thibaultron

It was settled in 2014, with neither party winning the right to the copywrite, but the government paying the family $300,00.

249! "Doctor My Eyes"!

 

Part 027 – “Let There Be Light!”

 

One quick update. I added a light to the inside of the enclosure. I had been waiting until I could get a LED light, but time passed and I already had a spare fluorescent one lying about, so I installed it.

 

 

I was going to install it under the top of the enclosure with the light pointing forward. The top of the door would have shielded it from glaring into my eyes. After some consideration though, I realized that when I was working on it, with the door open, it would be shining right into my eyes.

 

Looking at the door, I realized that I could mount it between the supports, and then it would both well light the machine, with the door closed, and shine the light down past me with it open.

 

 

 

I originally had it mounted parallel to the upper window support, but the light case hit on the vacuum connector, when I tried to close the door. By lowering that corner to touch the support, I got just enough clearance. For now I’m running the cord out through the window opening. I need to stop by the hardware store, and pick up some cable clamps. The wire is long enough that I can extend it out through the back door area.

 

If I was going the build another enclosure, I would move the vacuum connector back a bit to clear the light case.

 

With the light added I defiantly need both of the door supports, due to the weight of the light. The one support is not attached in the pictures, as the light blocked access to the mounting screw. I’ve fixed it since then.

 

The difference with the light is amazing! I can now clearly see the work pieces during carving, and when changing bits, etc. Before I had to shine my modeling lamp into the case to see some areas.

 

The first picture shows the enclosure without the light. The camera is more light sensitive than my eyes, so it is even darker in real life.

 

 

 

Here is it with the light on.

 

 

 

It makes me want to get a new piece of Plexiglas for the window!

 

The vacuum hose was a little too short, after I trimmed it, and it kept popping out after 10 minutes or so, during the cuts on this piece at the far right of the machine. I was able to fix it by wrapping a layer of tape around the nozzle. This had the added benefit of allowing me to put a slight twist in the hose, to make it fold into a little better configuration, when the spindle was at the extreme left.

Just ordered a copy, also. Thanks!

Chuck said that he was shutting down the site for a few days. It will be back up after that.

Its not a book addiction, its just you channeling your inner Librarian!

Part 026 – Door Supports.

 

I found some cabinet door supports in my junk collection, so I used them for the enclosure door. I used the setup measurements on the package for a 90 degree opening, but as it turns out the supports are designed to close toward the hinges, and I needed them to open away, to clear the vacuum hose. It took a bit of fiddling, but I managed to find the “Sweet Spot” using the same mount location on the cabinet side, and moving the door mount location. It doesn’t give me a full 90 degree swing, but it is sufficient to allow free access.

 

In the picture, below, I had to add spacers on the cabinet side mount to clear the ¾” square sidewall support. Then while the instructions show that end being flush mounted to a cabinet, the hinge section was hitting the support, and I had to add an additional ¼” spacer. Cheap manufacturing.

 

 

Here is a shot of the door, after I finished installing the supports on both sides. The brown board on the far side of the cabinet is simply a temporary view block, to hide the clutter on the back wall.

 

 

The supports open easily then use an internal friction lock to hold the door up. You press down on the door to close it. Not as nice as a physical interlock, but it works. I’m sure that if I left it open for a few hours, I’d find the door closed when I came back. What the heck, at least they were “Free”, in the sense I already had them laying around.

 

This will probably be the last part of this thread, the enclosure is pretty much finished. All I have to do to finish the enclosure is add magnetic catches, toggles to hold the top of the door window, and a light. Nothing very interesting, or difficult.

Wow, just Wow!

Great news!!!

Welcome, and thanks!

Got my AnyCubic 4K Mono two days ago, and bought some Elegoo resin. Have to build an enclosure for it before I can do anything with it though. My shop is not well ventilated.

Part 025 – The Vacuum System! Finally!

 

I bought some 1 ¼” OD Vacuum hose on-line. Fail, the hose had 1/8” thick walls, and while vinyl was way too stiff!

 

 

 

Our upright vacuum did not have much suction, so I convinced my wife to let me scavenge the hose from it. After much work, and some breaking of parts, I managed to separate the hose from the base. The wand end was too long to fit inside the enclosure, and the other end had a large fitting on it. I had to cut two slots in both fittings to free the two pins locking the hose to the fittings.

 

 

This left me with the hose with a removable hinged clamp on each end.

