Machsupport Forum
Mach Discussion => General Mach Discussion => Topic started by: Werner on November 30, 2012, 10:40:49 PM
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A BIG thank you to Hood for being such a huge contributor to thousands of builders. Hood I am sure you don’t remember me but you helped me get my first machine up and running when I was having problems. This was back at the beginning when there were just a couple of dozen active people on the forum. That’s how long ago I am talking about. Thanks to your help I got the bug and have been building machines ever since. I feel really guilty that I have not been a regular to the forum. I am going to make more of an effort to contribute more. My first favorite thing is Hood. Ha-ha My next favorite thing is my duo VFD/ Spindle setup. It gets a lot of use and runs awesome day after day!
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Got any more pics of that machine? I'm building something similar.
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More Pics it was fun making parts with my CNC for my CNC like a MakerBot!
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I love my new Prostar CNC Touchscreen laptop window8 running Mach complete with Smoothstepper!
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My SMD reflow oven with ramp/step temp controller.
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The SMD oven has an internal fan.
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My very cool chair and microprocessor work station.
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Working with my Son building hiim a new super computer!! Windows7 i7 12gb ram 2tb harddrive 250gb SSD and monster graphics card. He thinks he is gaming in heaven now! Now he owes me big time. No problem getting that helping hand on the next Mach CNC machine build.
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Custom electronics work bench LED light!! OOoo yeah 777 LEDs in this sucker it lights up the whole shop.
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A job specific hot melt glue extrude. I use it to build rectangular dams to contain resin flows that's all I can say about this. Very cool add on attachment
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Just a peek at what I am working on now?
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The Project I am woking on now. 150 watt turns a concrete block into glass! Definitely a favorite!
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Nice work Werner (nice toys as well ;) )
I am looking forward to seeing some more pictures of the laser you are constructing - nice piece of kit.
Tweakie.
nb. I echo the thanks to Hood for his endless help and support to us all.
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Looks good Garry! I could take a few more pics for you next week. As much as I love my 3x5 Router there are many things I would do differently. I used a German made linear rail system you will see. The aluminum extrusion linear rails where very pricey but have held up very well over about 17 years of heavy use. I often machine aluminum and it does a very respectable job of it. Thanks Tweakie I promise I will post pics of the laser project when I get a little further along. I have just about everything for it now from casters to laser tube. Garry do you have a thread with more detail on your project?
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Garry do you have a thread with more detail on your project?
Yes, but it's a long way from being finished.
http://www.cnczone.com/forums/cnc_wood_router_project_log/138890-z%B2.html
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Hey Gerry, I have spent hours reading you posts. You have done some great work!! I too love to design in 3D (Solidworks) before cutting anything. I have been down the path you are you are going and would highly recommend a valve to select one or the other dust collection hose. 4" hose works great for 3hp routers. You will find a huge improvement. Otherwise I assure you will end up with piles of saw dust you still need to vacuum up by hand. One other thing I have found to be a huge improvement is the water cooled VFD motors in that they are so quiet and most importantly will not blow dust out of the collector shoe by the cooling air from a conventional router. One thing I have often thought about is having the gate valve open/close with a link to the up/down action of the router. Just some ideas Buddy! Keep up the great work! And thanks for the Screenset!
Werner
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Here you go Gerry more pics.
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More Pics
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More Pics
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Gerry I bet you never thought that you could use your wood cnc router to cnc plasma cut 1/2" steel plate with just a simple attachment.
Cleaning the water tank is the only work involved.
I built a cnc router/engraver that I have used for years and yes I can even machine 1” aluminum and even steel with beautiful results as you can see in the video!! I have had a Hypertherm 1000 that I have had a lot of fun using- a very well built machine. It is a rather small machine really but will cut ½” steel plate with a very slow feed rate. I have built a very simple way to convert my cnc router to a cnc plasma complete with water bath in about 20 min. and back to cnc router in less than 5 min. not including clean-up of the plasma tank. That takes about 30 min. the way I do it. I built the hole thing in a weekend. There are two main components to construct. The first is an extension arm that mounts in place of my Portacable 3 ¼ hp router. The second is a water bath built from expanded pvc foam board. I tried the system out cutting a couple of large “C” plates from some 1/2 mild steel plate. Wow they turned out beautiful!! I had the feed rate turned down pretty low but even at that it only took about 10 min. to cut each, I made two. The cost to build the system minus the plasma machine was around $300. One thing is for sure I don’t think it could be any easier to set up than this. Hope you like video.
http://www.myspace.com/video/vid/2026423991
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At my day job, we have a large Morbidelli, that has a dust collection "manifold" with pneumatic valves to direct the vacuum to the required zones. One to the router, one to the drilling head, and one to the rake that unloads the table and cleans it at the same time.
I've thought about doing the same thing with mine, one for each spindle. I'll probably be using a 5" hose to the manifold, running from a Harbor Freight 2HP dust collector.
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Gerry, the 2hp blower from HF is not a bad choice for the money. I got one delivered last week and was really disappointed with the condition I received it in. The mounting fasteners you see in the pictures were total junk on mine. One of them striped and loose, a couple more with the nuts off just laying inside the enclosure. I replace all of them with some grade 8 fasteners. About 30 minutes of work on it I was able to fire it up. On the plus side mine runs really smooth (very well balanced) much to my surprise. The suction is fairly decent. I think that if you keep a small shoe footprint with hose selection to one of your routers it will do an ok job. I don’t know if you have it or not but here is a coupon for the one I think you are talking about.
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I am just thankfull of guys like Hood and Rich. You have to wonder how many guys this web site has helped. I don't know much but they sure make me look good.