Building a CNC in Las Colinas » Angle Iron

Post About Actual Progress

briandm81 — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 04:40:05 +0000

I think we are finally done posting catch-up information. We actually made real progress on the mill this evening. We attached the angle-iron to the 80/20 for the X-Axis, drilled and tapped the HDPE for the Z-Axis, attached the angle-iron to the HDPE for the Z-Axis, attached the motor/flange mounts on the slave side of the Y-Axis, and managed to thread the carbon steel rod through the slave side of the Y-Axis as well.

Photos from last Thursday

wjconrad — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 07:39:42 +0000

As promised, here’s the photos from last Thursday. I was waiting for a day when we didn’t do anything on the mill so I’d have new content to post. Our buddy Justin is one hell of a photographer and these photos are GORGEOUS. (And you can hire him for parties and weddings!) Apparently, color balance and a good camera with a great photographer does make a huge difference.

He even made our drill press look great. I’m not exactly sure why it “pops” off the page, but that’s an amazing effect and hopefully he will share his secrets.

Here’s a nice shot of us. Brian’s pulling off some of the angle iron that wound itself on the drill press while I hold the iron steady. I’d like to apologize for my totally out of control beard and hair. I needed a haircut at that point last week, but at this point I look like some sort of crazed Groundskeeper Willy.

This is a nice action shot of Brian using the wire brush attachment to “sand” the angle iron before we painted it.

Anyway, these photos are pretty big and there’s a lot of them so I am just going to link the gallery.

Painting and Fitting the Angle Iron

wjconrad — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 04:32:20 +0000

Well, we now have all the angle iron fully painted with two coats of Rust-Oleum “Hammered Copper” which looks really great.

Here’s some pictures from Brian’s paint room. (Yeah, he’s got a paint room. Impressed yet?)

We were really pleased at how this turned out, though we tried like 8 difrent colors at Home Depot before we settled on this. If didn’t know better I’d swear the angle iron was copper not steel.

We went ahead and fitted some of the angle iron to the 80/20 extustions tonight and the results are pretty impressive.

We’re currently seeking opinions on what color of paint we should use on the MDF. If you’ve got any ideas, please let us know.

Preview: Angle Iron

briandm81 — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 06:15:58 +0000

Normally I would reserve categories on this blog to major portions of the mill, but in the case of angle iron, I have made an exception. This is mostly because of the amount of work and tools required that go into getting this prepared and professional looking. While we wait for our photographer to process his photos (I hope you are reading this Justin!), I have a few pictures that Wayne took of a dry-fit of a piece of angle iron and a shot of the drill press. So until tomorrow or sometime later this weekend, this will have to do. Once we have the pictures ready, I will update with the tools used and a bit more about the process used to prepare and finish off the angle iron.