On 01/31/2011 12:08 PM, gene heskett wrote: > >> I was suggesting using your gantry as a planer head. >> > So would I, but first, because its alu, I have to ask: Is is alu for some > reason related to interaction with the bamboo?, or just for the expediency > of construction? > > I would, because the alu will eventually wear, consider overlaying the alu > with twin strips of steel, epoxied to the alu bed so that the vacuum slot > is not effected, but raised by the thickness of the steel strip. This > would, I think, give a longer wearing surface after the top of the strips > were ground dead flat to whatever sag may be in the carriage rods, using > the gentle touch of a drill doctor wheel to do the actual grinding. > > That would of course bring up the thermal effects on the flatness as it > would probably only be truly true to the carriage at only one temperature, > tending to warp up and down with the thermometer reading. I can think of > ways to control that, all of which are a bigger PIYA though. > > Grinding the alu to flat is not a workable idea because of alu's tendency > to plug up the grinding wheel, not even the drill doctor wheel would be > immune to that. Thought, flood the alu with k1, lots of it, recycling the > runoff, and still use the drill doctor diamond wheel, but turning slowly > enough so as not to throw the K1 all over. This should help prevent the > wheel from plugging up to a large extent by keeping its surface wet. Move > the carriage slowly, say 2-4 hours to make one pass, feed it a thou closer > and retrace, repeat till a clean cut is obtained. > > I have no idea how long an aquarium pump would last pumping k1, but that > should be an ample flow rate to keep the area flooded and clean. You > would, with the diamond wheel, be cutting an un-oxidized surface once the > initial cut has been made, or as least an only slightly oxidized surface > due to the oxygen reduction the film of k1 assures, making the wear of the > diamonds much less. > > Can you show us a piccy of this track from the end on view? With a tape > measure for scale? > There should be very little wear on the aluminum vacuum hold-down bed. It's overlayed with gasket material, and does nothing more than act as an accurate (hopefully, once all the draw filing and scraping is completed...) "clamp" to hold the bamboo in place. As long as I don't make a boo-boo in my G code, and saw through the strip into the bed, it really should never wear out. It don't move one iota. The gantry does all the moving. I'll take a few pics and post them hopefully by this evening so y'all can see what I'm doing.
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