Ben_Mtl 2014... skis and CNC

[knightsofnii]

dammit, all i can see is a bunch of huge minus signs!!!!

[ben_mtl]

dammit, all i can see is a bunch of huge minus signs!!!!

I just updated the links to the pictures.. I've been making some cleanup/classification on my Picasa albums lately so some links in my posts might be broken.. the pics in that post should work now !

[knightsofnii]

dust collection: adjust your bit so that your dust collection brush is in contact with the workpiece surface.
you could also tape some cardboard around the dust shoe down a couple inches? i might try that.

[ben_mtl]

Since those pictures / reports I upgraded my dust collector to a 2.5 HP.. what a difference ! The brush was already always sitting lower than the material surface + the brush strip is doubled around the DC hose on the dust shoe, no problem with that anymore, all the dust and chips are collected (well... 95% I would say !)
PU chips tend to stick to the brush material but I live with that, very fine dust is taken care of by a workshop air cleaner hanging from the ceiling. + I wear a mask with organic+dust cartridges for good measure when operating the CNC (I'm still anxious with the smell of the PU rubber when machined...)

If I get some time I'll post some other pics from this year's (very limited) production..
Ben

[knightsofnii]

very nice, i'll have some more pix very soon as well.
I've cut some cores to my liking, just cut a mold and it wasnt the best but i think it's how i tiled the parts.

I have a whole new board shape dropping momentarily so I'll have a lot of eyecandy and some sweet graphics .

[serchman]

hi,

i've been following this posts for a while, and what looks amazing for me (a part from your great job), is the CNC machine you have.
did you build it yourself? or was it following some other existing design? i would appreciate a lot a bit of help on this.

thank you

[ben_mtl]

I've built it myself, design was somehow inspired from another CNC from CNCZone (Platform CNC, IIRC..) I designed all parts myself according to my needs, had them fabricated locally, and assembled this amazing adult LEGO

[chrismp]

Looking at the pictures of your CNC again I just noticed the feet under the bed in the middle of the long axis. I guess that means that you do not have a connection between the side pieces of the gantry underneath the bed to stiffen the gantry (unlike the platform cnc). Does that cause any problems with the stiffness of the machine?

[ben_mtl]

That's correct there is no connection between the 2 sides of the gantry under the table... but it's not needed since I use 2 steppers on the X axis.
Actually the fact that there is some torsional flex for the gantry is OK because I can then check/ adjust how X and Y are perpendicular every time I reference all home. Any adjustment can be fine tuned directly in Mach 3.

[will.l13]

Bonjour Ben, je suis un étudiant en génie mécanique au cégep de Sherbrooke. Nous avons le mandat de créer une fraiseuse CNC pour des skis tout comme la tienne. Donc, je voulais savoir si c'est possible de communiquer avec toi.

[ben_mtl]

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