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#21 Skyburners Toxic Toast

Discussion in 'General Phlatprinter 3 Chat' started by ToxicToast, Dec 10, 2010.

  1. ToxicToast

    ToxicToast Down in the weeds. Staff Member

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    #21 arrived today. I've only unpacked the first box and I am as giddy as can be.


    I really enjoyed my MK2 build and have already had tons of fun with it. By the blessings of luck and a little help from my friends (hey CRASH!), I was the luckiest guy on earth to win the in the contest. I mean it, I am as humble as can be about this as I know there are so many blokes who'd cringed when their name wasn't called. I am honored by this and have to go out on a limb to say that Mark and Trish are just some of the best people on earth to share this with all of us. Thank you guys, and all the Phlatheads who have supported them. Money is tight and I would not have been able to afford this wonderful piece of engineering excellence this season.


    Guys, this is unbelievable! Virtually everything you'll need comes in the box(es). No running to the HW store to find a rotozip or drive from Lowes to Lowes looking for that flex-shaft and hex key set. No digging through forums to try and figure out the best power supply or quality steppers. No Ebay sniping trying to get an EasyCNC board or last minute run to Frys to get a parallel cable. No driving across town to find the right hex head for a metric grub screw. No, none of that. IT IS ALL HERE.



    I was blown away
    by the inclusion of a bag labeled "Any And All" that had practically every building supply and tool I'll need to assemble it. The organization of the boxes is immaculate and as efficient as a NASA engineer packing a space-bound payload. Seriously, the only thing better would be to include a box-cutter attached to the outside so you can open their intricate packaging.

    They could have kept it as a "builder's kit", like the MK2 and MK1. It still would have been awesome. But they decided to make this an extremely complete kit and even give you the tools to get the job done. I didn't think it could get better than the MK2, but they've raised the bar so high this time. My hat is off to the Phlatboys LLC.

    Go spread the word to others. Let us be evangelists when ever we can. On the forums, at the swap meets, at the field. Lets help them sell more and more kits. Lets educate the guys at the field about how awesome of an investment this is! How this is a company that deserves all of our business and push them forward to success. It is the least we can do. Even at full retail price, they can't possibly be factoring in Mark's incredibly rich talent as an engineer, nor Trish's unbelievable logistics, organization and communication skills. Your salary in the industry would be immense, and we need to recognize the sacrifices you both are making to bring your vision to us.

    Now, as my wife just politely reminded me as I was showing her the "Any and All" bag.... "Great honey, don't mess up this time." Reminding me, in the snarky feminine way, about how I bollocked up the Y gantry on my MK2 build and had to order a replacement part in the middle of my build. I'll try not to get ahead of myself this time. Knowing Mark, he probably designed it to be even more idiot proof as a result of my mistep....

    Thanks guys. Attached files [​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG]
     
  2. ToxicToast

    ToxicToast Down in the weeds. Staff Member

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    It has begun. Surprised at how phenomenally well packaged everything is. Smart, organized and virtually dust free (unlike the MK2 which had tons of dust). The MDF even seems to be a higher quality than the stuff that the older MK2 runs. Very nice, clean and easy to find everything. The parts are nicely grouped into steps, which saves a lot of time from sorting all the pieces out. Also, there seems to be far fewer pieces overall. This should be a quicker build.

    Unfortunately, the Phlatprinter 3 easycnc card had a bad X and Y so I had to test the USB card out on the MK2. This couldn't be easier to set up and I was cutting air in no time! Once I get things up and running, I want to try and cut on two machines at the same time from one PC. Not sure if this older AMD setup can handle the task but I've got to give it a go. Attached files [​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG]
     
  3. ToxicToast

    ToxicToast Down in the weeds. Staff Member

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    Build is now complete and calibrated. Tomorrow, I'll cut more than air-hopefully.
    Attached files [​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG]
     
  4. ToxicToast

    ToxicToast Down in the weeds. Staff Member

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    Attached files [​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG]
     
  5. ToxicToast

    ToxicToast Down in the weeds. Staff Member

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    First on the cutting table, a modified version of my Chuckies produced last winter for MK2 testing. These are great fun for the kids, require some milling and only use a small piece of foam. Should be good for the purposes of testing.

    Attached files [​IMG]
     
  6. Anonymous

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    Looking good! The the flight lines roll! :D
     
  7. ToxicToast

    ToxicToast Down in the weeds. Staff Member

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    I did a quick ustream recording of the maiden cut. The cut turned out excellent in terms of tracking and cleanliness. Man, does this thing produce a lot less residual dust!!! Unfortunately, I had to completely re-path the code from scratch as the Z cuts/centerlines were backwards or something.

    After a quick re-path, I ran the new code and it came out perfectly! Calibration is solid, perhaps a 1/32nd off on the X and spot on on the Y. The code rework was fast but the Z still seems a bit finicky- consitent, just the center-line milling areas came out deeper than I expected.

    I'll have to experiment to find the sweet spot on this. Other than that, the accuracy was VERY nice and the edges were extremely clean which means no chatter. I ran this at 40ipm. I do need to drive it up a bit and see what the feedrate threshold is for me on this.

    Thanks to the Phlatboys for such an awesome product! The build was pretty easier, with far fewer issues than the already-stellar MK2. The build instructions were fantastic even though I wish I had a counter to keep track of how many times Mark says "that looks good. lets move on" haha. There was very little opportunity to make errors due to the design of the machine and the quality of the build video. All important hardware was there and the only tricky spots that had me going were the corrections to Step 11 posted about the X drive roller assy. I still had to go my own way as I couldn't get it to work the way it was shown on the step 11 correction thread.

    Also, breaking the Z axis plate (Y5, Y7) was a little too easy. Wonder if it would be possible to engineer some of this problem to reduce the amount of damage one could do to the Z gantry. Also, I wonder if it would be possible to engineer an easier method for tensioning the steppers. If there is a problem with a belt having slop, some of the spots need a bit of removal to properly access the assembly. Particularly the X. Could it be possible to mount the stepper onto a plate and use the plate as a lateral tensioner? Not sure if that is feasible-just thinking aloud.

    Great work guys, I am sure this machine will give me a very long life of service and the cut accuracy is VERY nice!!! Attached files [​IMG]
     

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