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Fozzy's Build OR 10 impossible things to do before breakfast

Discussion in 'Phlatprinter BUILD LOGS' started by FozzyTheBear, Aug 13, 2009.

  1. FozzyTheBear

    FozzyTheBear Member

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    Hi Guys!
    Well this is the start of my build log.... Hopefully the Phlatprinter is going to be kind to me and go together without any headaches! and hopefully without too much blood being spilled (well at least not mine).... and maybe without too much bad language issuing forth from the direction of the workshop! :roll:

    To be honest! Mark and Trish have done a fantastic job on this, and they need to be congratulated for such a stunning piece of design. Very nicely done. Without all their hard work this would have been an impossible task to even figure out.

    All of the packages have now arrived so I have no more excuses for not getting on and building it :oops:

    Several people have asked where I live.... So I thought for this first log entry I'd give you a taste of Cornwall, in the very South West of The UK... and the places I fly in, before I get on to the Phlatprinter stuff.

    This is my local village Ale Hostelry.... Wonder why that one comes up first :oops:
    [​IMG]

    Here's St Michaels Mount, it's a couple of miles down the road and it's a lot bigger than it looks in this photograph.. It's a former Monastery Castle on top of a very big rock, stuck out in the sea... You can walk across the causeway to it at low tide. Local legend has it that this rock was the home of the Giant "Cormoran" who was killed by "Jack The Giant Killer" (you know! Jack and the beanstalk and all that) "Fe Fie Fo Fum I Smell The Blood Of An Englishman" Now that's an interesting phrase, because the Cornish and the English were at war in the period before the Monks arrived and built the castle, so the Cornish did in fact hate the English.... Some still do! LOL :D Certain pubs best avoided.
    I do sometimes fly off the beach here, when the tourists are not in town....
    [​IMG]

    This is one of the disused mine engine houses that we have scattered around the place making it look untidy :lol: .... We have a lot of mining heritage in Cornwall. Mostly Tin and Copper Mining.
    [​IMG]

    This is Lands End... the very tip of the country... Wild and rocky and wet... More ship wrecks occur round this coast than almost anywhere else on the planet. In fact that's how a lot of the locals used to make their living right up until Victorian times. Luring ships onto the rocks and looting the cargo! :eek: :eek: Of course that never happens now ;)
    [​IMG]

    Here's a view of "Gwithian Beach" about three miles away from where I live. I fly off here quite a lot.. In the opposite direction down the beach to the way we're looking here, is "Hayle" about two miles of sand between them. The view here is straight out over the Atlantic and if you look very carefully at the photograph, you can just see Mark and Trish's House on the other side... :D
    [​IMG]

    Here's a couple of nosey locals, who wanted to know what I was doing flying a plane on their sand.... :cool: They hung around for ages so I had to take their photograph.
    [​IMG]

    Here's one of the villages, near to me.. down on the "lizard Peninsular" It's very wild down there... There are places even the locals won't go :?
    [​IMG]

    SO! That's where I live..... I'll try and get some Phlatprinter stuff up tomorrow. Certainly a list of planned mods and some photographs of the nice linear rails and bearings we managed to get off e-bay. maybe even a view of the completed rollers... I want to try and get those done tomorrow.

    Best Regards,
    Julian (Fozzy The Bear)
     
  2. blindflight

    blindflight Moderator Staff Member

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    So, when can we visit? lol lol... Really nice :p
     
  3. FozzyTheBear

    FozzyTheBear Member

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    Thanks Blindflight... Any Time Dude!!

    Best Regards,
    Julian (Fozzy The Bear)
     
  4. FozzyTheBear

    FozzyTheBear Member

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    Ok Guys!!
    Here we go on the phlatprinter roller coaster... Hold tight... there's no getting off once it starts....
    Prepare to enter Dr Frankenbear's Lab...

