[SCzEngrgGroup]

Those bellows are really spiffy! Do you have a reference for determining the geometry? I've been wanting to do that for my knee mill, to replace the rather lame way covers on the Y axis behind the table, and the knee. I had a URL for a page with a nice description of the process, but the site has disappeared.

Regards,
Ray L.

[MRM RCModels]

When you say denim, do you mean jean material? Also did you fold it after the varnish or before?

Yep 5oz jean material. Bought mine at joanne fabrics for dirt cheap. I added the varnish before folding.

Matt,

I've been thinking about producing a x3 "upgrade" kit with all the mods or at least plans.

Ray,

Head to ixen-cnc.com for the templates. Just scale them up for your machine.

Thanks Guys,

Kelvin

[Starleper1]

I hate to keep asking questions but i only want to do this once. How many coats of varnish did you use? And did you do both sides?

[MRM RCModels]

I hate to keep asking questions but i only want to do this once. How many coats of varnish did you use? And did you do both sides?

Two light coats on one side is more than enough. Total cure time is about four days. Heavier the coats increases the cure time. Suggest you apply it outside and let it cure there, turning it over every day.

[MRM RCModels]

Cut my first part today on the extended travel version of the X3 (figure 1). It's a Y axis limit trigger thats extended 0.90in longer in the Y+ direction. Here's a shot of the old one and new one side by side (figure 2). The difference in finish and precision is remarkable. The new one is accurate within 0.001in (hot day here) in all axis. And I cant feel any ridges between passes. I think I've crested the learning curve :cheers:.

Here are various shots of the bellows after an hour of machining (figures 3-5). Just think, without them all that swarf would be on the ways and ballscrews ! Here's a shot of what it looks like under the bellows (figure 6). I was kind of bummed to see swarf there but then I looked at the ways and ballscrews which were swarf free! I call that a win.

Also, total travel with the Y axis mod is 6.71inches; conservative (figures 7-9). I'll probably keep it to <6.5in to be on the safe side.


Seanreit,

I'm going to concentrate on being "creative" now and get busy making a CNC router for my super secret RC projects! I'll send you some pics.

Kelvin

[Starleper1]

do your bellow covers bulge out when you move an axis?

[MRM RCModels]

do your bellow covers bulge out when you move an axis?

Try:

puttiing crazy glue in all of the folds.
Use thinner denim if possible
Increase the fold length
Move the axis to the farthest travel and use the minimum number of folds to cover the distance

I'll try an post pics later

[dwessels]

MRM,

How did you extend the y axis travel?
I gather you have a 1" longer ball screw, but was there anything else you did?

Thanks

[MRM RCModels]

MRM,

How did you extend the y axis travel?
I gather you have a 1" longer ball screw, but was there anything else you did?

Thanks

I added a 0.90in spacer block in front of the stepper mount and extended the ballscrew 0.90in as well. You will have to tighten the gibs a bit to get accuracy/repeatability at the extremes though.

I've been polishing the solid files lately. I'm going to sell all the bellows bracket and y axis extention mod solid files for $15. Let me know if your interested.

[MRM RCModels]

Had to take a month long business trip . Good thing is that I had a lot of time to think about future projects. Namely: a tooling plate and 4th axis attachment (pics attached).

The tooling plate should be done by Tuesday. The material is MIC6 tooling plate which is pricey but it could also be made out normal 6061. Just not as pretty or stable. The threaded holes use helicoil inserts for durability. this one does not have indexing holes but future sets will. Anyone interested in buying one? It's much larger than the the X3's XY travels so I had to farm out the work. If I order 10 the machining costs go way down.

Kelvin

[groov]

Interesting, I just bought a MIC6 plate for this particular purpose. May I ask how much it would be for 1 plate if the order of 10 plates is met? Machined of course....

Thanks
groov

[ViperTX]

Kevin,

I'm in also....well as soon as I have an estimate for the price.

Do you have paypal?

Thanks, Oh and I just moved back to Round Rock, TX from Alexandria, VA.

Paul

[Outofreach]

I'm interested.

[SlowRiderr]

Okay so I read through this and still don't get how you extended Y 1" and centered it. Please help me out as I want to do this to my machine as well -- I'm about to order a CNCFusion kit. I have full access to machine shop and am competent on Cad/Cam and Fanuc and Haas programming.

[MRM RCModels]

The MIC6 aluminum is 0.75in thick and runs $135. Machining cost me another $200 for a grand total of $332.45 . If I order 10, the machining costs drop to $115 for a grand total of $250. Regular 6061 is considerably cheaper but the machining cost will go up (negating some of the savings) due to the facing required on both sides. I can get the machine-shop to drop the minimum order to 5 if the demand is there.

I see that 0.75in thick plate may be a bit overkill. The production set will probably be 5/8in thick and include 5/16in indexing holes spaced throughout. The plate will come pre-tapped for the Helicoil inserts. 100 Helicoil inserts can be purchased from eBay for ~$30.00+shipping.

SlowRiderr,

Welcome to the zone! Check post #149. I made a 0.9in spacer block (for an extra 1in in the Y- direction) and positioned it in front of the Y axis stepper mount. I also had Mike at cncfusion extend the Y axis ballscrew 1in (for an extra 1in the Y+ direction). I haven't had any problems out of the set up which makes me wonder why he doesn't include it with the kit in the first place.

ViperTX,

Yes, I do have Paypal. Payment can be made to klverrett"at"yahoo.com. It will take 2 weeks to complete all the orders.

[groov]

Kelvin,

One more question;

How big is the plate? x,y

Thanks
Carlos

[MRM RCModels]

The plate is 9.5x24in. Plenty room

[MRM RCModels]

Talked to a new supplier for the MIC6 and can get it for $97 + $25 shipping! The machining is still $115 for a grand total of $237. I just can't figure out how to get the price down further. I've have other machine shops quote cheaper prices, but when you include shipping its almost the same price as the local guy .

[MRM RCModels]

almost forgot. Here's pic of the finished plate. I'll pick up the prototype tonight and take pics of it installed.

[jalessi]

Have you contacted A2Z?

They would probably give you a great deal, they make several tooling plates already.

http://tinyurl.com/pngalu

Jeff...