[millman52]

Great job Dustin,

I used to jokingly tell "the new guy" as they would produce a great looking run of machined parts "Gosh these look factory made". Most usually would take a couple minutes to soak in they are working in a small factory, not just a local machine shop.

The book holder does look FACTORY MADE. Literally fantastic work.

[Dustin407]

Thanks millman and torchhead,

It feels good to have compliments come from experienced fabricators and great minds.... I will definitely have to look into building my own oven and chamber for the powder coating.. Thats a fantastic idea to shave a few dollars and pocket the same money... :cheers:

[lukewarm]

Awesome work on the table and your pieces that you're cutting look great too!

[Dustin407]

Hey guys,

Here is a link to a short video that I recorded on my blackberry. I was running a g-code file of sandhill crane wings for a local artist that sculps them. I live in central Florida so the sandhill cranes are everywhere. Hope you guys like the video. Hopefully I can get some photos of the finished product from him in a few weeks...

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Orland...=1243049774936

[vishnu]

Hi Dustin,

Unable to view your video.

Vishnu

[Boogiemanz1]

Thanks for the video Dustin...looking forward to the finished piece...jb

[Dustin407]

Here is the finished job of the four sandhill cranes. The body is made out of 1/8" alum. The wings are thin gauge alum to help sculpt. The legs are thin rebar. I used brass and copper for the head and eye. The local artist in the picture is my father Enjoy the photos....

[Weldtutor]

Here is the finished job of the four sandhill cranes.

Great artwork Dustin!

Congats to you & your father for a wonderful creation.

[Boogiemanz1]

Dustin, there is no doubt that your machine works well and looks nice also. Do you think now that you are using the machine that the seperate tables was the way to go? I am not planning on moving my machine and am going to use 3/16 thick 4X8 rectangular tubing that I already have..

Also, did you pour the legs of the machine with the concrete or grout? I have needed to weight down some of the metalshaping machines I have built, and have found that lightly oiled sand packs very well with no condensation problems................jb

[Dustin407]

Thanks Weldtutor I was looking at all your artwork the other day and it really looks nice too... We are artwork junkies... lol

BoggieMan, For me personally the two seperate tables works great. I knew that the table was going to be moved during the design process. If I had to do it over again I would have done it the same way maybe with a few minor changes. There are many advantages of the two parts; eliminates all crosstalk from plasma to pc, can be very easily moved in less than 4 hours, also had to cut a part that was 3' tall so I removed the waterbed and stand and was able to fit the part underneath the z axis, without this option I would have never been able to complete that good paying job. As for the concrete, I decided to fill the legs with sand that way i can easily dump it out for moving purposes, and the sand is just as heavy. Hope this helps a little.....

[mohideenakm]

Dustin407,
This is my first post after years of membership in this forum, All I can say that your build is really awesome and Inspiring me to follow your footsteps.
Wish success in all your steps you take.

[Dustin407]

Hello Everyone,

Here are a few pics of a sign job I did last month that turned out pretty well. The letters where cnc cut 5052 mill finish alum. that we polished. Then my friend cut 1" light MDF letters on his cnc router table from the same cut file and painted them to look like alum. He also cut the black sentra letters which are epoxied to the face of the alum. I used contact cement to glue the thin gauge alum. to the mdf backer. I have many other jobs I have been working on for disney that I have not taken pics of yet...

[Boogiemanz1]

Dustin I'm glad to hear you are working your machine. The signs look as good as any I've seen. Any problems with the machine?.........thanks for sharing........jb

[Pierke]

Verry nice job Dustin.
I'm looking forward to see pictures from you other jobs.

Succes!

[dpac]

hello Dustin,

Well done on your build. Could you please tell me what system you used for your floating torch rail? and also why did you space the lower V rail on your gantry?

Thank you

[winegar]

:cheers: .... I have been searching everyone else builds trying to decide on mine... I'm wanting to build a 3x4 or a 4x4 table very much like yours, just scaled down a bit... Question is... I'm going very low budget, If i done my gantry pretty much like yours (except for the Z)... Could i not go direct drive for my X&Y-axis?.... This 3 axis kit i'm looking at has either NEMA 24's 382oz or 425oz steppers... This would be enough "muscle" to move everthing i need right?... What would be the Con's to direct drive over gear reduction?..

