Way Covers for the VMC - Part 2

[@craigperry5662]

Congrats, a lot of work and a lot of thought has gone into your set-up. My machine has 350mm of axis movement so I elected to have three slides of 200mm wide. That allows when all slides are closed up to a stack of about 220mm, with about 10mm overlap between slides and when fully extended about 580mm, again retaining the minimum overlap of 10mm. 580mm-220mm=360mm. With the outer two slides being fixed, one to the machine frame and the other to the saddle means that there is really only one 'floating' slide and I determined that I did not need scissors. I've been using them for a year. I've had one hiccup where a build up of swarf allowed one slide to separate from the slide below it, but other than that it's been working well.

[@tomthumb3085]

Attention to detail is as good as it gets. Brilliant job.

[@christianlewis7055]

That's awesome! Way covers, especially telescoping ones are such a grey spot in the DIY CNC world. Your videos, I'm sure, will become an asset to the community.

[@GeofDumas]

man that's going to look so cool when the covers are all done

[@barbeirorp]

Nice Job. I want to make for my robodrill news covers chip. Think in use a similar system Thanks for the sharing

[@mchiodox69]

That is going to be a beast when you are done! Awesome job.

[@Dunnsport]

Outstanding work! Well done! I feel exhausted just watching this.

[@jamwaffles]

Really professional looking job on the sheet metal, looks awesome!

[@MaxMakerChannel]

Very nice CNC! Could you not have placed the lead screws on the underside of the base?

[@centurialinc]

Good job Chris! looks fantastic! Keep it coming. Best Matt.

[@AmateurRedneckWorkshop]

Great build of the telescoping parts.

[@ChrisDePrisco]

Thanks!

[@matthewcolvin4815]

Chris, awesome work!!!

[@kkg9299]

AWESOME WORK MR CHRIS!!.,

[@ChrisDePrisco]

Thanks!

[@pearcemachineshop5200]

Leave as is it looks fine and you can see what's going on.

[@ChrisDePrisco]

Problem is that it takes up a lot more room this way and the enclosure would have to be quite large. I'd like it to take up as little room in the garage as possible.

[@Justamanonamission77]

Hey Chris! I watched this video several years ago and thought your way covers were brilliant! I attempted yo make a small version for my lathe, and I did cut a corner by using a scissor bathroom mirror for the stretch aspect. I'm now just trying once again to finish it and I'm just a but confused...where on the bottom of each plate did you mount each scissor and did you have to cut screws at different heights etc? I'd really like to see more up close if possible? I'd really appreciate it. Cheers and hope all I'd well!

[@kmpnelson]

keep it up, your doing some awesome work.. gives us all more inspiration in our projects!

[@alexscarbro796]

Impressive fabrication skills! How about using a sort of sprung loaded roller blind for the front cover instead? It would roll out and retract back as the plates move forward and back.

[@ChrisDePrisco]

I thought about that! Although now I don't recall why I thought I didn't want to go that way, lol.

[@drpipe]

What an amazing series of builds. I think I would like you mill in your garage let alone the one you built ! Great work look forward to new stuff. Tell me the linear guides so many years on how are they holding up and were they 25mm and balls crews 1605 type ?

[@robertkutz]

chris very nice work.

[@tailormachineworks281]

Chris I like it! ! ! The Y axis covers looks like it is working very nicely. I don’t think that the clear plastic looks bad either. Probably wouldn’t want to drop anything heavy on the plastic though.

[@guillermominardi1211]

buen trabajo ! Saludos desde Argentina.

[@neilbarnwell]

Super. I'd have used a retractable roller blind mechanism with some different material on it and called it done, but this is much more professional and elegant. :)

[@ray-charc3131]

it is a good tutorial to teach in the diy of overlapping type metallic shield! Q1, is there any method to prevent flood coolant that it may accompany with debris goes to leadscrew or way? Q2, Lexan(P.C) sheet is not cheaper than aluminum one, will it be better to use the latter one instead as overall looking and strength are better...

[@ChrisDePrisco]

1) The nylon strips should keep the vast majority of coolant and chips out but I'm sure some coolant will leak through; but that's fine. 2) Agreed. However this was free since it was off of old machines. It can't be recycled for money like metals and we don't want to just throw it away so it sits in a pile in case someone can use it for something. I'd argue that the Lexan is far stronger than aluminum. Aluminum tends to get dented and bent in the thickness I'm using; 0.125". Regardless, the Lexan will all be replaced soon enough. Glad you liked it!

[@ngwilkum]

I would have made a metal frame outa aluminum then attached the plexi to that, I can see some sag. Your an amazing machinist, keep the videos coming.

[@Italian-design-4.0]

Hello as always good work, I have the same spindle, 2.2 kw in water, for curiosity that parameters use as speed to mill aluminum? Sorry for my english .... i'm using a translator

[@ChrisDePrisco]

It will depend on how you are cutting; there's no one right answer. Last night I was using a single flute end mill at 19,500 RPM and 2,540mm/min. That was with a cut depth of only 3.17mm and a width of cut of 2.5mm. It will depend on how many flutes your end mill has, how deep and wide you are cutting, if you are using any end mill coatings and/or coolant and how rigid your machine and work piece are.

