Well, the eagle has finally landed!!!

The attached pic shows the three boxes I rec'd late this afternoon from Brown Santa. I started culling through all of the pieces to create my major assembly "piles" (Y/Z Gantry, Lid, Stand, and Cabinet) and found this to be probably the most daunting task in this build.

Current status: I've separated the parts and confirmed that I have everything I need for all of the major assemblies. I would upload the photos, but I really don't want to risk having any (ahem) less than honest individual using that data to knock-off the PhlatBoyZ design. They've worked so hard on this and I'm not gonna take any chances that may endanger their future business.

I hafta say, if you like doing those 1,000 piece jigsaw puzzles on the ol' card table, you're gonna LOVE this build! LOL Like I said, though, I think that the only real cumbersome part of this build for most folks will be the all important first step of accurately identifying and sorting all the pieces into the sub-assemblies.

That all being said, I'm gonna post a quick pic I took of three boxes that are happy to be sitting in my dirty living room, and I'll let you just try to imagine all of the goodies inside until I can take the time to find an appropriate backdrop so I can snag some pics of all the pieces-parts.

Oh, and by the way, please don't expect me to knock out this build in like 4 hours like I did the MKI. I am expecting it's gonna take me 4 or 5 days!

Now it's time for this ol' man to get some sleep.... Attached files

 

For those of you that followed my build thread for the MKI machine over at RCGroups, you already know my writing and reviewing style. This review will be similar.

For you guys that have not seen that thread, let me lay the groundwork:

The PhlatBoyZ do an outstanding job of detailing the build process on their products. For that reason, I will not be telling you how I built this machine. I'll be snapping random pictures of my journey and posting them here for you to see, and hopefully these pics will serve to help answer any questions that subsequent MKII customers may have when building their machine. I'll also try to document any problems that I may have encountered, as well as any improvements that I have made (if I should find any) with my machine.

Unlike my first machine build (MKI), I'll be taking my time on this build, so it may take me several days to complete this project. I was in such a hurry with the first machine because it was my first CNC build and I was quite anxious to see it in action. Since I know all about what I can expect with this one, I don't feel the need to be in such a hurry.

Most of you guys know just how much I enjoy building. I have to say, when my MKI was completed I felt a little remiss. The build was so pleasant, entertaining, and interesting, when it was over I was kind of sad. Weird huh? Well, I'm gonna savor every bit of this build!!

What does this machine do when it's completed? The question should be What DOESN'T it do!

Like the PhlatPrinter MKI before it, this is a CNC machine that offers the owner the opportunity to most easily bring his or her creations to life with the aid of Computerized Numerical Control. This means that if you can think it up, render it in a 3D CAD program, then this machine will help you to create your dream-thingy without having to cut each and every piece out by hand.

The thing that separates this machine from the machine before it, is that it processes it's work with MORE POWER! My current MKI runs at 40 inches per minute on all three axis. I've seen the MKII prototype in Toledo process easily at 250 IPM! It has even been witnessed to run at over 600IPM, but at those speeds, your cut quality is seriously sacrificed. LOL It'll run at those speeds with accuracy, but you'll need to dress all of your pieces afterwards with some sandpaper to clean everything up. You'll have to decide where your time is best spent.

Well, you now know what to expect here, so let's get started...

 

My PhlatPrinter MKII came in 5 boxes total. I would expect that subsequent kits will come to their new homes in fewer boxes, as the contractor supplying the CNC-cut MDF parts will be able to obtain some bigger boxes to best accommodate all these parts. They shipped the MDF in three boxes - two large and one small. The PhlatBoyZ shipped all of the components in one nicely packaged box, and then the second from them came with the cooling fan (they needed to ship it separately since they were waiting for the fans to come in from their supplier so they could test them to be certain they would best fit our needs).

Like I mentioned earlier, the box containing the components was very well packaged. No damage was sustained and there were no missing components. Best of all, the small stuff (nuts, bolts, bearings, etc.) were all separated into bags unique to where they were to be used and were labeled (a bag for the Z assembly, one for the Y, and so forth). This has proven to make a world of difference! When working on a particular assembly, it's very nice to go to the corresponding parts bag (that's also labeled with a list of everything in it!) and find all of the necessary parts for that assembly. Thank you PhlatBoyZ!

