Not An Engineer

Progress Photo Dump

Added 2025-02-22 02:52:07 +0000 UTC

Hey everyone, thought I'd share the photos I've snapped of all the stuff that's been happening so far this year. Sorry for the quality, they're all just phone pictures.

If you're curious about any of the details, make sure to ask!

Captions that didn't fit:

Machine base:

New mill base, 75x75x3 SHS. This time with some actual thought behind it. Also pictured is my first attempt at bending up a stainless steel pan (don't look too closely.), and another wacky solution to when you need something to have wheels AND feet, without it's footprint becoming needlessly large.

The idea is to print some low infill cones that fit nicely under the adjustable feet, and fill them with concrete. That way the machine doesn't need to be lifted to install the wheels, without sacrificing ground clearance. (Who wants to see me ride this thing down the driveway?👺)

The machine in place! Thankfully the wheels didn't immediately fall off. Must have done something right.

Also, finally got a weight on the machine in its entirety - can't remember the exact number, but it was right around 480KG, which feels way too much like a challenge. Mind you, with the base it'll certainly top 500.

Steel rack:

Steel rack I threw together from scrap in yet another fit of frustration with the chaos at the back of the shed. I really love stuff on wheels.

I like the utility of this thing, but it's definitely not the most efficient use of space. Once again the bottle neck is time to design ideal solutions. Nothing more permanent than a temporary solution though, right Jack?

Control Wiring:

Closer to the final layout of the control cabinet. The idea of all the "redundant" terminals is to hopefully make future additions/reconfiguration simpler, but it's starting to sink in how many wires I have to terminate before this thing makes its first moves, and my "future proofing" only triples that.

Left side, top to bottom: Axis encoder inputs, general purpose inputs in orange, then PNP/NPN sensor breakouts at the bottom.

Right hand side at the top are the 6 outputs, then 5v,12v,24v power, fuses for each voltage supply, and axis drive signals at the bottom (ALM input in orange, Step/dir output in blue)