The big question.....

Will there be a retrofit to incorporate the MKII pulley system into the V1 Phlatprinter?

 

7up, we are doing everything we can to help all Phlatboyz upgrade. We're working with dbtoutfit to come up with some brackets which will allow the switch over. This is very preliminary at this point but has been on our mind from the start. We tried everything we could to make the original Phlatprinter conform and found it to be difficult and we definitely couldn't sell it that way. It was so rigged it was pathetic. But it worked! So, in an effort to continue to move forward, we had to start from scratch which allowed us to make other improvements other than just the speed.

 

That would be interesting. I've pondered the idea of selling my MKI and getting a MKII, but cutting time is not an issue for me. It's the coolness factor that drives the urge.

 

WW8S,
How do you get Mach to accept something over 47ipm?

Do you mean how do we get our motors to cut faster than 47in/min? If so its under the motor tuning section of Mach?
Not sure I understand?
Maybe this is what you are after.
The main difference is that you do not have to spin the all-thread up to high rpms to obtain speed(losing torque along the way), With the belt system we are able to move the stepper small amounts to obtain large gantry movement in doing this we are able to keep our torque. Which allows for smaller steppers providing lots of speed/torque.
I hope this helps to answer what I think you were asking, if not just let me know
Thanks
Mark

 

Mark

Will some or all of the software side stuff be compatible between both PP 's. I would really like that ramp script for the MK I. I think that would Improve the speed Drasticlly even on MKI.




E-T

 

Hey E-T, cool barber cam. Mark has been needing a hair cut

We expect the software to be compatible. The V tabs are really cool and would be a great improvement. The programmers are volunteering as much of their time as possible to make this and several other improvements possible for everyone. We can not thank Pete and Glenn enough.

66, I'm not sure if selling the MK I is such a good idea. The MK II would use the same electronics and some of the same parts. You may want to hang onto it so you can reuse them.

 

to the fellas that are talking about mach-3 not running over 47ipm.....are you using the latest version of mach-3 ? maybe the earlier version has a bug in they fixed. i have had mine running up to 80ipm before the steppers cant handle anymore. randy.

 

JBourdon, belt drive machines are not less accruate than non belt drive machines...i know this for a fact, as alot of machines at my workplace use them. and some of them cost over a half million bucks, and are very accruate, and the ultimate precision in my industry. if your interested check out were i spend all my time, lols. randy.
http://www.future-products.com/

 

A couple of points to consider...

I come from the Hi-Graphic Packaging Industry and we used some super-fast, wide format printers to kick out proofs for showing color to customers (color that they could expect to see when their item went to press). These printers were all belt-driven and had accuracy down to about a quarter-dot. If you're wondering how small that is, take a magnifying glass to a digitally printed photograph to see what a dot size is.

Also, remember that the PhlatPrinter was purpose-built to cut the heck out of foam. Any woodcutting that the machine can do is just a bonus! Foam is what this machine is all about.

If you're looking for something on the inexpensive side for cutting harder materials, check out this machine - it's something I'm wanting to build! It'll cut all kinds of materials, and you can set it up to work with Mach 3 and process files created using the PhlatScripT plug-in:

http://www.fireballcnc.com/

 

zulish, I guess you know about the retro-fit mod dboutfit is working on now

dz1sfb, Ken thanks we look forward to seeing you there as well.

JBourdon, It is said that a belt drive is more accurate and I would tend to agree after testing with a 1/16th bit. Of course you can go so fast that it will start to lose its place but 100 in/min is fine and I run mine at 200. That is without the new wider Z/Y gantry stance so we are looking forward to a real improvement there as well.
Trading speed for cutting harder materials was an option that was a tough decision for us, because of the drive roller mainly but also a host of other cost prohibitive reasons.
On an overhead gantry style machine that is belt driven you could add a trim router for instance but with the belt drive and hard materials comes inherent problems like belt stretch (Kevlar) and bearings which drives the price up. Another problem is gearing, you would have to gear down your steppers drives and use larger steppers using a planetary gear box would do the trick in order to get a quality machine that could 'push' through wood at speeds of 100ipm but the gear box can cost more then the stepper itself and last but not least on our Phlatprinter cutting style system we would have to coat the drive roller with a rubber to allow for materials such as wood to be carried. From my test with rubber rollers you get a lot of slip using only the pressure roller weight so you would need a clamping system to be able to sandwich the pressure rollers really tight against the material to keep it in place.