Lots of other goodies are included in the components package. I couldn't resist taking out the RotoZip tool that's included just to feel it up. After using a Dremel on the MKI, and having used a Dremel for years before my experience withe CNC, this thing is just awesome! Yep, you guessed it - I did, indeed, plug it in to feel the power! LOL

A great tradition that Mark and Trish kept to with this machine is the all-video-instruction guide. No trying to figure out schematics and technical drawings with this machine. Just open up the DVD in your computer, launch Windows Media Player, and get at it!

...and that's just what I did - I got at it!

The first thing I did was to prepare all of the components as per the instructions - namely cleaning the rollers and building them. I won't include pictures of these since we all know what they look like. Something worth mentioning, though, is that the pressure roller design has been improved in two ways for this machine. Instead of having just two pressure rollers to hold the materials down and in contact with the drive roller and cutting deck, now there's three (1 larger one and now two smaller ones). The second improvement is the use of 1/4" collars to keep the roller centered on it's support shaft, and a collar and washer on each side to provide for a little extra roller stability on the ends of the support shaft (the washer contacts the side of the MDF lid to keep the rollers from skewing in the lid - even if you are cutting something that does not fully utilize this machine's 27 1/2" capable cutting width).

After the 3 pressure rollers and 1 drive roller were prepared, assembled, and wrapped with the non-skid tape, I proceeded on to, perhaps, the most daunting task with this build - organizing all of the MDF pieces from the three aforementioned boxes. My, there are lots of parts!

In the components box were two pieces of paper stapled together - the first is a personal message from the PhlatBoyZ, and the second is the all important parts list. You use this list to go through all of the parts and create your "piles" for the different steps of the build. When done, you will have four stacks of parts for the following pieces: Y/Z Gantry assemble, Lid, Cabinet, and finally, the Stand.

NOTE: I do NOT recommend embarking on this build without first separating all of the parts into the piles. You CAN, but it's gonna take significantly longer on your build because there a MANY parts.

Did I already tell you there were a bazillion parts? Well, there are! LOL

Onto the next step...

 

As mentioned before, the DVD provided is a step by step instructional that tells you everything you have to know about putting this beast together. I expect that many folks will have a DVD player that will work with this disk, but unfortunately mine did not work with it. I buy cheapy DVD players to save money for RC goodies! LOL I do, however, have a nice DVD optical drive in my Alienware gaming laptop, but there's just no way in the world I'm taking that machine to my workshop and subject it to that dusty environment. What to do, what to do...

Since the file containing the build info is a Windows Media File, all you need is a computer to play it on. Since I don't have a DVD drive on my shop machine, I had to come up with a way to get that large 4+ gb file onto the shop machine. I could have transferred it across my home network, but I though it would take just too long. Instead, I decided to move it to my external hard drive and then transfer it via USB. Nope - it no worky. I have my 250 gb XHD (external hard drive) formatted to FAT32 so that my Mac and PC's can share files with each other. The problem with FAT32 formatting is that hard drives formatted this way cannot accept files larger than 2gb. I ended up moving the data off that drive onto a smaller XHD and then reformatting the 250 gigger to the NTFS file structure. After doing that, I was able to move the file onto the XHD, and then move it on to the shop machine.

It dawned on me after doing all of this that I could have just transferred the file to the shop machine via my wireless network. LOL

How about that? You read this to learn about the MKII and you end up getting some computer technical advice as well as a little glimpse into the insanity that is my life.

Since the file supplied is one big honkin' file, it became obvious to me that I should make note of the timeline of some of the stages of the build so that if I needed to refer back to some previously viewed info, I would want to know exactly where that info is to avoiding searching through 9 hours, 38 minutes of data. Following are some highlights that may serve future builders (and I'll add more as I see fit):


00:00:00 Introduction
00:01:10 Mach3 SetUp and Motor Testing
00:08:38 Getting Familiar iwth Mach3
00:10:00 Testing Steppers and Driver Board
00:37:40 Mach3 Configuration
00:48:48 Component Preparation (Pressure Rollers Clean and Wrap)
01:08:04 Pressure Roller Final Assy
01:19:30 Drive Roller Assy
01:33:51 Y/Z Gantry Assy
04:05:18 Drawer for Stand Assy
04:12:00 Stand Assy
05:16:12 Cabinet Assy
08:30:15 Fence Assy


PRO TIP: Before calling a building session on account of sleep, bathroom break, honey-do's, etc, jot down the time of the file where you stopped so that you may more easily navigate back to that same part upon resuming your build.

