artyman

The lamp head assembly is now complete, tested and working... and yes, it is F*****g BRIGHT !!!, the pics don't really do it justice. pics show: polishing the heads of the LED mounting screws... I do like to pay attention to detail various stages in the wiring and assembly of the pods to the main body, and fitting the lens in place comparison of the lamp at low and full power - even at low power it overwhelms the desk lamp beside it (that has a 1W LED in it)

Parts are now primed and the 1st top coat applied. Now comes the tedious part.... waiting for paint to dry !!

After a short break for 2 days of solid recording, I can get back to this project... The final sculpting of the main body is now complete, with the end lugs rounded over, and all the edges softened with fine sandpaper. The lens locking ring is now done. Putting the curve on the inside edge was... interesting to say the least... I did this on a router table with a roundover bit fitted, and the off-cuts from the CNC process to hold the piece, and keep my fingers away from the bit !! All the pieces have had a smoothing rub with fine sandpaper, and a liberal coat of thinned down wood glue to seal the MDF prior to final sanding and painting.

Progress continues as I embed the wiring into the main body of the lamp, and make a start on the LED pods.

Cheers, Reboot !! :smile: Now the manufacturing starts.... I've sorted out the backlash on the new leadscrews of the CNC, now is the test to see just how accurate it is... CUTTING THE MAIN BODY First step was to cut the wiring channel with a 3mm endmill... looks good so far. For the rest of the cutting I changed to a new 6mm endmill mainly to reduce the number of passes needed for the rebates in the centre cutout. When it got to the outside profile, I saw the cutter came out of the material !!!!!! I had got my zero point in the wrong place!! On closer inspection, it was only about 0.5mm clear of the workpiece. That's not a critical edge, so I'll live with that. Photos show various stages in the process, and the final one with the lens test-fitted. The hole is the EXACT size and perfectly round!!! :smile: :smile: :smile: :smile: I've got the CNC set up right, and it was cutting at 8mm/sec. The whole process took about 2Hrs.

Finished the design work with the locking ring to hold the lens in place... added a 'lens' to the model for good measure, and given it a gloss black finish, which is how it will be painted.

Having been outfitting my spare room as a workshop (and somewhere to house my newly built CNC router), I found that my workbench area was lacking some decent lighting. I tried various desk lamps, but I could never seem to get them in the right position to avoid glare, or worse... shadows!! I'd recently bought a pair of 5W white LEDs and heatsinks... so I decided to put them to use. The Initial thought was just to mount those on their own as a new head to an anglepoise lamp, driven from a 12V supply through a PWM dimmer (the LED driver boards are designed for 12V), then casting an eye over my 'helping hands', I had the idea that a larger magnifier would be of some use. My shock at the price of a halfway decent magnifier lamp was the deciding factor towards incorporating one into my design, so a quick trawl on ebay brought forth a 4" 3x magnifying glass for £3. BARGAIN!! The glass was duly ordered and the lens removed for measuring accurately... and the design process began! The concept was simple.. the magnifier in the middle with an LED each side, then the thought struck... why not make the angle of the LED pods adjustable?? That way I could 'focus' the light at the piece I'm working on, and the different angles of the lights would eliminate shadows, or I could flatten the pods out and have a larger wash of light. Here's some pics of the design, and the LED itself, and it's output at minimum and maximum.

As I already know the machine performs well on wood, I decided to try the first test of the upgraded motors and leadscrews on aluminium!! At first I had both the spindle speed and the feedrate a bit too fast, and the bit wandered off course, prompting an Estop from me, but after slowing them both down somewhat, I tried again and got a nice clean, even slot cut!! :smile: :smile: I'm extremely pleased... the upgrades were worth the expense and effort. http://youtu.be/SZkmMECG09A

Sorry... pics weren't too good, and it's stuff I've already posted pics of... but here's the new video... http://youtu.be/_voFeCc2TbA

Couplers have now arrived, and the CNC is back in motion. Initial testing shows mixed results... X-axis (TR12x3 leadscrew) - marginal increase in speed. This was slightly disappointing, but investigation showed there is a slight wobble on the leadscrew which causes it to jam above 650mm/min. Y-axis (TR10x2 leadscrew) - 66% increase in speed. Much better, This axis now moves at 1000mm/min. attempts to get it faster gave the same result as with the X-axis, the screw would jam. Z-axis (original M6x1 leadscrew) - The only change on this axis was fitting the larger motor which originally drove the x-axis. Now the Z-axis moves 100% faster. Although the speed tests were not as good as hoped for, the increase in acceleration is much more pronounced. Both the X & Y axes now accelerate 5x faster than before, and the Z-axis is 10x faster. This results in near-instant motion at full speed, so that now it looks like a proper CNC motion. pics and video to follow

OK, slightly late addition to the upgrades... new leadscrews on the X and Y axes. These are now in place, with much more robust bearing supports. The gantry (my Y-axis) has a TR10x2 trapezoidal screw - 10mm dia. and 2mm pitch. The base (my X-axis) has a TR12x3. This should see a significant improvement in speed over the original M6x1 allthread screws. Still waiting on the new couplers before I can re-fit the motors.

I'd take that as a compliment Marxon... normal is far too boring !! :smile: :excl: :wink:

The rest of the upgrades have now finally started... beginning with the new drive mechanism for the X-axis, and the cable arrangement to stabilise the gantry and reduce the lateral play. The 2 cables are arranged so that when under tension, each one is trying to twist the gantry in opposite directions, so that in equilibrium, it is unable to twist either way, and any slack movement is eliminated.