[@Italian-design-4.0]

Yes, it was just for the curiosity of that video ..... I did not think that kind of spindle could work so well the aluminum....thanks

[@Justamanonamission77]

Hey Chris! You do some amazing stuff! Im attempting my own way cover for my 3 in 1. Rather than make the scissors i am stealing an ikea telescoping mirror. I am curious...how did you figure out if yoir scissors would open further than the width of each cover? I can clarify if need be but im sure youll know what i mean.

[@andregross7420]

How long did it take to slot all those screw heads?

[@ChrisDePrisco]

Oh quite a while, I didn't stick around to keep track. :)

[@yamahaeleven]

For your CNC control, are you still using Tiny G? Many thanks! Very much like watching your CNC building videos, it looks like a very capable machine, far beyond most DIY efforts.

[@ChrisDePrisco]

I am not using the TinyG anymore. Now I'm using UCCNC software and the UC300ETH control board - along with the C62 breakout board for connections and some other neat functions like analog speed control for the spindle VFD. Thanks!

[@yamahaeleven]

Cool, haven't heard of them until now. Looks like they have a rich environment for macros. I'm working on an epoxy granite frame, and hoping to decide on a control by the time it's ready to cut chips. Thanks for the great videos on your build.

[@tomaszstaron1408]

Additional weight for this machine only ;)) Better do some additional whipers for the screws and ways ;) Building such a machine now - with Rexroth slides and Hiwin screws 700x700x600 and based on 400x400x8mm square tubbing, L shape. Seen that Fadal VMC10 has exacly the same construction that mine ;)) Hopefuly it will work till end of the year ;)

[@Panzax1]

Really impressed with the steel cover! Do you plan on making the other 3 covers slanted (like a roof) so that coolant and chips will run off more easily ?

[@ChrisDePrisco]

Thanks! I haven't quite decided yet. I probably won't just because I want to keep it as low profile as possible or else I have to raise the table height up. I also don't machine all day like a real machine would so I'd probably get by on a whole day's work before I had to blow the chips off, lol.

[@Panzax1]

Thanks for answering! You got a good point about the amount of machining and chips.

[@SmallShopConcepts]

awesome as usual! did you add a lip to keep any chips from being push against the X axis linear rails when the cover compresses towards the column? looked like that might be an issue?

[@ChrisDePrisco]

I have not, yet. I think the X axis covers will basically be the lip when they are done.

[@johngalt9262]

interesting. how hard is it to access the vise now?

[@ChrisDePrisco]

For the handle? I haven't noticed any problems so far.

[@nowayjerk8064]

out of the shower in to the fish tank , love it as always nice work

[@roadsidejobshop9287]

Nice project you got going here :). What kind of steppers or servos are you running? Whats your max rapid? Keep on working the machine :)

[@ChrisDePrisco]

The motors are Clearpath step and direction servos; they are controlled like a simple stepper but perform like a servo. Rapid is theoretically about 800 ipm but until I get the frame a bit more beefed up I'm running about 500 ipm.

[@roadsidejobshop9287]

Nice, I am planning on upgrading my system from steppers to the same step and direction servos. Thanks for the info!

[@tho1efx]

Hey Chris, I have a suggestion for you/your channel. First let me say I think what you are doing is absolutely amazing, it's a goal of mine to make machine tools some day and yours is quite impressive. Now to the suggestion, I and possibly others like me would be able to get more out of these build videos if they were a bit more information dense. eg. less music over time lapse and possibly more talk Maybe the information is not the the thing you are trying to get across with the videos or you still believe this is the best way. If so, let me say that I really appreciate you putting this out there and I wish you the best of a fortunes on your journeys.

[@ChrisDePrisco]

Thanks for the feedback and I'm glad you enjoy the videos! The main reason I don't go into more detail is that I'm generally not an expert in whatever it is that I'm doing and so I don't want to give specific instructions on how to do something. Rather, my intention is that people will see the videos and come up with their own ways of doing things, possibly (probably) even better than what I've done. The music is there just because the other choices are silence or the sound of work being done at 5x-30x speed which gets tiresome quite quickly.

[@TheLydras]

You have totally toooooooo much effort on this machine.. İ was watching it from the beggining, i thing i want to say that, are you drilling holes with drill? :(

[@ChrisDePrisco]

Well sure! I'm not about to take it all apart and put it back together to drill non-critical/cosmetic holes.

[@TheLydras]

you are totally in right way chris.. some of sicks are trying to make best for cosmetics. such as me :(

[@travispovey6225]

$600? I’m no accountant but with how long this took, didn’t you lose money by doing it yourself?

[@TheMetalButcher]

Wow. The idea of a machine that doesn't have to be cleaned every 5 seconds is a weird one.

[@hentaigod1963]

FIRST and i actually am

[@Bojangles1987]

I liked the music around 7 min mark great video def subscribe to your channel now