision on what look for at the cheaper
places.

Those are some Cool parts you're making....

For painting MDF...after about 100000 trials & errors, a mix of water
and cheap yellow wood glue is a Great! edge sealer. Spray shellac
is what I use now, though. A bit expensive, but it dries Really
fast and seals Great.

Thomsons water seal is basically paraffin dissolved in alcohol. Maybe
not the best undercoat for paints. They don't adhere well to waxy or
oily surfaces. But it should be good with the wax based Rub-N-Buff.
But, then again, the edges don't look great unless they're sealed....

Your machine seems to be doing a Very Nice job....

Cool Parts!


John

[morphious69]

ah the bits I ordered tonight are from drillman. I can not be sure but I think I ordered some V cut engraving bits from them before. if so the bits I got already are very good units. and the pics of the bits I ordered tonight from them are much better than the ones from the person I ordered the reground units from. basically their bits tore the wood and burned it instead of cutting it. sadly doing a worse job on the first cut made with them, than the 100th job I did with a cheap chinese bit from wholesale tool.

I would just go to Wholesale but two things. for a couple bits the shipping is still like 10 bucks, and they have a bad habit of discontinuing tools I really get used to using, or raising the price exorbitantly on said tool suddenly. so I really want some one a bit more reliable.

thanks for the tips on wood sealant. i tested and the MDF has a lower "creep" value than what I had planned on using UHMW. other wise I would have pushed to use that.

only other option I have been able to think of that would still keep costs down for the end buyer on these, is using thin stock aluminum (like close to 1/8th inch thick) and layering that on the outside of something like the MDF or a plastic. and only for certain parts.

another issue that MDF has going for it, is it's ability to absorb vibrations with out being deformed by them. another option I am wondering if it would be useful in this is using fiberglass and resin on the parts inbetween the layers. cause the skin of the glue I use to stick layers together make the final wood part way stronger and less flexible than a solid piece of MDF of that thickness. And that glue is no where near as strong as the fiber glass resin mix.

thanks. I am pretty proud of my machines abilities even if it looks kinda hodge-podge.

[microcarve]

Yeah, I like MDF...It has a lot going for it.

I use this a lot too....

Casting Resin and Silicone Mold Making Rubber

It's fairly expensive, but there is No finer material to machine. It
won't melt like most plastics, can be painted/dyed, holds precision detail.
Very quick de-molding time....15 min. Presto!...a part!

You may find a small kit of it at a local hobby shop....maybe around
$30 or so. It does go a long way and would be the ideal stuff for
small parts. I make my Z axis slide blocks with it. Made 100's of them
for years. 100% reliable.....

John