Now that I’ve started milling items that require enhanced precision, I need a better way of setting things up. I’ve learned that having the machines to build things are worthless if you can’t measure and execute accurately. Lately I’ve been flycutting and I suspected that my mill was out of tram. That basically means that the spindle isn’t exactly perpendicular to the bed. That causes areas that should be flat to be angled and also any downward operations to be crooked. Now realize that this isn’t something that you can readily see. We are talking about .005 to .05 inches off of being straight. Previously I had used a large square to square up the column. Now I have a better method. Below is the Nano-Tram by Accudyne Corp. It is comprised of a a large steel upside down U plate and an aluminum plate that goes in the spindle. You lower the mill and measure the distance between the two plates. When its even, you are “trammed”. Below is a picture of the setup.
Today I finished laser etching the tombstone for Juanita’s grave. Previously I had used granite countertop material. The countertop had marbling which turned out to be problematic. While I was able to overcome some of the issues with paint, it just wasn’t good enough for this purpose. Today I used a 12×12 black piece of granite from HomeDepot. I set the intensity to +10% and let it rip. The results are fantastic. See the image below.
I’ve struggled for a while with a good solution to mount the electronics on my prusa. I’ve printed two enclosures and I didn’t really like either. My new approach is to mount it to the back of the prusa. More details and rational to come … Here is a preview …
I’ve wanted to print one of these for a while, but just never got around to it. On Thursday I decided I would finally do it. It wasn’t until today that I got it done. The calibration and tuning required for these parts was much more extensive than anticipated. Here are the results.
And here are the parts that went into it.
