Tales of a modern life: workshop vacuum cleaner attachment for CNC

2012-11-13

workshop vacuum cleaner attachment for CNC - v1.6

I still did not find the time to test the Sailfish firmware for the Thing-O-Matic by Jetty.
Simply because I have to assemble the Interface Kit first and that requires a ton of soldering.

So here I am with the original firmware and all the issues I've come to known, printing my latest version of the workshop vacuum clean attachment.
The last version I tested was V1.3 and I found a number of mistakes in my meassurements.
So I made a number of changes:
The top half is still split into 2 parts, small enough to fit into the tiny Thing-O-Matic build volume.
Left and right half are however now not (only) glued together but also attached using 2 M3 grub screws and have a more complex divider that aligns and interlocks them.
Additional camfers and roundings make the part stronger at little expense in terms of plastic.
I did not change the lower half yet but instead want to fit the upper half first.
Only if it fits well will I 3d print the lower half.
By then I may have found a source for bristles to attach to help in getting all that suction down to the milled part and brush over the blank to dislodge more shavings to be sucked off.

Update: V1.5 of top-left is a bit thin walled and the overhang is quite steep. I should design an easier to print V1.6 .
Update 2: printed. LOTS of issues with the MK6 extruder on the Thing-O-Matic. As usual serveral hours of very careful hand holding was required to keep the filament pressure and still there are major defects.