 

Please bear with me through this. While I am a stickler for following instructions, I do tend to skip around a bit. Building for me is somewhat of a Zen-like experience, and I like to kind of go where the pieces take me. I may look at a particular build step and think "I'm just not feeling it tonight". I'll look over what I've got ahead of me and then see just exactly what calls out to me and once I'm feeling it, that's what I get started on. About 90% of the time, I don't start with what the instructions say to. That's just me...

After looking at the parts piles, I really intended to start on the cabinet first. It's just one of those "instant gratification" things. As I was walking over to retrieve those pieces and stage them in my main work area, the Y/Z Gantry called to me. It turns out that this is actually the first stage of the MDF parts build. Go figure.

The Y/Z for the MKI was actually a nice piece of work. Eventhough it utilized the little PVC pipes for the linear motion, it was a true case of simplistic form meets function. I remember when I finished it and took time to admire my work. It was hard to believe that MDF pieces made such a nifty and strong structure.

The MKII gantries are really a marvel of engineering. There are lots of pieces, but each and every piece serves a purpose and every part added builds more and more strength to the unit. Mark has thought of everything with this machine. There is a very effective baffle to shield dust from the belt assembly, a very smooth belt drive assembly, enough room to accommodate most any reasonably stepper motor available, smooth linear motion, and the coolest feature (in my opinion) - a spindle that allows for very easy bit changes without dismantling the machine just to get my big hands in there! The design of the Y/Z assembly is, without a doubt, pure genius!

After looking at all of the pieces, and having already reviewed the video portion for this assembly, I have to say that I was a bit intimidated, especially knowing that most all of this stuff goes together "wet", meaning that you don't have many stop points. Once you start, you're kind of committed until the process is complete.

I laid everything out, got my trusty bottle of TiteBond Premium, and set out. Marks explains everything so thoroughly on the video that I just followed along, grabbing pieces and gluing them in the order that he did on the video. In fact, I only had to pause the video a couple of times during the whole build. Before I knew it, I was rewarded with a finished Y/Z assembly that, even when still wet, is amazingly strong.

I'm happy to report that I only ran into one little snags that are worth mentioning.

1. In two places during this assembly sequence you will be instructed to glue into place the female belt-clamp pieces. Before doing this, I just happened to notice that the holes in those pieces (where the screw goes through both the male and female part through to the t-nut on the other side of the MDF plate) looked a little small for the stainless steel bolt that is used. Sure enough, when I checked the fit of the bolt I determined that it would not go through. No problem though. I grabbed my drill and a 5/32" bit and opened up the holes in both the male and female clamp pieces. I brought this to Mark's attention today and it was just a case of them forgetting to do this before shipping the parts. They'll be making sure that future components kits have the holes correctly opened up. However, if you should get a kit that has not been done, no worries, it takes only a few seconds to remedy the issue with the 5/32" bit.

2. There is a point where you will be instructed to add in the short precision rod with two washers, a collar, and the Z pulley in between the two assemblies of "sandwiched" parts #7 and #8 (one sandwiched pair on each side holding the bushing). In my case, the rod fit nicely in the support bushings on each side as well as the collar, but the shaft just would not slide right into the pulley. I tried soap and WD40 to lubricate it, but some manufacturing inconsistencies in the pulleys yielded mine just too tight of a fit. I ended up putting the pulley on a socket so that I could use my hammer to pound the shaft through. I would put the collar and washers on to gauge that I had this assembly centered on the rod. If it was not, then I'd take them back off and pound on the shaft again until I got everything centered up. When I got it right, I removed the two pairs of "sandwiched" #7 and #8 from the lower plate they were glued to, inserted the rod/pulley group in each bushing, and THEN glued it to the bottom support plate. All worked well. Since all of this stuff is built "wet" (with glue), I highly recommend that before starting this assembly you first make certain that you can slide in the Z Pulley rod into the pulley. If you cannot, then you can just press or pound the rod in like I did and adjust your build technique accordingly.

ANOTHER PRO TIP: I recommend rounding up all the parts while you watch this video segment the first time, then watch it a second time while building right along with Mark.