 

 

Now the fun began! The hose was 1 ¼” ID, so it would not fit in or over the dust shoe connector, which is setup for either 1 ¼” OD or 1 ½” ID hose. I sacrificed one of the straight hose sections on my shop vacuum (1 ¼” OD) and forced the tip section into one end of the hose. There was not room to use the clamp, so I wicked in thin CA to glue the tip in place.

 

 

The other end of the hose with the clamp attached just pushed tightly into a 1 ¼” PVC water pipe coupler (the coupler is a little over 1 ½” ID). The coupler keeps the clamp pressed tightly closed.

 

 

Then the next problem came up. I had purchased a length of 1 ¼” PVC pipe, figuring that the shop vacuum tip that fit nicely into the 1 ¼” ID dust shoe hole, would also fit nicely into the 1 ¼” ID pipe. Nope! The pipe is actually about 0.010” smaller in diameter than the 1 ¼” nominal size! Looking around I still had the rest of that straight shop vacuum section, with the flared end that, naturally, did fit the flexible shop vacuum hose, and a section of 1 ¼” thin wall pipe (this has a wall thickness about ½ that of the standard pipe). The thin wall pipe fits the coupler, but the flared section was slightly smaller than the ID of this pipe. So I had to fill in the gap. I cut the flare off, using a piece of tape to guide the cut.

 

 

Then I cut a strip of 0.40” styrene to fit inside the thinwall section. I used a heat gun to soften the strip, so I could bend it to fit.

 

 

Now the flair fit with a light push fit.

 

 

I use thin CA to wick into the joints between the parts. When that had hardened, I ran a bead of thick CA to seal both the exposed end, and along the inside seam, to seal the gaps. Now I had a strong connection for the shop vacuum hose, and a removable tight sliding fit to the other vacuum’s hose on the opposite end of the coupling.

 

I cut new centering jigs to fit the OD of the coupler, and used them to position the outer cutting guide on the enclosure.

 

 

I positioned it near the top front of the left side of the enclosure, as this was in line with the dust shoe fitting, thus keeping it away from the X/Z-Axis assembly. I once again used my Dremel with the router attachment, and a 1/8” SainSmart bit to cut the hole.

 

To determine the proper length for the internal hose, I set the spindle to the Home position, and using a spare 1 ¼” coupling I put the tip into the dust shoe, and fed the hose through the coupler. I tried various lengths, until the hose was just stretched when the spindle was Homed, but not laying on the bed when it was at the far left of the machine. I marked it and cut down the hose.

 

The fit between the modified coupler and the enclosure was tight, so I forced it in until the end was flush with the outside of the wall, and used thin CA to wick in, and glue it in place.

 

 

This left the rest of the coupler inside, to add some horizontal support for the hose.

 

 

This is a picture of the shop vacuum hose fitted to the outside.

 

 

Here is a picture of the finished vacuum assembly.

 

 

With the vacuum assembly completed, I was able to reinstalled the door and the window, and the enclosure is finished, for now. I may install a pulley system to raise the enclosure up off the bench, with a removable shelf section to support it when raised, but I have not decided yet. I also need to add interior lighting.

 

I also have to install some sort of support for the door when it is open, and magnetic fasteners to hold the front and back doors down on the weather stripping. I may also mount a computer style 120 Volt fan over the inlet filter, to insure cooling air for the spindle, when I’m not using the vacuum.

 

There is enough room in the front to store the boxes I have that hold the bits, and other relevant stuff, when the router is not in use.

Well medieval, is better than highevil, lower class demon and all. Though there could be some philosophical discussion about whether an anchor could really be evil or good. Though, if it is not holding while you are on a lee shore, during a storm, most sailers would tend toward "Evil".

Well, "I pulled the trigger" and ordered an AnyCubic 4K 3D resin printer! I have a question about ventilation for it. I know it needs to be used in a "Well ventilated area", which my shop is not. The shop is well sealed, as I have to use electric heaters, and window AC units, so I can't afford to be pulling in a lot of different temperature outside air in.

 

My question is can I put in an enclosed air system in, using outside air just to  an enclosure that is then vented back outside? Is the resin greatly affected by varying air temperatures, and humidity? I'm thinking an enclosure for the printer, a hose from outside air for the inlet, and a hose to the outside for discharge, with a 120 Volt 4" computer type fan at the discharge end to pull air through the system.

