From the beginning, I have said that it would be hard to improve upon the perfection that is the PhlatPrinter MKII, but alas, I have found something that I thought I would share here.

After a year of fairly heavy use with my machine, there have only been a couple of things I have found to be an inconvenience. Now let me say up front, these two issues should in no way be construed as any kind of flaw or poor design element of this machine - just things that I felt I could improve upon for my personal day in and day out use.

Seeing The Light

Or should I say NOT seeing the light. LOL Since the Y/Z Gantry on this machine is beneath the substrate, I've found it to be kind of difficult to accurately set the bit height before cutting my parts out. That's not that big of deal when processing foam because that material is fairly inexpensive. However, when you are cutting balsa and ply parts, your materials are a little more expensive and wasted material may mean another trip across town to the LHS. My cutting deck has a scant bit of flex in it when the lid is dropped into place on top of the material, so that means I need to set the bit height with the lid down. My shop is not as well lit as I would like and I have been having difficulty seeing the bit and how far it is from the material to be cut (especially when using the 1/16" bits). I have been getting by for the last year by fashioning the 'finger light' that came with my MKII kit to a piece of music wire so that I can get the light up under the lid to see the bit. This has worked, but I have found it to be inconvenient, at best.

My little wife solved my problems after watching me work and seeing my dilemma. She found a couple of strips of Sylvania Light Bars on sale at the local Walmart ($5 each) and presented them to me. The pictures below detail my installation. These lights are for mounting beneath your cabinets to provide a soft glow to your countertops. Each kit includes a short "jumper" that facilitates stringing several strips together so that you only have to use up one AC receptacle. This strip proved priceless in my installation because I can now easily unplug the strip from the main cord when I am needing to remove the lid entirely from the machine.

I know the MKII is now a discontinued item, but since it performs so well, and because I know that there are many out there that will continue to see use for a long time into the future, I share this discovery with all you guys that may also be suffering from poor lighting and degrading eyesight.

Cord Management

The PhlatBoyZ include a power strip with the MKII kits, but mine got "borrowed" some time ago and I had no idea where it made off to. That has meant that when I want to use the machine, I plug in the card (duh!). However, when I am ready to actually start cutting, I have to stoop to the floor and plug in the RotoZip, too. After the cut, I stoop again to unplug the tool, but don't unplug the card, lest I lose my Z height zero point. Those of you that have met me know that I don't do 'stooping' well - God just made me a bit too high off of the floor! I made purchase of another power strip, but also snagged up one of those cool little switches that will let me power down the spindle without forcing me to unplug anything or kill the power strip, thus killing the card, too. I cannot take credit for this because, if memory serves, Glenn (Evil-Tunes) was the original gent to find this little jewel. Now when I throw the power on the strip, the card is active and my lid light comes on. Then, I can control the power to the spindle separately.

Anyway, after a year of tripping over wires because I didn't do it right at the beginning, I've finally cleaned up my machine's wiring and added some very helpful lighting. Pics are included of a tidy machine...

Now I have one more of these Light Strips left. Maybe I should mount one behind the PhlatPrinter Logo on the front of the machine. Hmmmm...... Attached files

 

LOL No doubt! And you know one of the best parts about that lighting? The light, while narrower than I would have liked, SLIDES so if I need to move it closer to the right to see the bit when cutting wider materials.

And if you look close in that picture of the back of the machine, you'll see that I really need to empty the dust tray. That's all BALSA dust! LOL I can't remember the last time I cut foam with her..

 

Pretty slick, I'll have to look for some of those lights for a MK I.7568 mod

 

Mike nice post and a great mod, thank you for sharing this with us.
I really like the clean look of your machine especially how your power supply is set up, really nice. The way up set up the plug for the lid - very cool!
Thanks again
Mark and Trish