[curiosity22]

Ok I'll get the photos out of the way first, only 4 which will give you an idea of whats supplied. I haven't taken photos of the aluminium extrusions/rails trust me 100" of them they are there ..

Attachment 205248
Attachment 205250
Attachment 205252
Attachment 205254

Every thing is clearly marked all the packages have labels, as to what they belong too. It doesn't look substantial but there is a lot there.. I've decided to take over the lounge room and have some music playing in the back ground and have my lovely wife support me during the build with the odd shaking of the head and cups of ongoing coffee and cheerleader support.

So far everything looks to be there, I'll supply other photos as to what things look like when finally assembled the individual components, and the tests.

So, like I said everything is labeled, Mogul have supplied a CD with all the software I would need to get it up and going.

The BEST PART of the package so far is the CD, they have supplied instructions in two formats.

First is a standard PDF for those that want to follow page by page - the pdf is done well, no ifs or buts, but like most things when you are reading a piece of paper, it can be a bit daunting trying to work out what is what, you know the which way is north and south type of thing.

For the reading impaired (by that I mean those that just don't like reading manuals and like trying to bash in a square peg in a round hole) I put my hand up being one of those,.,

They also give you in MP4 format a video of the 3D assembly, obviously they have used a CAD program of some sort ie Solidworks or similar and have produced a movie of the build process fully rendered.

What can I say absolutely awesome, you are left in no doubt which way is north or south, it clearly shows you which way what is assembled and how to do so in step by step format. And I do mean step 1 - step 2 - step 3 etc etc...

With that said I feel confident that I shouldn't have any spare parts left over or missing parts I hope..

Keep your fingers crossed people.. Lets see if I can make a mess of it.

I will say though without having even put in a nut of bolt yet, I'm pleased with what I have in front of me. I have seen many manuals and how too's in my life and this is one of the better put together instructions I have come across in a long long time. My wife is not mechanically minded and is quite a smart woman her comments were looks easy and has decided she will start the process, which she is doing now putting some rollers on a plate..

Guess its time for me to make her a coffee instead..

Avagreatday people.. will keep you informed..

Steve

[curiosity22]

G'day,

Keeping you all appraised of whats going on. A few hours later with a bit of head scratching my build has come to a stop. I was sent a couple of incorrect components.

So the build will have to wait until I get the correct parts. No big deal, this will I guess be the test of customer service.

I expect all will go appropriately well. Errors happen and I'm just for the record, not upset or grizzling.. **** happens.

Regards,

Steve

[denz]

Maybe you should read the manual (joke)
Best of luck with the build, looking forward to updates.
Cheers

[curiosity22]

Hey g'day Denz,

You may laugh lol that's what actually got me into trouble - I was enjoying watching the rending and not paying attention to the components.

All will be good, its just added time..

[curiosity22]

Hey G'day all,

Another small update, got the missing/incorrect plate I had. I must say very impressed with Mike's customer service. There were no if's or buts - Mike apologised for the hick up sent out what I needed express so it arrived in a few days. The thing that impressed me as well was that he asked if there was anything else I might need in the way of parts, so he could pad out the parcel at no charge to me. So what to say ty to Mike and I think I can at this stage continue to recommend their service and product.

Ok a few more pics..

Attachment 206246 . Attachment 206248 . Attachment 206250

Ok the plastic covering the bearings - its not in the manual you would be well advised to put washers on top otherwise the plastic distorts and inhibits the movement of the bearings. Don't get too attached to the final build of the back plates you may need to adjust the washers to ensure a smooth run on the rails. The manual covers where washers go but its not obvious in some cases.. If you do decide to add a washer so the rails can run smoothly you will need to add washers throughout to make sure the plates remain square. As you can see one of the photos I have you see a side on of the rails, there are 4 it looks to be extremely ridged. Will keep posting so long as no one complains about my boring dialogue.

If any one has any specific questions Ill attempt to answer them as best I can.

Cheers,

Steve

[curiosity22]

Hey G'day all,

Well the good news and the bad..

I'll start with the bad, haven't tested cutting mainly because I haven't bought a router yet. Mike at CnCMogul is testing a spindle, he will be sending me a link for it - rather than having to buy it from him he is ok with me purchasing directly. I don't have details for it yet but I like the idea of a spindle rather than router so will be several days probably before I do my first cut. Cost I believe will be just over $200 US whatever that is on the day in AU dollars.

