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  1. #391
    I thought about this one a while ago and it's kind of 6 of one and half-a-dozen of the other.... Sure a spring loaded roller assy. uses less belt, but it's likely to be a lot more bulky potentially in a spot where "a lot more bulky" may not be cool. You can buy ready made spring roller blind units made for machine guarding, but for narrow widths all the ones I've seen are a bit cumbersome, whereas running it back through the extrusion the bulk of the belt is all stored in what otherwise would be dead space.

    On another subject Zeeflyboy. what kind of % power do you find is best for laser "engraving" stuff on your anodised bits please?
    Last edited by Voicecoil; 27-02-2019 at 09:25 PM.

  2. #392
    Quote Originally Posted by Voicecoil View Post
    I thought about this one a while ago and it's kind of 6 of one and half-a-dozen of the other.... Sure a spring loaded roller assy. uses less belt, but it's likely to be a lot more bulky potentially in a spot where "a lot more bulky" may not be cool. You can buy ready made spring roller blind units made for machine guarding, but for narrow widths all the ones I've seen are a bit cumbersome, whereas running it back through the extrusion the bulk of the belt is all stored in what otherwise would be dead space.

    On another subject Zeeflyboy. what kind of % power do you find is best for laser "engraving" stuff on your anodised bits please?
    All good points, I get what your saying about potentially bulky...

    Yea that reminds me, the other question/thought I had, your home anodising results are some of the best I have seen, it would be great to see your setup/procedure for doing this..

    would be a great addition to the Metal Finishing Techniques sub forum.
    .Me

  3. #393
    Sorry for the lack if updates and replies, I've been busy doing other things recently but hoping to get back to it soon. I've managed to run an external air line to the Man cave and mostly finished building the big CNC enclosure, just need to re-wire up the CNC machine and get things rolling again.

    Lee - to answer your earlier question I use a Makergear M1, with an e3d v6 hot end and an e3d titan extruder.

    I must admit I hadn't considered doing the belts in the way you describe, so cheers for the idea. Having pondered it for a bit I think that would work better in a design that had a bulkier gantry arm for the roller to sit inside. Certainly would have been better than the v1 here where the belt running behind the front plate might have compromised it's attachment to the extrusion, but since switching to the thicker extrusion which allowed running through the dead space I think it's a relatively simple design with few drawbacks.

    Voicecoil - that's a difficult question to answer, as the glowforge I got for the wife doesn't really work that way. It is a 45W CO2 laser, but the power scale runs from 0-100, and then full power. The full power one is easy enough to figure out but the 0-100 is not a percentage value (obviously, since full power is not the same as 100), but a seemingly arbitrary scale. Equally speed is an arbitrary 0-1000 which does not directly correspond to any unit such as mm/min etc.

    It's generally fairly forgiving though. Start on the lower end and if the engraving isn't sufficiently defined you can run over it again without moving the part... I have found different colours (ie the red and the black) respond slightly differently due to the propensity to absorb/reflect the IR laser's power.

    If you do it too many times/too much power you completely burn through to clear aluminium which for me had a slightly gold tint. I actually took advantage of this on the side plates to create some differentiation between grey/white/metal.

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  5. #394
    Gorgeous build!

    Are the Nema23 closed loop steppers you're using 2Nm or 3Nm?

  6. #395
    Anxiously waiting for an update on this build 😁
    .Me

  7. #396
    This build goes from debate thread to pure engineering art and visual satisfaction is just joy to watch. Hopefully you can share the complete design with us in the future, I say that your work on the design itself worth the money and I’ll be more than happy to pay for it :)
    cheers

  8. #397
    Where is Zeeflyboy these days? HIs build seems to have come to an end.

  9. #398
    Where is Zeeflyboy these days? HIs build seems to have come to an end.
    i wish i knew, this build and the engineering detail have been a revelation and helped me out so much.

    i hope Zee is doing ok and am a bit concerned due to the lack of updates, come back dude we miss you.

  10. #399
    RobC's Avatar
    Lives in Leeds, United Kingdom. Last Activity: 30-12-2022 Has been a member for 5-6 years. Has a total post count of 116. Received thanks 16 times, giving thanks to others 21 times.
    Hello all, I reached out to ZeeFly on another site to check if he was still ok and well of which he is. He hasn't stopped the build but has had to take time away but did say he hopes to continue with it soon!

  11. #400
    Very sorry guys!

    I am in fact still alive... I've been busy with family life as my son is currently of the age where my attention is constantly desired. I can usually set foot in the man cave for only a few minutes before the little man comes along and asks what I'm doing! I also had some other higher priority projects and house DIY that have demanded the CNC went on the back burner.

    I am however hoping to get back to it to some extent this summer, I have the finished Z-axis out on show staring me in the face every time I go in the man cave so it reminds me that I need to get started again so that I can put the bugger to work!

    The fly in the ointment now is that I'm currently furloughed (and the company is facing large scale redundancies that I don't know whether I'll be impacted by or not)... so ironically now I have somewhat more time due to a big financial hit over the least couple of months and the prospect of further hits I don't have the ability to spend as recklessly as before on non-essentials until I know with a little more certainty what the future holds. The good news is that I certainly have most of what I need to continue to make progress without spending too much, just need a really good chunk of time free of distraction to organise everything, re-align the CNC after the enclosure build and get a plan together.

    Actually I don't think I posted anything about the enclosure... I'll pop a pic up once I've had a chance to clear the mess from the few little projects the CNC has been working on.

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