So in the over all picture it really is the cost that depends on making a quality wood/plastics cutter that can handle material this size and to save on that most people go with the acme threads to keep them from using gear boxes and gearing system and of course larger steppers.These types of machines take a lot of punishment and require parts that can handle it. Otherwise you are looking for many future problems where you may or may not have support for.

Let's not lose sight of how the idea of the Phlatprinter was born. To not have to manually cut our plans out. To be able to save our plans for changes and the ability to share/sell them with others in the hopes of pushing the RC hobby and other hobbies to reach their full potential. Not to mention the support that is here in my opinion unmatched for any other cnc machine on the market today thanks to you all.

So far with the Phlatprinter MKII I have been able to cut all types of foam, cardboard, poster paper, poster board, Balsa up to 1/4" and lite-plywood at 1/16" thick I am sure there will be more in the future as we continue to test them out. This is more than we could have asked for with this machine at its cost cutting material at this size.
This all being said I see no reason why you can't try to mod it up and slap a 100 dollar trim router on there to try and cut through some woods you may be able to do step cuts for thicker woods like they do with gantry machines using a good CAM system just don't expect the speeds cutting materials like wood without the upgrades I mentioned, mainly gearing for a machine that can cut this size material.

At this point Trish and I have no idea where this unique cutting method design of the Phlatprinter will take us. We do know we always want to make it the best it can be at a price that people can afford. We feel this new MKII design does just that thanks to all the help of you guys.
We always try to stay on the cutting edge and push our ideas to the max.
So where the future of this cnc project will take us, will be an adventure for us all
Mark

 

That is the type and size of rig I use for my 'Small Ply Parts' service and the PhlatScripT works great. I've tried holding tight tolerances on the pp but it just can't do what a machine can do that has the work clamped down. Plus with the correct bit and rpm the cutting speeds are way up.

 

Send me a pic, tbird!!!

 

Yea I would love to see a Picture also

Cheers
E-T

 

Added videos of the MKII cutting viewtopic.php?f=87&t=491&start=0
Also shows vtabs in action Vtabs you gotta love'em!

 

I have tried to see it putting in the vtabs and it so fast that you can't see it happen, I just keep saying the same thing when I see it in action Amazing

That is so true you know we have been thinking about that and we are not sure what to do yet! May have to use the 1/16" bit and cut out really small samples
We are clearing out one of the rooms in the house and setting up a mock booth so that we can get an idea of what we need and how we want to set it up.
This is all really exciting I wish I could have a live feed streaming here for you guys to all see what happening there I think it would be great and we would feel like we have you all with us. We could use ustream but the hard part is having the camera there connected to the web wireless.
Thank you all for your kind remarks
MnT

 

Man that thing rips! I understand how the speeds are achieved but it just amazes me every time I see the MKII in action using the stock electronics and realizing that with some well designed mods, both hardware and software, that I could have a super charged Phlatty.

 

Oh, no offensive taken...

I would say, as advice, comb the modifications here carefully and incorporate all you can when you build yours - namely not gluing the side pieces on (screw them on, instead). Since we've not seen what a retrofit kit will look like yet, no one can guess the BEST way to build an MK-I to incorporate a future retrofit kit.

But, without a doubt, DO build it! You will learn so much about how these machines work! It'll put you ahead of the game when the kit comes out. Plus, you'll get to cut some of your favorite planes out while you're waiting!

If there's anything you need along the way, just ask!