The good news IT ALL WORKS!!!! blow me down - plugged it in NO SMOKE no fumes nothing burning except for that wonderful I've run for the first time smell.

Steppers all work, power supply all good control box all good.. XYZ works fine, Mach3 with supplied XML from Mike excellent working as intended..

All in all the experience of the build so far has been excellent only frustrating a couple of times due to my eagerness to make things final I had to undo some things I tightened up a number of times.

Some things I did differently that are not in the manual.

1. for the AU users, switch the power supply to 220 its set to default 110 orange switch cant miss it. Do that from the onset soon as you put your hands on it.

2. the orange connectors supplied by Mike, I didnt use them, I just didn't like the idea of weaving the wires and then screwing the the connector onto the wire. I tinned all of my ends and used xt60 connectors instead (only because I had them) I like the idea for maintenance at any stage to be able to unplug and play. I prefer soldering and having connectors rather than screw on's.

3. the other connectors are fine that Mike supplied small round connectors when you squeeze the top it cuts into the wires your splicing together also releasing a silicone/glue of some sort (I've seen Telstra techs use them when repairing phone wires in the house).

4. Don't make the mistake I made buy cutting the wires too short on the stepper motors I left a good 5 inches should have left them alone, it was a stretch and I had to fiddle to enable the carriage travel end to end .. I was short by a couple of inches but all good in the end.. I should have just used cable ties once I had fully tested and moved things around.

5. It finally dawned on me when tightening the rail ends to move the carriage fully to the left and right which also helped me keep it all square and allowed the carriage to travel freely (yes Im a noob) I couldn't work out why the carriage was snagging moving to the end even though I thought it was square and straight.

Mikes involvement : in his software disk he supplied team speak, when I spoke to him today the poor bastard was doing a 16 hour day, he logged into my pc just to show me around Mach3. He was ready to help install the xml file for the Mogul. I'd already done the work but for those that are new to this like me or software impaired Mike was happy to hold hands and lead me through the set up process. I purchased a parralel to usb UC100 CNC motion controller. Mach3 was happy with it.

When installing the UC100 it will auto update through the web, when you turn on Mach3 for the first time it will auto update the firmware, so very plug and play friendly.
All running fine on a laptop with win7 32 bit installed. Dont know about win8 or 8.1 as we have now, will test that in due course as well.

What else to say, the build (and this is my first time to build anything even remotely like this) my only claim to fame for building anything is networks and pc's.

If you have time on your hands you will probably build and be ready to cut in 3 days. It took me 20 hours all up including the remove and replace due to my own screw ups and not paying attention to detail.

If time is an issue you'll probably be ready to go in a couple of weekends.

End of the build process, only a couple of spare parts left over, a couple of bolts. Speaking of bolts all the bolts supplied have an allen key head. Only screws used are the one on the power supply and control box.

Guys I'm really surprised that the build was so easy, I dare say if I built a second one I could do it in a day.
To repeat myself, CnCMogul service excellent.
Parts supplied support excellent.
Mike still doesn't like to use email so get used to calling him ..

Will let you all know how it actually cuts, when I get my spindle.

Regards,

Steve..

[denz]

Great news,
But as they say, Without Pic's it didn't happen:cheers:

[curiosity22]

Great news,
But as they say, Without Pic's it didn't happen:cheers:

LOL,

Ok here is a pic of the unit without the side rails as it didn't quite fit on the kitchen table complete. Testing with Laptop and usb controller. You will notice the small tablet on the table to the right as well. I'm in the throws of testing with that as well. Its a Samsung win8 tablet so far so good. Only reason I'm testing with the table is that Im too lazy to build yet another pc for the house and the wife was cracking the ****s by my using her Laptop.

[curiosity22]

Just a quick update,

Did a dry run today, loaded up some code to see if things didn't fall apart. All good so far. Did have problems with the UC100 motion controller - it wasn't feeding back coordinates. That's fixed with the help from Mike from cncmogul. We had to in the end enter info manually to Mach3 then save settings all under control now.
Mike is also testing a spindle for the Mogul. Has sent me a link with video to see how it operates. Looks good. I think I will be adding the spindle to my Mogul.

Cheers,

Steve

[Bob La Londe]

Is this the same Mogul kit sold by Automation Technologies Inc? (Keling?)