Project Beaver

Some pictures of the frame welded up over Christmas and the aluminium cut parts have arrived.
The movable bed is heavy 5mm thickness 50 x 50mm box section and modifications had to be made around the brackets and the angle bracing as they got in the way of bolts.
I don’t expect I will be using the movable bed which will become a fixed bed, but if I did and built a Mk2 machine I would change the design and have a wind-up bed with threaded
bar each end connected with a toothed belt low down and a crank handle to move the bed up and down with clamps to lock in position. (I expect some one has already done this
and connected a motor to it as well)
I've added some small angle to the bottom rail, this will be to support two pieces of MDF for a base to the machine for storage and vacuum pump, water & pump and probably general junk:shame:

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Storming along! Nice one


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Painted the frame, next the epoxy levelling.Attachment 20375Attachment 20376

Tidy!


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So just poured the epoxy (West System 105-209) no leaks - so far. MDF frame nail gunned and coated with two coats of sealer so hope it will come away neatly. Then mastic and clamped in place. 40mm wide and 30mm wide bridge, should give thickness of 5mm from 1Kg of 105. My wood drying kiln is on at the moment in the workshop providing some of the heat. It runs at 30 degrees and leaks out into the workshop. The rest of the heat provided by electric radiator and fan heaters. Started pouring at 16 degrees and its going up.

Looks nice and sturdy! Well done and keep going, but don't scrimp on anything. It is worth it in the end!

So while waiting for the resin bed to set I have been making up the gantry, z, y and x carriages etc.
Not having very good marking out equipment, (surface plate, vernier height gauge etc) I decided on using a wooden indexing type table on my pillar drill. This is because I can plane wood to accurate thickness. Then you mark the first point and drill, then index around this point using accurately planed pieces of wood, adding or subtracting them. Making sure you get all the swarf out of the way. Sorry if this has already been done by someone on the forum but I’ve not seen it. Thought it might be usefull:cocksure:

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So just finished fixing the x rails onto the resin bed, 3 weeks after pouring. Many ways to fix the rails I read on the forum. I went for a straight edge (Probably not) ally 50mm box section. Clamped to side of bed then spaced 30mm to side of rail using lengths of 30mm diameter bar. This positions rail in centre of 80mm box section (30mm + 20mm rail +30mm =80mm) Clamped rail, drilled and taped each hole then moved along a hole at a time. Second rail repeat process and checked and adjusted gantry, to make sure smooth running and no nasty noises. Checked with DTI.
We will see what its like when I cut something in the future. Attachment 20826

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So more or less finished massive thanks to Dean for all his help and the Forum for all the information – pictures of anything being great – when your studying the detail.

Some changes to the original design being the 50 x 50 x 200mm ball screw housings because of the
problem of getting at screws on the original RM2020 Housings.

Just drilled and fixed the mdf bed down and surfaced it – its a learning curve, you have to move at
fast speeds and feeds to prevent burning (1500mm/min and 24000 rpm)

Guard for the end belt and cover for the Z axis to fitted, plus a dust shoe to be made or purchased.
Extraction system to be fitted and probably a vacuum plate.

Now to get to grips with Mach3 and do some CAD drawings.
I have a queue of neighbours and friends wanting house signs – I'd rather eat worms than do them, but SHMBO will make me.:uncomfortableness:

Looking good Robert and turn up the wick 1500mm/min is still way to slow double that and then some. You've Plenty of Oh-shite buttons so you'll be ok.:smiley_simmons: