Black Friday Computer Upgrade

I had an EXCELLENT Black Friday. I didn't want to distract myself for the last few weeks of school, so I shipped my amazing find home instead. In the end my Black Friday deal turned out to be a great "survived" the semester gift. This became one of my few impulse buys. I saw the deal on Newegg and couldn't resist. Who wouldn't want three monitors?

 They work great for CAD. Those wide format assemblies like my long board can be put 1:1 on the screens.

Ok... I'll admit they are somewhat ridiculous, but they finally gave me my "Command Center". I had been running two monitors for a few years before getting these new monitors. I found I have trouble using a computer with fewer than 2 monitors. I usually put whatever program I'm using on my main screen and something I need to use often on the other. When designing stuff I put my CAD on one display and the file browser on the other. I never have to minimize the CAD in order to open new files. With the three monitors I use the center and right monitors as I always have. The new left monitor gets used for "research". Research is usually Google for whatever information I might need for designs or homework.

Now I just need to figure out how to fit the monitors and my rather large speakers on my small desk at school... I'll probably have to hang a bit over onto my roommate's desk. Hopefully there won't be too many complaints =D

Long Board Deck

After a long Friday with the CNC router I finally added the clear plastic deck to the chassis of the board. I hadn't worked with a CNC router before this, so it was an interesting experience. The setup was fairly different from what I do for milling. The 12"x40" sheet of polycarbonate was held on one edge by wood clamps, while the other was held down by a 2x4 screwed directly into the router's table. The setup took a few hours, but the cutting out of the board only took a few minutes. Hopefully I'll be a bit quicker with the next part I do on the router. Now I just need to finish the under glow and the board will be complete!

This was right after the cutout finished. The circle in the bottom of the board was a test cut. The default feed rates were a bit too quick on the machine. Although it cut out the circle just fine, the noise made by the router attracted a lot of attention. The high speed motion also risked the machine losing its position. Drilling the holes took forever because the router's spindle did not want to go below 6000RPM. At this speed the drill bit created a bunch of "stringies" as I call them. I had to pause the machine between every hole in order to remove them from the drill bit. Otherwise they would have melted large areas around the later holes in the deck.

I temporarily added some paper between the rails and the board in order to prevent scratches. I'll remove these once I get a clear protective film for the board. Until then the board will be covered in blue tape! The blue tape is kind of ugly, so I won't post a picture of it.

Long Board Mishap

I was bouncing on the board a bit..... I thought the 3/4" plywood would have been a bit stronger, but I guess I have a reason to finish the polycarbonate deck now.

Long Board Improvements

I decided it was time to add a few new features to the long board. I Threw on some EL wire for under glow. It isn't very bright, but it can be seen at night. I also had access to a CNC vinyl cutter. I stuck my test piece to the bottom of the board. The yellow looks kind of weird, but it's still better than the bland plywood.

Tape always seems to make a good kludge.

Long Board Upgrade Parts

As it turns out, the polycarbonate side plates were not as strong as I had hoped. I hadn't realized this until now, but polycarbonate develops micro cracks that spread under small amounts of stress. Every machined surface has micro cracks, so a number of the parts showed signs of cracks developing around the bolt holds. In order to prevent me eating the ground again I decided to suck it up and machine the plates from aluminum as I had originally planned to do.

 As you can see I attempted to use my material as efficiently as possible, so I crammed the parts into the smallest piece of 1/4" aluminum plate I could. The 1/8" mill bit took as long as I expected it to take. It was around 2 hours a part... Painfully slow as usual in aluminum...

Long Board Finished... not really...

I couldn't wait to get the board into a usable state, So I hacked together a wooden board from 3/4" plywood. I threw on some old skateboard trucks at first in order to see if the shape was what I wanted. I finished the remaining parts for the trucks. All of the pieces came together nicely and looked really clean.

Sadly I couldn't decide how to make the rubber bushings cleanly... As with all of my kludges I turned to my favorite tool in the shop: the 3 TON ARBOR PRESS!!!!!!!!
I had a 1/4" thick sheet of rubber, but I needed to cut somewhat clean circles out of it. I figured scissors couldn't do the job, so I looked around for somewhat sharp tubing. I couldn't find any so I turned to the next best thing... socket sets. The socket heads were round on the bottom so they can't cut you. Normally I wouldn't expect them to cut through a sheet of rubber, but 3 tons is enough force to cut nearly anything. The socket sets cut the rubber like it was butter.
The rubber was too soft.......
I succumbed to speed wobble and became a road pizza..... (there's no need for a picture of my leg... I'm pretty sure I'll have a large scar to remember the test of this long board.) I added more rubber to make the trucks tighter, but they're still alot looser than I hoped they would be. I guess I'll just have to learn how to ride better.

Long Board Progress

After a week of spare time I popped out a few parts. I avoided using the CNC as much as possible because it removes material so slowly. None of the parts were particularly difficult to machine. All of the setups could be done in a vice and they had fairly sloppy tolerances... although I did aim to get them as tight as possible for the fun of it.

 I also started to polish the parts. This is the first time i had a polishing wheel, so I got a bit carried away and started to polish everything. I still need to improve my technique. Machined surfaces polished easily, but the machining marks still remained. Surfaces left unmachined look alot better, but they aren't perfect mirrors.

 I got lazy and decided to make the side plates from polycarbonate. I can cut it at more than 10 times the rate of aluminum and I don't have to baby the machine as much. It should be strong enough and it looks aesthetically pleasing, so it's a win - win situation!

The spherical bearings worked perfectly and aligned up as I hoped they would. The bearing seats were a bit tighter than I hoped they would be. It's not a problem as long as I don't need to replace them. The trucks have really started to take shape, but the whole board is still a long way from being completed.