Part 024 – The E-Stop Wire Plug, Continued

 

In the last part, I showed my failed attempt to cut out a plug for the hole I ran the E-Stop Button wires out.

 

The design.

 

The first results.

 

 

I changed the cutting order so the slot for the inner hole, and the one that separates the two halves was cut first, instead of last. I thought maybe the separating cuts were stressing the parts. The same failure occurred.

 

Next I thought slowing the cutting travel speed down might work. I changed the speed from 13mm/sec to the Carveco default of 7mm/sec. That worked much better! Out of 4 attempts (8 halve pieces), I got 5 good halves. The picture below seems to show all the pieces coming out, but 3 broke while I was removing them.

 

 

To strengthen the good pieces, I coated them with thin CA, while they were held in place on a piece of blue tape.

 

 

 

The coating increased the dimensions slightly, but they still fit in the hole, and tightly now. The white “Powder” in the pictures is the CA after I sprayed it with the accelerator. CA tends to do this, but I did not want to wait for the CA puddles to, maybe, set. A little sanding removed the roughness.

 

Because the CA also reduced the diameter of the center hole, I pushed the plug into a 3/8” hole in some scrap, and redrilled the hole to 1/8”.

 

 

 

I repeated this for the second good plug, and stored it away for future need.

 

Here is a picture of the plug installed.

 

 

After I had finished the plugs, SpindleJockey, who does CNC all the time, suggested the following bridge tab configuration.

 

 

I’ll file that away for future reference!

Thank you for the suggestions. I managed to get two good sets out of four sets by reducing the travel speed from 700mm/min to 240mm/min, in MDF. I then coated the good pieces with thin CA to reinforce them, that helped greatly.

Part 023 – Miscellaneous

I decided not to hinge the front piece. The magnets were holding it well, with just the temporary nails for guides. I bought some bamboo skewers, that ended up being about 3/16” in diameter.

 

I clamped one side of the front and removed that nail, then drilled 3/16” using the nail hole as a guide. Next I drilled the front 13/64” for a nice sliding fit on the dowel, as well as just a very short depth into the enclosure, to guide the insertion of the dowel. I glued the end of the dowel and drove it in with a hammer after cutting off the point. After cleaning up the excess glue and allowing it to dry about a half hour I reinstalled the front, and repeated the process for the other side. I cut off the extra dowel and sanded it flush, then slightly rounded the exposed end.

 

 

 

 

 

I designed a plug for the E-Stop wire, but the router failed in cutting one in either 13mm MDF, or regular ½” plywood. In six attempts (3 in each) the parts broke before the cuts were completed, and I was unable to get two good halves. The body of the plug is 3/8” diameter , once the two halves are fitted, with a 1/8” center hole.

 

 

So, for now, I put a piece of 3/8” heat shrink tubing in the hole, to keep the wire from chaffing.

 

 I will try again, reducing the cutting traverse speed, or I may try it in a thick piece of plastic cutting board I have. I’ve used pieces of this cutting board to make new sheaves for the rotted ones in the pulleys on a 23’ sailboat, and the rollers for the sliding doors in my shop, so it is quite a durable plastic.

 

I also cut a second center for the vacuum jig, with a 1 ¾” hole in the center to allow me to place the vacuum hose hole  to clear the corner battens.

 

I still have not decided on the final location for the hole, or the exact way I’m going to mount the hose to the enclosure. I’ll detail that later. My present shop vac has a 1 ¼” OD hose, so I need an adapter to mate it with the 1 ½” ID hose I want to use inside the enclosure. I’m going to use the 1 ½” hose, in case I get a larger vacuum, in the future.

I'll be following along! I have an HO scale resin model of a similar boat, that I will be building for my layout.

 

My Grandparents had a camp on the St. Lawrence River, and I spent many a week watching ships go past.

I ran the servo and limit switch wires out of the back of the enclosure above and below the rear door, as well as the lengthened motor wires. See Part 18.

Part 022 – E-Stop Button Installation, Outside Enclosure, with Guide for Routing a Recess

 

My next step was mounting the E-Stop switch on the outside of the enclosure. No problem, just drill a 5/8” hole and pop it in. Nope! The threads on the switch for the mounting nut are only  about 3/8” long, so putting the switch into the 3/8” thick enclosure plywood, left no threads the nut could grab onto. So I needed to cut a recess a little over ¾” in diameter into the side of the hole. I also need to cut a nice circle in the other side for the 1 ½” vacuum hose, for the dust shoe.

