The last (possibly if no one else procrastinated as much as me) MKII is alive and moving under its own power. I was doing some air cuts with it last night. I need to go through the calibration and then a few mods.

Vacuum http://www.phlatforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=136&t=1396, quick bit change http://www.phlatforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=136&t=1564, and weighted roller http://www.phlatforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=136&t=1286 are the ones I am planning. I also need to do some motor tuning.

Tim

 

Congrats Tim, to be honest I wouldnt change a thing, The MKII has been a flawless machine and I almost prefer the undermount gantry !! looking forward to your projects on your NEW machine!! Thanks for sharing!!

John

 

Thanks John. When you look at it, I'm really not changing it much. There really doesn't seem to be much to mod on the MKII. The vacuum mod is to keep the dust down since my Phlatprinter is in my basement office. My MKI left a lot of blue dust in there.

I think the bit change mod will come last. If it's not that tough to change the bit I may not do it. I just like the idea of being to able to put the y/z gantry in a certain location and be able to push a button to change the bit.

The one other thing I was thinking about was the high intensity LED on the z gantry by the bit, but I was also thinking of embedding an LED in the pointer to make the edges glow instead. We'll see. I want to get it up and running first. I have a couple of things to cut that I promised to a friend.

Tim

 

Sound great Tim, I did a vac mod on mine but it got tangled with the flex shaft and stopped the rotation of the bit, so just make sure you have good clearance! I like the vac mod you have the attached link to above, I may have to try this one because the dust does pose a problem. I did a blower tube at the top of the lid with a bunch of perforated holes to help contain the dust in the drawer and also to keep larger pieces from jumping on top of the foam and causing divits! Please post pics but definitely get your machine cutting and inspiration will flow from there!! I just cut 30 kits on mine and they look flawless!
I forgot to mention that I did a pressure roller mod to mine a couple weeks ago and need to post pics, I am using a soft rubber so it grips well and doesnt leave marks on the foam, it works perfect with no slippage!!
Thanks
John

Here is a pic of the blow tube , the holes you see on top are covered with tape I had to redrill the other side to get the spacing right!! Attached files

 

Here is the front pressure roller mod, I also did the main pressure roller over the x axis drive roller! I added steel BB's to get the weight I needed!!

Attached files

 

John,
I like the inner tube on the rollers. It looks really good. What is the reason for leaving the grip tape on the main pressure roller? I've thought about changing to some other surface on the pressure rollers to minimize the pits due to the grip tape too.

I notice that you changed to bearings on the rollers too. Do you have a source for them?

Did you do the BBs in all three rollers or just the main roller?

Thanks,
Tim

 

HI Tim, I actually changed the 3rd roller to the same configuration as the others but I havent taken a pic of it yet!! Also I used 2lb of bb's in the front rollers and 4lb of bb's in the main pressure roller that rides over the x axis drive roller! I will list a source of exactly what I used with part #s but I have to do it a little later for you!!

Thanks
John

 

John, that roller mod looks really professional. I hope you do up a mod thread on it, as I would be interested in the details. Like, for example, did you need a lathe to do the ends? And how you secured that inner tube.

-Kwok

 

Thanks Kwok , ask and you shall receive I just finished a quick Thread on it!!
viewtopic.php?f=136&p=25769#p25769
It was a nice and easy, even a cave Man can do it , Install!! No special equiptment required except for a tubing cutter!!! Hope this helps!!

John

 

My pleasure Mark, It is amazing how nice the sheets of depron come out , almost as if I cut them on an overhead table system, loven my MKII!!!

John

 

Well, I cut out the back table for the MKII tonight. It didn't turn out too well. At first, I thought that the X stepper had skipped some steps, but after some further testing, it appears that it may actually just be the foam sliding on the roller due to it catching on the back edge of the cabinet. I am going to test that out tomorrow night (I was told that I needed to stop tonight) by holding the foam up so that it cannot slip. Hopefully that will solve the issue and the tables will solve the problem permanently. On the bright side, it cut at 50ipm initial cut speed which is 2.5 times faster than my MKI ever thought of being.

I double checked the calibrations and they are all within the tolerance of what I can measure so that should not be the problem. If anyone has any thoughts, please let me know.

Thanks,
Tim