A3 Marchant Dice Kit

[irving2008]

Ok, point taken. I'll agree I post some name's. Belive me I was (still I am) very upset about how THEY try to solve my problems. I already spend a lot of money and I still have to do some modification myself to have that router working.
If it is something which I strongly reccommend to anyone who want to step in CNC area is to read and build his own machine.
I have a CNC router almost ready (90% in design stage - many things to do) but I still having trouble to find a company who want to cut my parts at a resonable price.

RGDS
Gabi

Gabi,

What do you need cut? There are several members who may be able to help out. Start your own thread (if you haven't already) and post drawings/DXFs and you might get lucky.

[gabi68]

Hi Peter,

I know what you mean. To put me in one of your category I should tell something about me:
- my background - IT (hardware and software M$ certified);
- my machine's:
1.Taig 2019 4 axis - I have that little mill since 2003. That came with a Xylotex board and now it is running with a controller made it with G203V.
2. Emco compact 5 CNC turn with toolchanger - still need's work to have a decent speed. It has already a G540 unit to control it.
3. MD router - you all know about that.
- parts that I make are jewllery
- software used:
CAD - Rhino V4.0, SolidWorks 2008, ArtCam 2008
CAM - BobCad V21, FeatureCam 2008, PowerMill 9
Software controller full Mach3. I have turboCNC and KellySoft but I choose to use Mach3 because support it is fantastic and people in the Yahoo or MachSupport groups are very active and they know the bussines.
I still learn every day and I think every one which it is in this area do the same thing.

RGDS
Gabi
P.S. I hope I answerd to all your question's and I have the knowledge to put that router in the right track.

[neo]

Part2 The Krypton factor

Before the missing parts were sent, building the base was not without its challenges.

Remember there are no instructions which to be fair is not a major
problem, it really is fairly straight forward to construct, although a mechanical mind should help.
However, the trouble was the Y axis base didn't seem to fit together properly and I just couldnt work it out. The Z, X axis top section went together relatively easily, but I based the building of the base on what I'd learnt with the top part and this turned out to be where I was going wrong.
It became like an insolvable puzzle as I tried to put the side rail fixings into the same diagonal position as seen on the top part. in fact the more convinced I became thats how it should be attached, the more impossible it became to attach the cross member. It simply wouldn't fit and I couldn't see the wood for the trees.:confused:

After much cursing and wondering if I should have bought a crate of beer instead
I had a brainwave of looking on the internet at some pictures I'd seen on good old ebay when i was looking at buying the unit.
I recalled that the listing for the CNC in question had a link to some photos of one already built.
There was a series of photos in closeup of a tour around the machine. In one photo it clearly showed the base side rails fixed in the same diagonal postion as the upper part.
What I didn't realise was this was a photo sequence of an A4 machine, I'd bought the A3 machine and unbeknown to me it had subtle differences!!:heehee:

By trial and error I started to fit the rail fixings in the same slots as themselves and it was only then that I could succesfully fit the cross member to join the two parts together.
Unfortunately I wasn't convinced I was doing it right afterall the photo sequence shows them to be diagonal.
It was only by looking closely at a smaller photo of the A3 machine that I could see the rails were indeed fitted in the position which I was now using. I was right but boy did my head hurt trying to solve the krypton factor!

Once I realised I was on the right road I was happy to tighten the screws up and complete the base unit.
The photos also had another advantage in that one photo also showed the elusive missing specialised nuts.
I now knew what was missing all I had to do was wait for them to arrive

Neo

part3 to follow.....

[neo]

The thread seems to have gone a little off topic but here's part 3 for the holiday season to keep you going...

Part 3 Missing you already.

The parts to join the two sections together arrived about a week later.
unfortunately, those four missing specialised nuts were not the only parts that were not sent in the main box: The bracket to attach the spindle was also absent and so were two extra colletts for the Kress.
just to add to the experience the mach3 software was also missing....killed in action maybe! ((Mach3, speed of sound? jet fighter?..ohhh please yourselves Frankie howerd))
It took a while to dawn on me that all these parts were not included, remember there was no packing list. Fortunately the original invoice had the software and Kress colletts listed but they most definately wasn't in the box of packaging, I know I emptied it onto the lounge floor several times!