 

As can be seen from previous posts, my skills at cutting a smooth, specific size hole, in the vertical side of a box with a saber saw, leaves something to be desired! I, however, do have a router attachment for my Dremel. I measured the diameter of the attachment base, and allowing for a 1/8” bit, I designed a ring for the E-Stop recess, and a larger one for the vacuum hose. The rings are to be mounted on the enclosure, and the base of the Dremel run around the inside, cutting the desired size recess/hole. As I’d already drilled the button hole, I also designed a removable center piece to fit inside the ring, with a 5/8” nub in the center.

 

Here is the larger ring and center for the vacuum hose. I did have to sand the outside of both centers a little to get them to fit into the rings, the problem with backlash in the feedscrews. The E-Stop ring is similar, just smaller.

 

 

 

For the vacuum hose I may not need the center piece, but I’ll have it if needed. I will have to drill at least a starter hole for the bit, anyway.

 

This picture shows the center stuck in the already drilled hole and the ring screwed in place using the center piece to locate it.

 

 

And, this one with the center removed.

 

 

These pictures show the Dremel, the Dremel with the nose screwed off, and the attachment installed. I used one of the SainSmart 1/8” bits for the operation.

 

 

 

 

After setting the bit to cut about half way through the plywood, this is the new recess. Note that the router attachment is made from a somewhat flexible plastic and the threads on the Dremel nose are a little soft, so that the hole is not perfectly round, but fine for this application.

 

 

This shows the E-Stop button installed.

 

 

I wanted the button close to the front, but high enough so I wasn’t hitting it with my mouse or tools, so it is about halfway up the door edge cutout. This made the wires too short to go out the back of the enclosure, so I drilled a 3/8” hole by the switch to run the wire along the outside of the enclosure. I’ll neaten it up later. I may also machine a two part split plug for the wire hole, as I don’t want to permanently seal the wire hole, I may need to remove or replace the switch in the future.

 

 

I haven’t cut the hole for the vacuum hose yet. I’m waiting until I can order some hose and it comes in to see where the best location for the hole is. My wife objected to the notion of cutting the hose off our vacuum cleaner! Who’d have thought!

Part 021 – New Dust Shoe and Cutting a Calibration Block

 

I tried out the 3020 Dust Shoe I received the other day what a difference!! I don’t have the permanent vacuum hose for the enclosure yet, so I removed the door and used the hose from my 3 gallon shop vacuum. I cut a piece, and no smell and very little escaped dust, as well as almost no sawdust in the bottom of the enclosure!

 

Here I’m doing a clearance cut, and you can see the buildup with no vacuum.

 

 

Here is the same cut, further along, with the vacuum on. The curlicues are pieces stuck to the edge, not left over chips that the vacuum missed. No the hose is not installed in the shot, I removed it so I could take the picture.

 

 

The shoe has the 20 mm long bristle brush piece installed. The 40 mm was too long for the 1/8” bit. It keep getting caught up in the tip. If I had been using a longer bit, the 40 mm would have been more useful. For the 1/8” bit, 25 mm bristles would be better, but that is not a length they sell.

 

The workpiece I was cutting, was a calibration block for determining adjustments need to fine tune the stepper motors. GRBL has a section in the Setup Wizard where you move the X, Y, and Z-Axis then measure how far it actually moved, as opposed to how far you told it to go. Then you enter the actual movement and it calculates the amount of adjustment it will use in the future.

 

Rather than trying to use a dial indicator or a ruler to measure movement free hand, I cut a block 250mm X 150mm, then measured the actual size the block ended up being, using a 12” dial caliper. A 12” caliper is not as common as the standard 6” one, in most toolboxes, so a 150mm X 150 mm block would work for a 6” one. The clearance being cut above was around the outside of the block, so I could get the calipers in. I cut the clearance, leaving 0.1 mm around the outside of the block area, then as a last step, I had the router cut away that last bit.

 

This is a picture of the finished block. The cross shaped lines are to give me alignment spots to insure the caliper was square to the sides. The holes are there because the workpiece is scrap from a failed spoil board (don’t accidentally hit a limit switch while vacuuming up chips!).