    First of all, I thought I'd write up a list of planned Mods. There's no guarantee that these won't change or increase in number as I go along, but hey, I got to have some sort of starting point. I did have a think about what to call this version of the Phlatprinter but you guys already snagged the MK 1.5 name... so I'll just call it the MK 1.XX

    Modifications
    1) 700 Watt Rotary Tool... with flexible drive shaft to the Z carriage.
    2) Hardened rails and linear bearings for the Y travel
    3) Alloy Z carriage with linear bearings and hardened rails for the Z translation.
    4) 12tpi Acme threads Mod (probably just on the Y at the moment) With anti backlash fitting.
    5) Moving the Y stepper to the outside of the main case to give more Y travel space.
    6) Narrower Z carriage to extend the Y travel range further. Hopefully to around 26"
    7) Taller Z rails and smaller carriage block to increase the Z translation to around 3".
    8) Cabinet Stand to house the computer, drive board and dust extraction system along with cooling fans and tool storage.
    9) Additional case on the right hand end (looking from the front) to house, Y stepper and Rotary Tool.
    10) Top surface plate and tables to support material and reduce friction.
    11) Adjustable guide fence to help prevent heavy material twisting on the bed during the cut.
    12) Sprung pressure rollers to cope with uneven materials and provide a firmer grip on heavy weight materials.
    a few other things as well......
    I'm planning to be able to cut 4mm Ply single pass... and up to 10mm Ply multi pass.

    Here's the hardened rails and SKF linear bearings I picked up off e-bay. They're 12mm Diameter, so nearly the same size as the original 1/2" ones, and they're 32" in length. The support pillars should fasten nicely to the outside of the case, with the rails attaching to them. This should allow easy removal of the rails and the Z carriage when I want to and it should also allow some adjustment of the rails to get them absolutely parallel to the top surface and parallel to each other.
    [​IMG]
    The SKF bearings run like a duck on ice!! :D so they should reduce the carriage friction by a very large amount. just in case anybody doesn't know how these work... They have several ball races inside that run in the direction of the shaft, so the whole time it's running up and down, the bearing block is riding on a stream of small ball bearings.
    [​IMG]

    Here's a pic of the rather grotty little X,Y table that I also snagged off e-bay. This has already had a lot of bits stripped off it. It arrived with a belt drive system and a few extra bits of metal. I'm planning to gut out the two hardened rails you can see at the centre and also the linear bearing block and anti backlash, and turn that vertical and shorten it, to form the Z translation in the new Phlatprinter. Although this table is a bit grubby, it's actually in very good mechanical condition.
    [​IMG]


    Beginning the build....

    Right! That's the boring bit over and done with! LOL :lol: :D

    Today I planned to get the rollers completed.... Thanks to the excellent videos by Mark and Trish, this actually happened :eek: It's not like me at all to be able to stick to a schedule. So today has even surprised me. here's a pic of the completed rollers:
    [​IMG]
    The thing that took me forever, was getting the grip tape lined up properly and cutting the final piece on the smaller rollers... It's a tricky one!

    The one thing I did do before I started assembling the main drive roller was to dig out an engineering square, and check that the ends of the cut ABS pipe were absolutely square and true. One end was not bad! small amount of sanding and it was sorted. The other end was slightly further out, and took a while to get sanded square to the tube. but it was worthwhile. Simply because if there is any wobble in the pulley that sits on the end, then that could translate into the belt jumping, or the tension being uneven as it rotates causing greater friction and reducing the available speed. I thought it was important to make sure this couldn't happen, so I took a while over doing that.

    Other than that! no real problems with making the rollers.

    More to follow.......

    Best Regards,
    Julian (Fozzy The Bear)
     
  5. tvcasualty

    tvcasualty New Member

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    That's amazing man, I'd post some pics of where I live, but all you'd see is corn and soy fields. Nothing but flatness. Works out ok for a fellow Phlathead I guess! Very nice landscapes you have there. Indeed it looks like a great place to visit. :D
     
  6. Anonymous

    Anonymous New Member

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    700 Watts = 0.938 horsepower! Yowza! :eek:
    Now, be nice Julian, you're going to scare off the normal folks. ;)
    That's a nice list of mods you have planned, but I'll bet you find at least 3 others before you're finished. :)
     
  7. ewo

    ewo Moderator Staff Member

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    Hi Fozzy, what a great looking country you live in. You have a much better start than me,
    But i did just get home with thr rest of the packages..... Looks like i cant start in earnest untill monday at this point.................

