It's Alive

Bought 2 new makerslides from Inventables, tapped the ends, drilled and installed the 3/16" steel bar between and used the furniture bolts to secure it all together. I will disassemble the old one and replace it with this one once the 25mm bolts show up. I will add connectors to the motor wires and limit switches for the new enclosure this weekend (provided the bolts show up…only taking it all apart once).

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@sketch42
I drilled the holes in the Y-Axis drag chain mount, spun everything around and now the wires exit out the back…this will be perfect when I hook up the new enclosure.

Thanks!

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Awesome! Glad it helped.

Pics or it didn’t happen. :smile:

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Pics to follow…lol

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I have the new electronics enclosure all connected and in place!

Everything is working and tested. Inside the enclosure I placed the relay for the Dewalt, the powersupply, Arduino and G-Shield.

I reversed the Y-Axis drag chain so the wires exit the back of the machine.

On the front of the enclosure are illuminated buttons for Cycle Start, Feed Hold and Reset. The red wire plugged into the top right is the probe. Also a power switch and Emergency Stop button.

On the back (Switches are not plugged in yet) are the motor connectors, 2 x plugs for the relay, the USB connector and power cord.

Everything is nice and neat. I did not add the LEDs inside the enclosure as originally planned, maybe something for later.


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That is a beutiful setup, Erik! :+1:

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Added the new and improved X-Axis (stiffened with a bar of 3/16" steel). I went with the silver instead of black this time. Now it is time to do some testing to see how much of an improvement there is.

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Found this link on CNC Zone, it is for a cute little laser project. It will work fine on the X-Carve as well.

http://cartonus.com/puppy-brooch/

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Here is a 3.5" Aztec Sunstone…This is just a test in MDF, I used a 1/4" endmill for a roughing pass at 100ipm and 50 plunge, followed that up with a 1/16" ballnose ate 100ipm and 50 plunge. I was going to do a third pass with a 20 degree v-bit, but decided not to. I plan to make a larger one and use it as an inlay piece on the top of a cherry box. @AllenMassey I might use the corian/candlewhite. Thanks for the idea.

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I can’t wait to see the result.

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Spectacular! How long did it take to carve?

The roughing pass was 15 minutes, the ballnose pass was 2 hours, the v-bit pass, which I didn’t do would have taken another hour.

Dragon in a bowl…Needs some sanding and fuzz removal. This is 8" x 5"

Used 4 Bits for this:
1/4" endmill roughing cut - 10 minutes - 100IPM with a 50 plunge rate
1/16" ballnose detail cut - 2.5 hours - 100IPM with a 50 plunge and a 5% stepover
90 degree 1/4" v-bit for chamfer cut - under a minute - 100 IPM with a 50 plunge
1/8" endmill for cutout - under a minute - 100 IPM with a 50 plunge

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Looks great, Power of the Aspire, magic touch from Erik.

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Here is the wreath I cut in September…the wife has painted it.

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No words to describe, I have never seen anything this beautiful. :heart:

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Thank you @AlanDavis

Don’t let your wife hear you say that Alan…just saying.

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I didn’t want to say that out laud, but that is the reality. My wife is like a salt shaker on the table if you compare with Eric’s wife. :confounded:

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I was going to ask what happened to the wreath. Thanks for posting the completed project, your projects always inspire me to try and do better!

Your wife is a real artist, the finished wreath is beautiful.

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