 

 

After all was said and done, the block ended up being 250.5 mm X 149.3 mm. After inputting those measurements, and the correction factor the program calculated, my parts should be more accurate, from now on. This would not make much difference on small parts, or carvings, but for larger mechanical type parts or a ship’s deck, keel, etc., it would. Yes, this isn’t a CNC Mill, but on the other hand, it doesn’t cost $4000 or $5000 either!

Joe;

   As for what I plan to do with this router, make parts. I have spent several years designing the parts for a Chesapeake workboat (not full time, but finding all the info took time). I will use this to cut out the bulkheads etc. There are a few other models that I am also playing with. I also have projects for my model railroad, that this would be handy for. Most notably I have been working on drawings for a unique Santa Fe business car, and will be using this router and a soon to be acquired 3D resin printer to create parts for it. Santa Fe had several versions of this one type, and I hope to make one of each.

 

Also I enjoy CADing and playing with computers. So while it does take time away, I still get enjoyment from the process.

Part 020 Building An Enclosure – Part 4

 

When I moved the controller to the outside of the enclosure, all the wires reached the new location, except the spindle motor wire. So I bought a box of Heat-Shrink Tubing, and a length of 16 gauge 2 conductor wire to lengthen it.

 

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08PC1NKJ4?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2_dt_b_product_details

 

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07QM8249H?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2_dt_b_product_details

 

 

 

Then I discovered that my 45 watt soldering iron was not powerful enough to solder 16 gauge wire, and my Weller 140 Watt soldering gun had a broken tip! I ordered a new tip for the Weller, and it should be in by Monday.

 

I continued the construction by enlarging the opening in the door to fit the Plexiglas panel I’d previously made, and gluing ¾” square strips behind the opening, for the glass to set into. The small dots are the heads of 18 gauge brads I used to hold the strips in position while the glue dried.

 

 

This picture shows the Plexiglas in place. The streaks you see are road rash scratches in the glass. I found this Plexiglas along the side of the road as part of a sign, that had fallen from a vehicle and been left. Plexiglas is expensive, and I can live with the scratches.

 

I have to come up with some method to hold the glass in place, but still be removable. I want it held firmly in place in case of something flying around inside the case. Until I come up with something, I nailed a scrap piece of quarter round along the bottom edge to hold it for now. The top of the molding is even with the top of the inner strip, creating a pocket for the glass.

 

 

 

My new 3020 dust shoe also arrived. I’m glad I had to wait a couple weeks to buy one, as they just started offering this one. I had planned to buy one made for the 3018, and adapt it somehow. This one is much better.

 

 

It has an aluminum ring that is secured to the bottom of the motor with two setscrews. There is an inner ring that the screws bear on that presses against the motor housing, so it is not scratched by the screws. This is a nice touch.

 

The body of the dust shoe comes in three parts, that are held together by magnets. Each piece has a tongue and groove mating surface to align the parts.

 

 

The top has the mounting adaptor, as well as the nipple for the dust collection hose. The dust collection nipple has an inside diameter of 1 ¼” and an outer diameter of 1 ½”. This allows you to use either a 1” , or 1 ½” ID hose.

 

The middle piece can be removed to allow you to get to the bit, the collet nut and the wrench slots in the spindle, without having to remove the whole shoe.

 

Two pieces are supplied for the bottom plate, with the collection bristles. One has 40 mm long bristles (the bottom of the bristles come out just a little lower than the tip of a typical bit), and the other 20 mm bristles. For now they also offer a replacement 20 mm bristle bottom piece, that you can buy separately. I hope they will have a 40 mm replacement, in the future.

 

Here is a photo of the shoe installed on the spindle motor. I plan to have it mounted as shown with the vacuum inlet to the side rather than at the more typical front. This gives me more clearance from the enclosure door for the hose. You can still reach both screws with it mounted this way, though the back one is a little tricky to get to.

 

 

This picture shows it with both bottom pieces removed for collet access.

 

 

This one shows it with just the bottom removed. You would do this so you can see to position the bit at the workpiece origin. Once everything is setup you can raise the spindle and replace the bottom.

 

 

For now, I will have to wait to see how effective it is, as I have to wait until my next pay check to order some vacuum hose, as well as making some sort of adapter at the enclosure wall.

These indeed qualify for this forum! We build everything from rowboats to aircraft carriers, wood, metal, plastic, and paper. Welcome!

You might want to hit all that exposed brass with some type of clear coat, to keep it from tarnishing in the future.