CNC painted and working great

Notice  the title didn’t say completely finished since the last few steps are to improve the acme screw feed as well as add a water table, ventilation system and wire up a better connector for the torch control.  But the paint looks great and the electrical components in a box is great.    The part you see cut is intended to be the plate that is the interface between the boiler and the burner.  I call it the burn plate.  It will go into the opening in the boiler, the holes in the very bottom will allow a resistance heater to light the biomass either pellets or chips, the holes above are for draft.  The large hole in the top center is for the auger feed and the remaining holes are on the left, a fire detector sensor and a hole to be tapped for attaching the sensor. The two holes in the upper right are intended to be the swivel point and observation port to observe the flame.    I drew the part that you see pictured up in Google Sketch Up.   What really impressed me about Sheetcam is that the piece to swing and hide the flame in the observation port was made at the same time from the scrap that was cut out of the auger hole.  Sheetcam automatically figured out the hole in this swinging part should be cut as a hole with the offset of the kerf to be on the inside of the hole, then cut the remaining profile as a outside kerf, then cut the auger hole as an inside hole.  This was all done in the correct order automatically.  Cool!   Sheetcam is a great program.

Cnc with cut Burner plate

Cnc with cut Burner plate

Cnc with cut Burner plate

Cnc with cut Burner plate


Homebuilt Plasma cutter tested and functional

The plasma cutter is working in the CNC mode!  I have successfully cut parts that meet dimensions  and are usable.  I made the plates that mate with the casters for the bottom of the machine this morning.  I have them welded on and  working.  It was a treat bolting them together with no alignment issues without spending the time to make them on the Bridgeport.

The CNC is not finished,  I have to mount the cable tracks, as well as extend some of the stepper motor wires to allow the full movement of the machine.  Before I move on I want to put a coat of paint on the steel parts to make it look finished and professional.  But an important milestone has been reached.  This machine will allow me to make parts designed on the computer as well as improve the quality of the chip boiler parts significantly.  This week I intend to finish the CNC and rebuild the hoppers support wheels.   More pictures when I finish the CNC.

Cutting parts from scrap for testing