Okay, so someone had to do it right? Swap out the flex shaft spindle for the Bosch Pony Laminate Router....

http://www.amazon.com/Bosch-PR20EVSK-1-Horsepower-Fixed-Base-Variable-Speed/dp/B000ANQHTA/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1294094991&sr=8-2

I would post the sketchup file, but I did a lot of sanding on the MDF after it was cutout and I am not sure if it is all that accurate.

Video coming soon.

This baby cranks! Variable speeds up to 35000 RPM. It will gob up foam on the bit if you don't jack up your feed rates and leave it on high. I cut the speed to half throttle and run my normal 50 ipm with no problem. Attached files

 

Woohoo! Did you cut the MDF attatchment out on your MKIII or your buddies machine?

Can't wait to hear how well it works for cutting out thin ply or MDF. How heavy is that router? You don't think it puts too much load on the gantry?

- Jeff

 

Believe it or not, I cut it on my own machine. It wasn't pretty. I had some botched pieces and had to run it a couple times and then sand out the imperfections by hand but it did work.

I used the multipass option taking 10 passes on each part to complete.

The tool weighs 7 lbs according to the specs. The Gantry didn't complain at all. She moves it like it was not even there.

It will take a 1/4" bit, so it opens the door to whole new world of being able to do some serious work once we can get the accuracy down.

 

Here is the video...

 

Very nice. I was just looking at one of these routers at lowes last night. Thanks for posting.

 

10 lbs! Holy Maccarole!

- Jeff

 

Thanks Mark. I apologize. Did not mean to steal your thunder. It's just that this was something I had in mind all along and my spindle was already giving me fits so I decided now was the time to get it done.


As Mark said and it cannot be emphasized enough... these machines are not toys!!!

It is a good idea to wear safety glasses and have an ESTOP on your machine to shut it down in an emergency.

With this attachment you will be moving a much heavier mass and you need to dial down your feed rates and ramp up speeds.

You don't want this one to go slamming into the sides of the machine! And you should unplug the machine when changing bits.

While this is a hobbyist grade machine, it can still none the less, do a lot of bodily harm. I have even had my machine start running a cut file due a glitch in the power line when an air conditioner kicked in, so do not let your guard down!

You will also want to pick up an 1/4" to 1/8" collet reducer for your existing bits.

http://www.ntxtools.com/network-tool-warehouse/APT-200-283.html

Be aware that you may need to do some light sanding to get the parts and the router to fit. I tried to leave a small amount of clearance for the tabs, but I did end up sanding a bit more off the router opening in the top mounting section to get a better fit.

You will need to glue the upper and lower sections together before inserting into the base. Attached files MDFPonyMountRev4.skp (1.1 MB)Â

 

That Video is OUTSTANDING.
I got to do this when I get My machine up and running.

Great job.

GHB

 

I am running some mesh carvings in 3/4" foam right now. I bought some 3/4" MDF to do testing with after this finishes.

I see no reason why it shouldn't do just fine so long as the X steppers can move the material without slipping. Placing the wood in a foam carrier should solve that if we should see slippage of harder surfaces.

Remember too, I swapped out my X stepper with a little larger one so that I can drive heavier loads. My plan all along has been to do harder materials and I had the bigger stepper in my old MK1.5 so I put it on the Phlatprinter in preparation for this.

I think MDF would be no problem for any of the machines, but eventually, I plan on doing oak if the machine is willing and the creek don't rise.

 

I am a little over a half hour into the first job. Have to go out for a few hours so I have put the USB CNC software in pause mode (LOVE that!) and will resume when I get back.

Am running the router at half speed, 5 on the dial, using the standard 1/8" grout bit and feed rate of 100. I think it could go a whole lot faster but I have my max speed configured for 130 and the ramp up setting I am using rarely lets the speed get much above 80 on the short cuts it is doing now.

I think I am doing .2 inch depths on the mesh. For foam, I could have bumped up the feed and speeds without any problem judging from the looks of it right now.

The cuts look simply awesome! The vacuum is doing a great job of keeping the foam shavings picked up.

I am tickled pink with what I am seeing right now.

Doing shallow X axis cuts (5") during this operation and everything is right on the money.

Whooo hooo!

 

Operation success!

This was about a 2 hour job. I paused and shut down the machine for 6 hours and resumed where I left off and didn't miss so much as a step.

The grip tape on the pressure roller is going to have to go though. The constant back and forth does a number on the foam. I will replace it with the shrink tubing which seems to do a good job.

I noticed when using feed rate override that the return path along the Y axis would speed up very fast as it did the downward slope on the right side. Going the other direction, the speed remained constant. If I unchecked the feedrate override, it ran constant in both directions.

I used Meshcam to generate the GCode. I may add a G61 command to see if that helps the ramped up speed along the right side. Attached files

 

Well, mostly it is just a test. I was playing with the Sketchup Curviloft tool and just wanted something to cut.

I did not use the pencil tool, just the rough and finish passes. I would use a ball nose bit to do a pencil cut but really didn't need it.

Stepover was .020"

Material was 3/4" Dow Blue high density foam board.

 

I knew I was forgetting something. Mark pointed out on the PhlatLab Show that the tabs were not correct on the lower set.

I had sanded them off on my build, but here is a correction for it. Attached files MDFPonyMountRev5.skp (1.1 MB)Â

 

Mark released the keyway template today, so I checked it against my drawing and found mine to be off just a little bit. Without the template, I was having to use measurements I made from my machine and I ended up just sanding the minor discrepancies out and drilling the holes a little larger to compensate for the alignment problem.

Here is Rev 6 with minor adjustments to the baseplate so that it aligns more closely to the keyway openings. Attached files MDFPonyMountRev6.skp (1.2 MB)Â

 

Kress has some interesting routers, which can be used as attachment. They are very popular with CNC bulders. I use 1050FME on my machine and I'm very satisfied with it. I got mine on eBay.
Link - select "milling tools"

 

Nice! I have always wondered what were the RPM settings. Thanks for sharing!