My Y/Z is complete but for the wiring of the motor to the terminal block and the Z wire to the terminal block. I didn't do this because I need to first pull up the Vexta spec sheet to determine the correct coil wires. That's right, I'm using the Vexta steppers obtained from MPJA on this machine. I expect them to perform very well in this application. For those of you that have already snagged up these motors, you'll be happy to know that the shafts are already keyed, so you don't need to worry about having to file a flat spot on each shaft to help the grub screw on the pulleys stay set.

The pictures below (in order of the assembly) were snagged every time I remembered "Hey, I should prolly take a picture now". Attached files onverted_files/7328=2172-IMGP0118.JPG">

 

Like I think I said earlier, I like to skip around when I build. LOL

Knowing that my building time was kind of limited since I figured I would try to get some work done while my kiddoes were down for a nap, I decided to knock out the lid for the MKII. That proved to be a good plan since the girls were only down for about an hour, and that's about how long it took me to complete this assembly.

Everything was quite straight forward and I didn't encounter any hiccups along the way on this. All the pieces fit perfectly and assembly was a breeze. I did, however, stray from the build sequence in one way. The video has you put on one of the final end pieces (Part #29, I think) which actually screws onto the two parts 28 on each side (the actual pressure roller supports). After briefly studying the assembly before me, I elected to save putting this piece on until AFTER I had already glued on the top piece (the one that says PhlatPriner MKII). To me, this made a nice and square assemble much easier to pull off without having to pry pieces that were already glued away from the pieces they had previously been glued to. After that top piece was glued in, I then fit on the final end pieces, flipped the whole lid up on end, and drilled the pilot holes and screwed the pieces down. Other than that, I built everything as per the instructions.

Here are some pics I snapped along the way... Attached files

 

I'm gonna apologize up front that I didn't snap many pics of the stand. The reason? Most of this build is a "wet" assembly which requires you to stay at it until it's done. Since I'm working with TiteBond Premium, if I take too much time in between steps I find that the parts I've glued are too difficult to pry apart for the various build steps and I find myself having to re-glue everything and it get's sloppy like that. For that reason, I chose to just forge on ahead and get everything done as quickly as possible.

Some things to mention...

1. Because most of the main assembly is done wet, you want to be certain to have all of your parts carefully laid out and any clean-up you may want to do with your supplied sanding block should be done ahead of time. I highly suggest that you carefully review the video while you're gathering your parts and dry-fit everything to make certain you fully understand how everything goes together. After you've done this and all of your parts are prepared, THEN rewind the video to the beginning of this Stand assembly and get started. Some of the parts are a little tricky to get properly seated!

2. Consider getting an extra set of hands to help you out. While the stand is wet, you'll find yourself having to flip it over and around. Due to it's largish size, you'll probably find it kind of awkward and find yourself having to re-glue and re-seat parts like I did! LOL

3. MOST IMPORTANT NOTE: In the build video (04:33:57),just before you glue the opposite side of the stand on, there is some caption text advising that you don't actually have to put the dust collection drawer in as Mark does and that the drawer is not permanent. It says that you can wait until later to insert it. With the parts for the drawer that I had, this is NOT the case! You can tell if your drawer is designed as permanent or removable by the height of the back wall of that drawer. If it is taller than the side walls like mine is, then you MUST insert it before gluing on the opposite side of the stand!!! If your drawer has the back wall the same height as the side walls, then you don't have to insert it first; you can wait until the stand is complete and just slide it in. I personally like the idea of the permanent and non-removable drawer like mine is. It's one more thing to deal with when you're trying to work all of those pieces in place when gluing the opposite side of the stand together, but I see no real reason why you'd ever have any reason to remove it completely. If you are reading this after you've already glued everything up and found that you cannot get your drawer in, no worries. Just get a straight edge and pencil in a line on the back wall of the drawer where you can cut it to be even with the side walls, and then cut through both layers of that back wall with your jigsaw. This would be easily done and then yield you a removable dust collection drawer that will go into the stand.

Other than the discrepancy with the drawer, my stand went together just as it was supposed to, albeit a very awkward assembly for a first-time builder.

EDIT - Per Mark, the drawer IS removable. There is just enough flex in the stand to allow you to remove the drawer by pulling it all the way out and then pulling up on the handle. I have since found that to be the case, so please disregard point #3 above.

I'm just including three pics here of the finished stand.