    Keep up the great pictures. and it looks great :p
     
  8. FozzyTheBear

    FozzyTheBear Member

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    I'll guarantee I do! :D :D :lol: :lol:

    Best Regards,
    Julian (Fozzy The Bear)
     
  9. FozzyTheBear

    FozzyTheBear Member

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    Build Continued.......

    Today I got most of the woodwork done and dusted..... No real problems at all to report. All the wood pieces fit together perfectly and it's all now clamped up and drying out.

    Not fitted the outer ends yet because that's where a lot of the serious mods are taking place, and not had to build the original Z carriage, so things will slow down as I get the new innards built. But hey! I might have this beastie up and running faster than I thought.

    The only thing that will slow it down is waiting for some ball races and thrust bearings I put on order and few alloy pieces that I have to machine to make the new Z carriage. But other than that it's flying together. :D :D :D More pictures tomorrow.

    Best Regards,
    Julian (Fozzy The Bear)
     
  10. kram242

    kram242 Administrator Staff Member

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    Nice build log Fozzy! This Phlatprinter is going to be incredible!! Nice job so far, keep up the good work :)
    Mark and Trish
     
  11. TigerPilot

    TigerPilot Well-Known Member

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    I had posted, a few month ago, the link to ebay where I bought my rotozip. It was about $50 I think. I bought it because it is rated at 6A which is about 660W to 720W, depending where you are.
     
  12. rjarois

    rjarois Moderator Staff Member

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    nice clean looking rollers bear....i read were you want to cut 4mm in one cut. when i build mine i used .500dia hardened Thomson shafting for my build. on heavy plow cuts you will see lots of deflection, is surprising how much they bend. i limit my ply cuts to 1/16in thick now, as a bigger cut starts to decay to much for me. in hindsight i wish i would have used bigger linear rods. looks good bear, you will love thing for your r/c modeling. randy.
     
  13. FozzyTheBear

    FozzyTheBear Member

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    Hi Randy,
    Yeah! I think you're absolutely right about that. The forces increase exponentially as the material gets thicker. But I figure that with 700Watts + Titanium coated bits it should go through it like a knife through butter. I think it's doable.

    Right now I'm aiming to have the machine up and running before the end of next week.... I know! tight target, but I think I might be able to do it. Hence the lack of photo updates in here. I've been too busy working on it to take the pictures so far. I will get some more up ASAP.

    Best Regards,
    Julian (Fozzy The Bear)
     
  14. rjarois

    rjarois Moderator Staff Member

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    FozzyTheBear, a technique i use for thicker wood parts such as motor mounts.....i cut two 1/16 thick, then glue together. it works great. i have also built up to 1/2 thickness using the same technique. randy.
     
  15. FozzyTheBear

    FozzyTheBear Member

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    Yeah! that's cool.... The other way to do it is to use the Multi Pass Wizard inside of Mach. You can take it in two or three bites that way, just letting Mach increase the cut depth by a specified amount on each pass. It'll work well as long as you don't get any material slippage or any missed steps.

    Best Regards,
    Julian (Fozzy The Bear)
     
  16. FozzyTheBear

    FozzyTheBear Member

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    Build Continued......

    OK!! Day four of the cursing and swearing exercise!! :twisted: The noises eminating from Dr Frankenbear's Lab are frightening the local Seagul population and causing small children to wet themselves. Ahhh well, it's all good for a laugh! :lol: :lol:

    So here's where we're at:
    [​IMG]

    The alloy angle on the edges retains the plexi without having to glue it in and also protects the corners of the machine. Makes it much easier to remove for cleaning and painting without having to rip things apart. That will be held with some screws when I get to that.

    Main drive roller in place...

    The top surface plate is not glued down! this will be fitted by adding more alloy angle on the inside of the printer, and screwing the top plate to that with countersunk Machine Bolts. There will also be an upper top plate made from 1/8" plexi. I have a feeling that I might have to raise the height of the main roller for that to fit.. easy enough, I'll just slot the fixed hole at the drive end and shim under the rollers bearings with a bit of 1/16" steel.

    The end plates are not permanently fixed on yet, because there's a lot of drilling and cutting needed on them to mount the new hardware and move the Y stepper to the outside. I'll be back in the workshop in an hour or so to do that.

