off to afganistan

[austin.mn]

Here is the machine i just built for my big brother. He is off to afganistan for a while and thought this would be a good time to learn all the ins and outs of Mach3 and using a hobby cnc in general. i spent about a month designing it, working on it in little spare time that i have. then i built it in a week. he bought a hobbycnc kit with the 200oz motors and is running a 24v power supply. he said that he has run it at over 100 ipm, which was what i was hoping for. the leadscrews are 1/2 in acme from enco, the linear bearings are thk sr20 from a packaging machine at the junk yard, the rest is 1/2" thick aluminum. it weighed in at 39 lbs with no motors. i am pretty happy with it, he is extatic, i think he was expecting me to build him something a little cheaper. he is going to mount a rigid trim router on it before he takes off so he can use 1/4 inch bits.

i can't wait to see how much he learns while he is gone.

[Regnar]

He will more than enough time to learn everything that he needs while he is over there. He might not have a whole lot of access to the internet so tell him to back up all the programs to cd or jump drive incase his computer crashes. But last I heard they have wireless internet hooked up now.

I also hope you know about care packages!!!

Nice looking machine! Is he going to try and bring it over with him?

[austin.mn]

yeah, its going into his foot locker, it would have gone over with the rest of his equiptment, but i took too long to build it. when dissassembled it breaks down to a pretty small package. the y and the z can be unbolted from one another, and laid down on the X. so the package can be as small as 24X9X8.

[Netjams]

You did a great job on that machine!

Tell him thanks for going there for me

[turmite]

You did a great job on that machine!

Tell him thanks for going there for me

Agreed on the job and another request for a thanks to your bro.

[Kipper]

What a nice little brother you are :tiphat: I'll pray for his safe return.

[austin.mn]

Thanks Guys! I will Pass on your comments.

[austin.mn]

I was able to talk with my brother the other day (using SKYPE). he has learned a bunch so far. he even sent me a few pics of some of the projects that he has done. as it turns out the spindle is really the weakest link on the machine. it seems that he can barely run this thing through plywood using an 1/8th inch straight cutter. which supprised me, i kinda thought that thing was pretty torquey for such a small spindle. so when he gets state side again i think he is going to pick up a trim router. the rigid at home depot is on the top of the list. if anyone has any suggestions as far as trim routers go let me know and i will pass on the info.

At the moment it sounds like he has a couple of hours a day with it, and loving every minute of it!

[jhowelb]

As a veteran who knows first hand how much appreciation for the service given means to a guy in uniform, let me have you forward to your brother the warmth and gratitude felt for him and brothers in arms by me and by so very many in my family and circle of friends. He (they) have our love and admiration and it will be demonstrated at every opportunity.

I will not allow the sort of treatment we received on returning and will not hesitate to let it be known.

If you can, cut and paste my message for him and all who are with him to see. And a special prayer of gratitude this Memorial Day for those who have made the ultimate sacrifice.

Thank you,
John Bradford U.S. Army 1960/1963

[sanjiv]

coul you please tell somthing more about your brother? what he is doing in Afganistan? He is on technical side or fighter side?

[austin.mn]

My brother is a helicopter electrician for the airforce. in desert storm he was a grunt with the marines. when he got back from that he reinlisted and retrained to do what he does now. after his time was up with the marines he joined the airforce reserves. from what i understand the, i don't know too much about it, but it sounds like the airforce has some pretty amazing technology when it comes to seeing in the dark. the way it sounded to me was that they could see just as good as during the day with the stuff that they have now. my brother is the guy that makes sure that all that stuff works like it is supposed to. for a reservist he does get deployed alot. it seems that every year at least once he is off to the mid east or elsewhere, sometimes he is gone on a couple of deployments in the same year. this time he is supposed to be gone for four months, however that could change.

thanks for your support, i will pass on the messages.

[austin.mn]

got a skype from my brother. he was trying to make some little plaques with a blackhawk helicopter on on it. so he needed some help creating a vector file he could work with. i put my wife on the project, all i could find was a crappy bitmap of it, but she is a graphic designer so she knows all the tricks. still took her a while to do it, but it took much less time than if i had to do it. i made this part as a test of it, and told my bro i would make a bunch of them for him and his buddies over there. i am also sending a bunch of wood off to him this week, all he has for wood is stuff he can break off of pallets. he also informed me that he has a PC router that he would like to mount onto his machine. so i will also be making a mount for that and sending it. i live in rural mn so i don't have much options for bits, but does anyone have a 1/4" shank 60 degree v-bit they would like to donate to him? it would be nice if he had some options as far as that goes. i will also be sending along quite a few other bits to him, but the 60 degree bit is the only one that i don't have an extra of.

if you do have one you would be willing to donate PM me, or if you have anything else you would like to send him.... they can always use cookies!