After hoovering up the mess, I was back in my wife's good books!

I kept my calm and duly emailed a list of the missing parts and they added them to the package containing the specialised nuts.
I can't tell you if there's any more missing parts....'cos there's NO CHECK list! (you can add any expletives between the words NO and CHECK at your discretion!......I did!!

So after a short while, all the parts arrived and we set about joining the two main parts together. It didn't take long and all of a sudden it started to look like a CNC machine.

The most noticeable thing is how heavy it was becoming, which on the one hand is great as the weight provides rigidity essential for precision, the downside is it becomes awkward to move about.
This is not a problem of the design, its the consequence of having a large machine: the bigger they are the heavier they become and this will affect DIY and commercial units.
It really is surprising how much they weigh.:surprised:
Subsequently, adding the bed to the machine increased its weight even more, it was becoming increasingly difficult to move, and I started worrying about my back! I began to wonder if I could leave the bed off and add other bits whilst I could still move it.
In the end I did a number of dry runs, keeping the sequence in my mind, only to conclude that adding the bed now was the most sensible step as it didn't have to be turned on its side anymore.


Neo

Part 4 to follow

[John S]

Perhaps if they had left more parts out it wouldn't have been as heavy ?

BTW the Mach software is downloadable off the net.

.

[neo]

Perhaps if they had left more parts out it wouldn't have been as heavy ?

You're right john! and ALL this could have been avoided with a simple checking or packing list which could have saved me, the customer, a bit of heartache.

That a side I hope you are all enjoying the read of the build so far...


in part 4 I add the final touches and hopefully very soon I'll have an old PC worthy of going down the shed

Neo

[ChrisG]

Happy New Year all,

My I put in my 2peneth about supplier problems? Oversights, poor/no instructions etc happen, that doesn't bother me to much as I'm an Engineer and guess what? I also make mistakes. What does anger me is the next step, the way the problems are sometimes so slowly delt with by the suppliers.

I reckon it's up to us consumers to give feed-back to our suppliers good or bad, and not just moan amongst ourselves. It is useful to see others problems, as they say ' A clever man learns by his mistakes, a wise man learns by others.'

Chris

[Lee Roberts]

Any progress Neo ?

[neo]

Any progress Neo ?

Ahhh yes! there has been, but i've been a bit busy at home with other problems since the New Year: water leaking through the ceiling type problems to be exact:cry:. However thats now all fixed and decorated so I set my sights back on the CNC only in the past fortnight.

Those that have been following the progress will be pleased to know a few weeks ago I managed to purchase a SFF PC (small form factor) PC dedicated to my CNC off good ol ebay for a few pounds. Plus a friend gave me a flat screen monitor with a scratch on the screen for free. (you can't see the scratch when its on).
I duly installed a fresh copy of XP and Mach3 and started it all up. After a crash course in Mach3 and setting it up, much to my surprise it worked first time!!!:dance:

After playing with the JOG control for what seemed like hourslol
The first successful test was on the settings section of Mach when I requested to move the X axis 25cm and it did. the same for the Y axis and so on. First test complete.

Overjoyed with how accurate it appeared to be, I found a pencil and installed it in the Kress and then watched it happily drew out a picture of the skull and crossbones from the sample section of Mach3. I did the same with the Roadrunner picture too.
All very accurate reproductions but very small. Are these examples supposed to be only a couple of cms in size? :question:

Anyway, I set the scale to x2 and it made it a bit bigger and I think The CNC mill passed its first test.

Pleased as punch I set about ordering a couple of end mills to start with, they arrived this week and my son's been playing around on a CAD program with a few simple test subjects. This weekend I'm hoping to make a few cuts....
I'll keep you all informed.........


Neo

[John S]

G20 on the top line of code makes it cut in inches and G21 makes it cut in mm.

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