[WTFover]

Hey Everyone,
After my first serious milling project flung chips all over the garage, I decided to build an enclosure because I thought $2k for the sheetmetal enclosure from John was a little steep for what it is. I decided to use 8020 to build it, because I wanted to learn about working with it, and I could use the mill to do some of the work. Probably not the cheapest way to build an enclosure, but I am pretty happy with the way it all turned out. After using 8020, I have about 5 other projects in mind with this stuff. I think I have $1000 in to the project. I could probably do it a bit cheaper now that I understand the jointing mechanisms they use. The actual walls of the unit are 6mm (1/4") PVC encapsulated foam, which I got from the local sign store. (roughly $95 a sheet and I needed 3 sheets). I measured most of the large sections and had the sign shop cut them, but I did have to make a couple of cuts here and there, and my jig saw made short work of the stuff. I did put a door on the right side for work that is really long and needs to hang out the side of the mill. Anyhow, I figured I'd share in case anyone else wanted to build something similar to keep the chips and the coolant in, and the body parts out.

[mklotz70]

Very nice!! Thank you for sharing!! Any more pics showing how you dealt with the cabinet on the back. Looks like you snuck in between the cab and the tower nicely.

If you haven't already sealed them with silicon....your trays.....you can loosen up the screws and hold the trays up so they are even/level and not sagging....then tighten them back up.

I'm happy to see another Pro user here and I'm looking forward to seeing what you use it for.
Mike

[WTFover]

Hey Mike,
Yes I only had to make a couple of minor adjustments on the back. On each side there was a bulkhead fitting, mounted to a circular plate that was fastened by two screws. Those were only slightly in the way, so I simply just just removed the screws and that allowed enough room to shift those over to allow the extrusions to rest butted up against the sides of the column vertically. Those bulkhead fittings get captured behind the extrusion so they aren't going anywhere. About the pans not being level, I had them level initially, but they sagged a bit just working on this project. I had thought about butting them up and just tacking the top rail with the mig welder, because even after reefing on them as tight as I dare, they still ended up sagging once I got to working around them. I will have to loosen up a few 8020 joints to get them tightened back up again. I will say that even with the gap, the bottom extrusion that rests across the front is actually 2" wide, and overhangs the inside by an inch or so, it would take some extremely aggressive coolant pressure and flow to actually bounce coolant up and out the gap. The goofy shapes, and the need for doors of the front of the chip pan dictated that. I can take some pictures of the interface around the column later on today and post them if you want to take a look.

Jason

[WTFover]

So the first 3 pictures below, are of the right side when looking from the front. The remaining two are of the left. Disregard that notch and single oiler line on the right side. I totally had brain fade when trimming the panels. I could have just disconnected the oil line and moved it to a gap on the other side of the extrusion, but in a rush to get it done I didn't even think about it until it was too late. Also, does anyone know of a trick to rotate these pictures, the site thinks that I am an idiot and that I don't know the difference between portrait and landscape mode. I purposefully shot these vertically so you can see more what's going on, but the website seems to have other plans. Just save them locally and rotate them if you have to.

[mklotz70]

Thanks Jason! You've got those fitting in there nice and tight!