Also, and i hate to ask, i'm sure this is pretty stupid.... but searching, i came up with nothing.... Buying a 3 axis kit.... = 3 steppers.... so, If X runs 2 steppers and Y runs one...... well, I'm out for my Z!.... would i just buy another for my Z... or buy a 4 axis kit?.... I guess what i really want to know is do i run both steppers for X off the same stepper driver or do they require there own???

I would like to hear from anyone on this... Thanks for taking the time to right me before i wrong!!!

[Ubatoid]

That is some fine work there Dustin, I particualy like your reduction drives and Z assy. Did you draw these up and would you like to share your designs ?

[Dustin407]

Thank You All.......

Boogiemanz,

Everything seems to be working in good order so far. I have not really had any major or minor problems mechanically. I have had some issues just learning software and settings.

Dpac,

Im not sure what you are trying to ask me about my torch rail, but this was a design from scratch system locating parts via. google (using AutoCad). Please clarify your question a little and ill be happy to answer. The v-rail on the gantry was spaced because the v-wheel would rub against the gantry if it was not... This may slow things down...lol

Winegar,

My machine was built with a flexible medium budget, it would be hard to duplicate and stay very low budget. I would recommend to go with 3 axis system for cost. I have a 4 axis setup which is Y= 2 motors(called a slave which usually is an A-axis) X= 1 motor and Z=1 motor... Would not recommend direct drive, you sacrifice torque and resolution. This is the most important thing.... You could go with a cheap acme or ballscrew which technically would act as a reduction housing. I would research a little more and write down your objectives of what u want your machine to be capable of..

Ubatoid,

Yes, I designed the entire machine in detail in AutoCad 2010. I have every part #, location,cost cnc files etc... I do not have build plans so you would be on your own. I just pulled dimensions from my pc as I was building. I would be willing to help to an extent because it would get time consuming for me supply you with everything you would need. I have thought about finishing the build plans and selling design/parts kits for cheap...

[Ubatoid]

Ubatoid,

Yes, I designed the entire machine in detail in AutoCad 2010. I have every part #, location,cost cnc files etc... I do not have build plans so you would be on your own. I just pulled dimensions from my pc as I was building. I would be willing to help to an extent because it would get time consuming for me supply you with everything you would need. I have thought about finishing the build plans and selling design/parts kits for cheap...

Hi Dustin, I am currently working on my own design in Solidworks, its just nice sometimes to look at other peoples work for inspiration, and of all the builds on here, yours stood out from the rest. I fully understand if you want to keep details to yourself. I have a great pile of hand drawn sketches at the moment, its just finding the time to turn them into models that is the problem at the moment ,so any DXFs you want to make available would be most welcome.

Nice work Fella.

[Dustin407]

Hello Everyone,

It has been a little while since ive been on here. Since then my warehouse lease was up this month so I moved my cnc machine to my house for now. The machine breaks down into many pieces very fast so the move was very easy. The watertable was not fun cleaning out.... I felt like I was cleaning out a sanitation truck that has been sitting around for a year or something...

Well I am in the process of building a skirt that will wrap around the torch/tip to help stop water splashing and sparks shooting sideways... I have seen many people put up extra water gaurds and stuff attached to the watertable to stop these two nuances from occuring. I thought why not attack the point of injury instead of wasting all that material running down the entire length of the rails/watertable. So I went to mcmastercarr and purchased a flame resistant/waterproof kevlar fabric that I am going to use. So in theory the fabric will be in the shape of a cylinder offset by the torch tip about 1.5 inches away. When the floating head drops down to touch the material the fabric is soft enough to scrunch up allowing the z- home switch to be activated by the actual torch, when the z moves up to fire pierce cut the fabric will straighten back out. I plan on having the fabric about 1/8" lower than the bottom of the tip. Also I was concerned about the fabric catching on a sharp edge of the cutting material so I am going to attach it to my permanant alum. ring with contact cement. This would allow the skirt to break away if it ever got snagged... Here are some pics of my progress. The alum. cylinder will not be that long it will aonly be about 5/8" tall just enough to have a circle shape and glue the fabric to it.... What do you guys think of the skirt idea?? Help stop water spraying, sparks shooting, helps save rails and equipment on the machine etc....