    Other than that.... things are still on target for having it up and running next week.

    Best Regards,
    Julian (Fozzy The Bear)
     
  17. Jnida63

    Jnida63 Member

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    Watch your clearance with the angle inside, the gantry runs really tight against the top of the machine and don't use plexi for the top, use lexan, i read somewhere where plexiglass caused alot of drag if i remember correctly.
     
  18. FozzyTheBear

    FozzyTheBear Member

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    Thanks for the tips..... The new alloy gantry will have way more clearance though, so that shouldn't be too much of a problem. But I will keep an eye on it. I will also check on the top surface plate, Thanks!

    Best Regards,
    Julian (Fozzy The Bear)
     
  19. 3DMON

    3DMON Moderator Staff Member

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    Yeah I used plexiglass, and yes it has tons of drag. I painted mine with some enamel paint and it works great now.

    Cool mods Julian!
     
  20. FozzyTheBear

    FozzyTheBear Member

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    OK Noted that!! Thanks! I have and 8 foot sheet of Lexan lurking in the garage that was an overrun from my arcade cabinet parts.... So I'll dig that out and give it a try as an alternative. If that doesn't work I'll get the paint can out or stick a load of surf board wax on it.

    Best Regards,
    Julian (Fozzy The Bear)
     
  21. rjarois

    rjarois Moderator Staff Member

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    bear, looking good man....i like the aluminum trim. also i seen were you said you were going to make the top removable, with angled aluminum braces inside. i did the same mod to mine. it worked out great. like someone here said, the clearance is very tight, so be careful. also another thing i like it being able to remove the steppers from the outside. when i first built mine i had a removable side cover. but since then i have just cut access holes, because of my longer steppers to fit. it is allot better to work on it without having to unhook the wires, remove the control board, then the cover, to access. now i just take the stepper out. also i use shcs for the steppers, i can take it off real fast if i do some work to it. good job on your build, looks great..peace, randy.
     
  22. FozzyTheBear

    FozzyTheBear Member

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    I agree completely... I'm moving the Y stepper to the outside of the case, because it gives a few inches more thread inside and should allow the narrower carriage to traverse further. So that should be really easy access. With the X stepper, I'm following your principle of cutting a new access hole. It makes absolute sense to do that. I wasn't desperately keen on locking any of the hardware permanently into the case.

    I'm still looking at couplers for the motor to threads. Not sure where to go with that right now. I may stick with the rubber pipe to start with. Only because finding a source of cheap mechanical couplers in the UK is difficult. The other alternative is to make my own... But I want to get the machine running first I think.

    Thanks for the advice!!

    Best Regards,
    Julian (Fozzy The Bear)
     
  23. xtremeRCpilot

    xtremeRCpilot Member

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    Looking Great Foz ! I never received your PM from last night, could you send it again!! It was something to do with Star wars!! :)
    Thanks
    John
     
  24. FozzyTheBear

    FozzyTheBear Member

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    That's strange.... I sent it while we were in the chat.... I know Mark and Trish were having trouble with the forum software last night so maybe something odd happened with that as well. I just checked it and it's not showing in my sent list either. I'll try again!

    Best Regards,
    Julian (Fozzy The Bear)
     
  25. FozzyTheBear

    FozzyTheBear Member

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    Build Continued.....
    Well were now onto day six.... and i think I've managed to deplete the Seagull population, through heart attacks! :D No bad thing! trust me! Less Seagulls less Seagull poop to clean off the car :twisted:

    Still working on the Z-Gantry...... The design is kind of evolutionary. Here's a few pictures from sketchup of the alloy frame designs, for the bottom half of the gantry. The linear bearings bolt on the left hand side and the motor bolts to the bottom on the right hand side. the coupling sits in the gap and the linear Z rails and thread run upwards from the top plate on the right hand side. :
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]

    This is kind of an evolutionary process... I've actually built two different ones so far. Neither of them are perfect and I'm now working on the construction of a finalised design today.

    I'll try and post some pictures of the semi finished parts and rails later on today or tomorrow.

    Best Regards,
    Julian (Fozzy The Bear)
     

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