Monday, September 1, 2014

Waste

Today my dad and I cut out the back of the gantry so it would line up with the sides and have a hole in middle (like the original plans). This wasn't as easy as we expected. Only on our third attempt did we finally get the exact shape we wanted.

Back of gantry. 1/8' too short.
The first time went very smoothly, except that the length of the back was 1/8 of an inch short. The wobble from the only partially-tightened bearing rails cause this. Every other axis didn't have this issue.

To compensate for the 1/8 inch, I made the gantry CAD file 1/8 of an inch longer and updated the tool paths. After I installed the new back I would re-tighten all the axis to remove the wobble.

The second time was going along fine until... everything shut down. I opened the shed door to find everything shut off and the gantry stuck on a cable. The motor shaft caught onto the power cable of the overhead lamp and cut through the insulation. This caused a short circuit that blew the surge protector in the extension socket (I couldn't reset it anymore). I was just relieved that all the expensive electronics survived.

Uh oh.
After cleaning up the dust and fixing the lamp cord, we began cutting the back for the third time. This went off without a hitch and we were able to install the new back.



Today was definitely a day of learning and a warning to pay more attention to the machine. The torque of the motors aren't meant to be joked with.

I just need to tighten up all the bearing pipes and create a dust boot with vacuum attachment for the router. The dust is really getting out of hand.

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