Note the third picture! LOL If you've been a listener of TheCrashCast, then you know that I'm planning to power this machine with a Dell Optiplex SX260 computer WITHOUT a mouse, keyboard, or monitor! I'll be using the PC from my MKI (or ANY PC in my house) to remotely connect to and control the MKII PC. This being the case, I'll be able to mount the computer directly to the MKII and wire everything so that the only connection the MKII will require is a plug into the wall outlet! When I power the machine up, the PC will boot and automatically connect to my wireless network. From any other PC, I'll be able to log into that computer via the wireless network and launch EMC or Mach3 (whichever I decide to use) and start cutting files. My PhlatCode can be transferred to the MKII via the wireless connection, or by plugging in one of my many USB flashdrives. Since I'm planning to use a Targus USB number pad as a Pendant to job the machine, that device also has two more USB ports on it so I will even be able to plug in the USB drive directly to the jog-pad without having to go around to the back of the machine to plug in the drive! Cool, eh?

Attached files

 

I started the cabinet build today, but had to break away so I could watch and see all of the cool table designs that were submitted for the MKII Table Contest.

Below you can see pictures of the progress that I've made thus far in building the I-Beam that ends up being the framework that the Y gantry slides back and forth on. This has been another easy build so far, but I did run into a little snag.

Remember how I told you back in the Y/Z Gantry post about how I was unable to get the short precision-ground rod to slide easily into the belt pulley? I ended up having to press that rod into the pulley and then take the two MDF pieces that supported that pulley assembly off the MDF base so that I could capture that rod between the MDF pieces and then re-glue everything.

Well, I ran into the same problem with the pulley that supports the Y belt, and I now have a very simple solution! On any of these pulleys, if you should happen to find that the short precision rod does not easily go into the pulley, DON'T FORCE IT! If you do, you'll gall the inside of the pulley and make things more difficult. Instead, do what I ended up doing. Chock up the rod into your drill and spin it while polishing the rod with sandpaper. I used 100 grit at first and then followed up with some finer 300 grit. Then remove the rod from the drill and insert it in again from the other side so that you can do the same to the other half of the rod. This took just enough off the rod's OD to allow it to easily slide into the pulley. Problem solved!

The rest of the cabinet build went off without any real hitch. Once I got to this point, I realized that all of the more cumbersome steps were behind me. The pictures below show where I am right now in this build - namely, EVERYTHING is done, but for the fences on the cutting surface and wiring up the electronics!

Some built-in things that have impressed me:

I elected NOT to use the terminal blocks that were included in my kit that are to serve as a bridge between the stepper motor wires and the supplied wire that goes to the CNC driver card. Instead, I will be using some small molex connectors like I have planned to use on my big steppers on the big machine I'm building. Since I knew I would be using these I just skipped over the part of the build where you install the terminal blocks. Well, at this level of completion, now it will be very difficult to wire the motors in ANY fashion. LOL No worries though. Due to the Phlat-Flip (where you can rotate the top cabinet back 180 degrees to the stand for full access to the bottom of the cabinet), I will be able to easily access the wiring to complete my build. Pure genius! This will also be super nice when you need to do any sort of maintenance to the bottom of the main cabinet.

There are two access holes in the back of the cabinet so that you have room to snake your hands in to easily reach the X stepper mounting screws as well as the cleaner brush that mounts below the X Drive Roller to keep the larger foam debris from accumulating on the roller. Best of all, these access holes have slide-in doors that, when positioned closed, keep foam debris from escaping the inside of the cabinet and polluting your workshop. This is a very nice addition!

The design of the cabinet allows for very easy installation and adjustment of the Y/Z Gantry, as well as easy Y belt attachment and adjustment. I was worried about there not being enough room to get the unit positioned in place and properly adjusted, but that proved to just not be the case. Yet another example of just how well thought-out this whole machine is.

Next up will be the final wiring of the machine as well as calibration. Stay tuned!




Attached files forum.com/PhlatforumVB/converted_files/7454=2210-IMGP0142.JPG">

 

I took the time this afternoon to go ahead and drive this project on home. I installed the Easy-CNC driver card and also took the opportunity to wire up the stepper motors.

You may recall me talking about the fact that I've decided against using the terminal blocks that were included with my kit. I have used these blocks successfully on my MKI, and there's absolutely nothing wrong with them. However, I decided that I would take the approach that I am taking with my larger overhead gantry machine, namely using a small molex connector in place of terminal blocks so that if I decide to remove anything, it means simply unplugging the molex plug rather than getting out the itty-bitty screwdriver and risking making a mistake when I hook things back up again later.

