[JPMach]

Well, the tank held pressure good, so I got it shoe horned into its new home. It even fit, like I had planned it out or something...

Then lined up the table fill pipes and welded them into the traps. A small section of rubber hose connects the tank pipes to the table pipes. Somehow I have to fit a couple of electrical conduits and airline between the table and tank yet to, from the rear of machine up the elec cabinet. Will have to measure and then pull the tank out to fit that stuff

[Kerryfisher]

Looking great, a lot of stuff to think about at that stage,,,,remember it well

[JPMach]

Got some of the skirts mounted over the weekend


And mock up of the elec cabinet, probably revision 12 or so.

[JPMach]

Well I got a little bit more done. Made up a quick jig to torch the slat holders out with by hand, got those installed and slats cut. Little bit of fine tuning to get all the slats in the same plane but not too bad. Trying to get some work to finish up on the lathe and mill this week yet but should have time to keep knocking a few things.

[JPMach]

Not a whole lot done last few days, still trying to get some jobs out the door. Got the water diverter plates mounted and the side rail protectors screwed on, just clear s the face of the trucks, the servo gear reduction and rack and pinion will all be below that. Also found a chuck for the rotary on fleabay the other day, 12" 4 jaw self centering with 2 piece jaws and a 4-3/4" thu hole, will make some v notch jaws for sqr/rect tubing. Still trying to locate bearings for the rotary spindle, might not be able to match the chuck thru hole as it might just be too cost prohibitive, but def want more than 2-1/2"as it will eventually get a fan on it to suck the dust through the pipe and out the door when using the rotary.

And got it back up on the sawhorses to do some work on the elec cabinet etc without haveing to bend down to the floor, little bit more work and the base just might be ready for paint (after alot of prep work)

[JPMach]

Rack came today.And I got the doors about done. Have to cut a piece of plexi for the door for the plasma and the left cabinet door is getting a filter put in it yet. Started getting some of the bulkhead stuff located and installed so I don't have to drill the wholes after its painted.



Also sourced some decent sized bearings from a guy on another forum, should be able to build a rotary spindle with about 4-1/4" thru hole.

[rldmachine]

Rack came today.And I got the doors about done. Have to cut a piece of plexi for the door for the plasma and the left cabinet door is getting a filter put in it yet. Started getting some of the bulkhead stuff located and installed so I don't have to drill the wholes after its painted.



Also sourced some decent sized bearings from a guy on another forum, should be able to build a rotary spindle with about 4-1/4" thru hole.

where did you source the rack

[JPMach]

Its from Atlanta Drive, just soft rack hardened and ground pinons liked the helical tooth for more engagement less noise at high speeds.

[JPMach]

Got a few parts painted yesterday and this morning. Most of the inside stuff won't get color. It's SPI epoxy primer and Napa crossfire single stage urethane. Color looks a little off, but it closely matches the color of the toolbox so it shouldn't look too bad. Got a few more things to do to the base like holes and mounts for the cabinet fans and filter and then I will probably start in on painting it and all the skirt panels before long, still have one end of the tank to paint as well but waiting for the epoxy to get good and hard before I set it down on a pallet.

[Kerryfisher]

Looking good,,,,your'e making good progress!

[JPMach]

Got all the skirt panels and door panels painted today, not really looking forward to painting the frame but I guess it has to be done.

Was trying to figure out the gear reduction pulleys stuff and was getting difficult to get the reduction I wanted with the shaft sizes I needed. Looked around a bit at servo gearboxes and didn't like the prices, hopped on fleabay and happened to find 3 identical Atlanta servo worm gear reduction boxes with adjustable backlash down to less than 2 arc minute all for less than $100 ea shipped. Soon as they get here I can figure out just how long the side plates of the gantry have to be and can get to work on that finally. Might need a little bit of modifying or adapters to fit the servos I have to the gear units but its doable.

Hopefully be painting the frame this week yet.

[JPMach]

Primer on, my back hurts. Thank god I got Dekups for the paint gun, kinda nice to be able to paint upside down while laying on the creeper under the thing.

[Kerryfisher]

Coming on great, tough work under there I bet.
What are your plans for painting the water tray?
I used a etch primer and then gave it a coat of synthetic , i wouldn't do that again, just a coat of etch primer would do it I reckon, the gunge sticks to stick like mad when cleaning out, I have to scrape hard, I have cleaned mine down about 4 times now, it's getting easier where there is just etch primer, ah it's going to get scratched anyway, very little rust on slats and there is nothing on them.

Attachment 275182

[JPMach]

I wasn't going to put anything in the table, most of the stuff I read said it all comes off anyway. Looking at some commercial made plasma table water additive to keep the rust down. Cept that I am just about out of the SPI epoxy primer I could put that in the table, not sure it would hold up any better than anything else though so not sure its worth it.

[JPMach]

Well got the frame painted with color today. Only a couple small parts left to paint, one or 2 to make yet that will need paint as well but glad to be done with the big stuff.

Also got one of the servo worm drives in today, should work out perfect for my needs, 9.25:1 ratio (2 more should be here tomorrow that are identical to this one) and that is steep enough that the output can be turned by hand yet as well. Only real issue is I need to make adapter plates to mount the servos to them and I need to make shaft adapters as well. Biggest problem I face now is that the input shafts on these are a DIN 5480 Involute spline and to get a custom rotary broach would cost to much for the 3 I need made, maybe I'll have to find someone to wire edm them or somthing

They weigh a few pounds but with dual 750 watt ac servos I don't think it will matter much. This combined with the pinons I got should give me a rapid travel of 2100 ipm on both X and Y.

[Kerryfisher]

Aye good move not painting inside I would say, looking good, those gear units look like a good buy, feckin Jaysus it's going to take off at those speeds!!

[JPMach]

Set down, oriented and leveled today. Got a few panels put on, will wait to install all of them to do wiring etc. Starting to come together.

Hopefully this week I'll get some side plates for the gantry drawn up and machined if not the whole gantry assembly built up.


Its on blocks now to get enough clearance under the frame for my walkie stacker lift to be able to load sheets, when I get a jib crane put in in the near future the blocks will come out.

[JPMach]

Got sideplates and angle bracket pcs made today. Also got adjustment plates for the gear boxes made as well, will have tap and bolts to finish those tomorrow. Then I can figure out the right off set to machine the shafts for the gear boxes to hold the pinions in the right spot.
I set the gantry channel on top as well to get a feel for how it looks, hopefully tomorrow I can get some accurate measurements of the width and get the holes in the channel to bolt it to the angle brackets. Then I can finally start on the other linear rails and gear rack.....

The sideplates wound up hanging down low a bit more than I would have liked, but had I known I would find the gearboxes I could of moved the rack up a bit tighter to the linear rail. I had left room for a possible belt reduction system. Being it is this low, it looks like I'll have to move my entrance hole for the torch cable as where it is now the side plate could catch it if it wasn't fastened down good.

[fabguy]

Your machine is looking good, I'm looking forward to see the rotary axis all set up. I'm wanting to add that to my table in the near future.

[JPMach]

Well, got the channel bolted on and the linear rails and rack bolted to it. Made some gusset plates today and got the conduit to feed motor wires etc to the far side of gantry mounted. Have to figure out my z axis and carriage and start building that soon. Hope to have shaft adapters ordered for the gearboxes this week and make some bolt pattern adapters, then maybe I can get the long axis running before long.

Started looking at the cable trays too, will be building a tray to hold the long axis one on side of machine this week as well.