[keen]

Hi All.

The youtube video below introduces a new design small CNC compact stand and high access enclosure.

Usually a small CNC or a compact stand means that the enclosure access is very restricted with the sliding doors on the left and right and rail above.

Please let me know if you are interested.

Cheers. Keen


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hf6ghS3XwL8

[Hirudin]

Good looking stand! Out of curiosity, how many dollars do you want for it?

How is it with coolant? I'd be concerned with it dripping off the opened door onto my head and, more importantly, the monitor.

[keen]

Hi Hirudin.

The drip line when open is over the stand splash tray or pan - in fact back 3 " from the front edge, and well clear of your head.
If you look on the video you should see the monitor on the right well clear of any coolant. The monitor stand swings to different positions but is always are clear of the coolant.

Re price - I will put forward some options later.

[MichaelHenry]

Looks nice. I would be interested but am a couple inches short on height clearance. I especially like the full access across the front of the mill. Seems like I am always needing to lean pretty far across the table to check something. If you use flood coolant, do you get any dripping if the front door is opened right after a job completes?

[SCzEngrgGroup]

I have to agree with Hirudin. Every time I've used a machine that uses flood coolant with a door opening above like that, when you lean in to work on your fixture, you get coolant and chips dripping on the back of your head, which is not pleasant. Probably not an issue with the stock Tormach coolant pump, but if you've upgraded to a high-flow coolant system, as many have, the door will typically be dripping wet, and covered with wet chips.

Regards,
Ray L.

[BAMCNC.COM]

I like it! I'll never go with an enclosure since I mostly moved to coolent-less machining (just air blast - you know... let the coating do the work)

[keen]

Thanks for your replies.

Re coolant dripping: We have just done some trials. Yes we have a high flow pump and so we dosed the inside of the door to the max and lifted it up.

The drip line is too far back to drip on your head even during a manual tool change. The odd drip sometimes lands on your forearm though. If you need to get your head right under this line it would be unusual, but in that case you can wait a few seconds for the coolant to drain away before lifting the door.

We can see a few refinements we can make to the door edge geometry and have trialled one of them this afternoon with a mock up, and see that this should eliminate or greatly reduce the drip issue.

If necessary we could also develop a door drain system similar to a EDM door that would shift the excess coolant to the left and right, but this may be overkill.

Thanks for your input - this should result in a further refined design.

Cheers, Keen

[kstrauss]

It looks great but I'd like to echo the concerns about coolant drips on head/arms/hands. With coolant or air blast I frequently reach into the enclosure while the job is running to tweak the nozzles. Is there a way to partially open the enclosure without having to use one hand to hold the door up?

[keen]

Hi Kstrauss.

Re coolant drip concerns - we are working on improving that currently.

The door is counter sprung and is very light and quick to open. It visually looks like a big job to lift the whole door right up, but it is so light it is a breeze.
We could tweek the mechanism so it can park at half way up.

cheers Keen

[Hirudin]

Just to expand on my concern for the monitor... I can see that the door lifts up away from the monitor, but it seems feasible that a drip could fall from the right edge of the door, land on the top edge of the side, and splash into the monitor. Of course, one drop probably isn't going to do anything, but I think the 50th could. I suppose an easy solution for this concern would be to raise the height of the right side. Another option would be to ensure drips don't land on the top edge of the side panel, or to angle the top of the panel so drips get deflected inward.

[keen]

Just to expand on my concern for the monitor... I can see that the door lifts up away from the monitor, but it seems feasible that a drip could fall from the right edge of the door, land on the top edge of the side, and splash into the monitor. Of course, one drop probably isn't going to do anything, but I think the 50th could. I suppose an easy solution for this concern would be to raise the height of the right side. Another option would be to ensure drips don't land on the top edge of the side panel, or to angle the top of the panel so drips get deflected inward.

Hi Hiruden.

It must be the filming angle - rest assured the door does not come anywhere near over the monitor at any time.

Cheers, Keen

[keen]

Video of coolant flow.

Keen

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35M-f14ZYk8