I got the plugs from Hubbard CNC, which is an eBay store that supplies lots of cool CNC parts for reasonable prices.

I also took a moment to pull out the old fine point sharpie and write down, directly on the cabinet, the color code I used for the wiring. This is something I've taken to doing since I'm finding the ol' noggin' is just not retaining info like it once did. LOL As well, I also wrote the color code down right on top of the driver card enclosure so that I would have it for future reference.

Now I didn't buy the complete package from Easy-CNC. I opted to source the parts individually so that I could try to save a little dough on this project. It worked out well and I ended up saving myself about $45 and got better components to boot! This means that I am using the Vexta motors from MPJA rather than the weaker used ones from Easy-CNC. Also, I'm not using that 31 volt power supply. Instead I opted to get a 24 volt PS from MPJA. Something to note here is that by stepping down in voltage on the PS, I had to remove the resistor that was placed in line by the PhlatBoyZ on the cooling fan. Since I'm running the recommended 24 volts for that fan, no resistor is needed.

I tested everything out and all worked fine when I finished up the electrical, so then it was time to calibrate this beast. I am happy to say that I found a nifty little trick when calibrating the Y axis. Using some blue painters tape, I actually taped my tape measure across the face of the machine about 3/8" below the opening that the clear plastic pointer protrudes from. Using my LED flashlight, I was able to position the light directly above the pointer, and a crisp shadow was cast down in that arrow's shape right to the tape measure making it very easy to take a measurement! I tried to see if I could snap a pic to demonstrate this, but naturally, it's just not possible. LOL

It took me about 20 minutes to get all three axis calibrated, and with that final task completed, all that was left to do was to start running the machine!

I pulled up my PhlatCode for the Mini Arrow (from LazerToyz) two out configuration. I've run so many of these planes that this file has become my benchmark file. I can tell really quick if there's anything wrong with the final product since I've looked at this sheet of parts sooooo many times!

A quick note - I elected to set my machine up with a limit of only 200 ipm on all three axis. I fully intend to crank it up later to see what all I can get out of it performance-wise, but for now, I just wanted to check things out and start the break-in process on the MKII.

With the Mini Arrow being my benchmark, I know all about the time it takes to cut the file. My original, unmodified MKI would process the full sheet (2 planes worth of parts) in about 34 minutes. After upgrading all three of the stock Easy-CNC motors to higher torque JVL motors, I was able to improve the cut time to 24 minutes.

I'm happy to report that the MKII process this file with no discrepancies in only 6:40! Incredible as far as I'm concerned. It worked first time perfectly!

Here are some pics of my molex plugs so you can see how they look. I'll also link in my video of the "maiden" as soon as YouTube finishes rendering the file.

Attached files

 

After running through a full bundle of FFF on this machine, I think I'm finally ready to pass final judgment on the Mighty MKII PhlatPrinter.

First off, a word on speeds:

I have set up my speeds in Mach3 at a max rate of 400 Inches Per Minute. However, I limit my machine feed rate to only 200 IPM. What I get is 200 IPM when the bit is "in the foam" (cutting), and rapids of 400 IPM when the machine is moving the bit in between cut zones. Setting things up this way means that I get some sweet cuts, but also get improved total processing times since I can traverse the gantries at 4 times the cut speed when moving the bit to the next cut zone.

Electrical Components:

I have to admit to being quite impressed with my Vexta stepper motors that I acquired through MPJA. I was concerned that a motor for less than $13 would fall into that "you get what you pay for" quality range. The truth is that these steppers perform really great and with much more authority than the stock Easy-CNC steppers. With other CNC projects lingering in the back of this old mind, I am thinking of snagging up a half-dozen more of these for future machine builds (a desktop CNC mill and a 4 axis CNC hotwire). As well, my $15 24 volt, 6.5 amp power supply is also performing well without any issues encountered to date.

The Machine :

What can I say? This machine is AWESOME! The build was certainly a bit more "in depth" than the MKI I built last year, but I still feel that it can easily be built by anyone with a modest degree of modeling aptitude. After having the honor of building the FIRST MKI PhlatPrinter, I later realized that I really missed the boat on all the potential upgrades that I could have incorporated had I waited on my build. I had that situation in mind when I built this machine. I studied every step very carefully and tried to find things that I felt could improve upon this machine. Well, I could not come up with ANYTHING that I could potentially do that could possibly make this machine any better than it already is! Even after having it for a few months, I am still in this position. This is a perfect machine!

Paint?

I have really been riding the fence on the idea of painting my MKII. Part of me really wants to throw down some red paint and black trim, but the other part of me say's "Don't mess with perfection, man!". MDF is a funny animal when it comes to paint, and I really don't want to risk ending up with a "blotchy-looking" job. I have tried, of all things, "staining" the MDF with black ink, and the results have been favorable. The cool thing about doing this is that if I gouge or scratch the machine, it doesn't show because the ink penetrates down a little into the fibers of the MDF. The only problem with this is that I'm kind of limited to only a few available colors. I am thinking that I may pay a visit to my previous employer and get some ink samples (for rotogravure printing presses) to try out on some more scraps. The cool thing about using ink is that you just rub on a small amount with a cloth and you're done. If you are relatively careful, you really don't even have to meter how much you apply, since it stays the same color intensity - the more you use simply means the deeper it goes into the fibers. If you apply a LOT, it does appear slightly darker than if you apply just a fractional amount, but to see that extreme range, you have to really exaggerate light and heavy.What I have found thus far is that you should apply enough to get good penetration into the fibers, but not so much that you swell the MDF with tons of moisture. If I decide ultimately to take the plunge with a coating of ink, I'll share the results...

Final Thoughts:

The PhlatPrinter MKII is a real performer. If you are looking to get your designs kitted out and into the hands of your customers in short order and don't want to pay some contract cutter to fulfill your product - GET A PHLATPRINTER MKII!

If you want the biggest and baddest PhlatPrinter to date, have a little extra money laying around to cover the difference of the MKI to MKII machine, or you're like me and want the fastest machine you can get your hands on - GET A PHLATPRINTER MKII!

Honestly though, if you are just looking to get your feet wet with CNC and want to get your airplane designs from concept to kit in short order, a PhlatPrinter MKI is probably going to be your best and most cost effective solution. However, if you can see that, down the line, you may want to sell your designs in kits form, I highly recommend this MKII machine. Not only does it do everything the MKI does, it does it bigger and faster, and really, at "commercial" speeds.

My hat is off to you, Mark and Trish. This machine is a real winner!!

 

Actually, it's not really that clean. Extra care was taken in shooting these pics to ensure that all the clutter was cleverly concealed. LOL

 

mike looks great bro !! good work. looks like your cruisin along. be cool if they sold instant set titebond, lols. keep up the good work, randy.

 

Mike that is looking great man! You are too kind with your comments
Thank you so much
This is going to be a lot of fun, following along with you guys as you build. Nice job Mike this build log alone will help others on their builds as well.
Keep up the great work and thank you again
Mark and Trish

 

I may hafta neglect this for a day, or two. I'm attending a movie premiere tonight. The first movie I got to be in hits the big screen tonight in Waco. I don't want to miss that! LOL Then, I will be doing the podcast recording tomorrow followed by a trip to the field to fly the Wings Across America plane.

I will be tinkering with stuff off and on this weekend, but I really expect to resume the build Monday.

 

Mike how was the premiere? Where you in there ?
Mark

 

The premiere was awesome. It actually began about 25 minutes last due to there still being a long line outside! We were all very pleased how it turned out and I am visible in several spots in it. Also, I got credited in two different spots in the end credits! The movie is classic "Zombie Cheese" but had alot of funny moments in it. It's certainly not to George Romero's level of quality, but I've seen MANY movies of this genre that were significantly worse. I think it will do pretty good in sales.

It was a fun and memorable experience that I'm sure to never forget! I'm hoping it comes out on DVD this Fall...

 

That's what its all about Mike
Glad to hear you guys had a good time, that is really cool
Mark
p.s. you know I'm getting that DVD

 

Mike this is too cool! Really nice job so far on the build. I am learning few things myself if I go to build another one! Thanks Mike this is going to be a great build log/review.
Mark

 

Hey, Foam! I know all about that GX270.My MKI is using the GX280 for it's front-end.

The SX260 has a really small footprint of 9.5 long x 9.75 tall x 3.375 wide.