Hi John,
Thanks for sharing, keep us posted with your progress. This is on my todo list for my 770 and would be grateful if you shared your sketches, as a starting point...... as I hate reinventing the wheel
Cheers,
.adrian
The one design feature I dislike about my Tormach 770 is the shape of the trip tray. Fellow owners will know that coolant pools on the tray without fully draining away. Well it does on mine! It is also awkward removing chips from around the base of the mill.
After watching Keens excellent videos on the building of his design enclosure, I
noticed his chip tray and decided to come up with something similar.
Using 4mm ply I made a template that fits over the existing tray without any disassembly. After working out the dimensions, a sketch drawn. I will be off to the local fabricators to get this folded up in stainless sheet. I will post a photo when it is done.
Many thanks Cliff for inspiring me.
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Hi John,
Thanks for sharing, keep us posted with your progress. This is on my todo list for my 770 and would be grateful if you shared your sketches, as a starting point...... as I hate reinventing the wheel
Cheers,
.adrian
Hi Adrian here is one of my sketches. ( On my machine the left hand chip tray is 20mm longer.) I think it is best to use these dimensions as a guide as each machine could vary in size.
My template is a tight fit and could not be any bigger. The 30mm length fold is to add rigidity also to increase the angle of slope. Once in position I may slide some edging trim to either side to reduce any gaps. After it is made I will decide which trim to go for. This is very much work in progress. I will lay some rubber strip in the chip tray for the fold to sit on.
John.
Thanks John,
Yes agree, machines will likely be a little different but will use it for the foundation.
Thanks again, and look forward to seeing how the stainless ones look.
Cheers,
.adrian
why not just fibergalss over top of the form you have there? Seems like you've done all the hard work already.
I know what you mean about the puddling of the coolant. Another problem that I found out about a little to late was that on the left side tray where the electrical conduit hangs down and sits on the tray itself, when the table is moving around running your tool paths, that conduit together with the metal chips we're making serves as a scraping medium that scrapes the paint off of the Tray in this area. This means that this area of the tray is easily susceptible to rusting.
My solution was to line my trays with PVC sheeting. It's easily cut to shape and when laid in the tray just right the coolant drains out consistently. Since the PVC sheeting is loose-laid in the tray, it makes for easy cleaning after the milling is done. Lifting the sheeting out of the trays ensures that any remaining coolant is further drained away into your coolant system's holding tank. The vast majority of my metal shavings are just shaken out into my waste basket, the remainder is hosed off outside the shop for minimal mess.
An even better sheeting would be 1/8" rubber sheet. That too is easily cut to shape but a bit more expensive. I got my PVC sheeting at my local home depot. It's actually made for shower and tub lining and sold by the running foot. I love tinkering around with my 770 projects but I hate the clean up afterward. The PVC liner mitigates a lot of the clean up time. My sheeting remedy isn't as nice looking as your solution but is serves the same purpose. It could be just as easily used on an 1100 mill as well.
Good job on that tray you came up with. I like the look of it. It's more professional looking than my cheap PVC fix.
MetalShavings
I am now getting the chip trays folded up and should be ready in a few weeks time.
For any one on a budget, rubber sheet as suggested by MetalShavings would work well, particularly if it was laid over or glued to wood similar to what I have made. ( I attached the 3 pieces together by drilling adjacent holes and wire looping them together with glue in the join.) I like also the PVC option that can be removed to clear remaining coolant and chips
. I am hoping that the stainless sheet will look the best also drain better and last as long as the machine..
I suppose laying over fibre glass over the wood would also drain coolant better than the standard tray.
John.
Nice idea. I'd like to see something that would keep the chips in the pan though, and not wash down under the machine on the way to the coolant tank. That's where I had problems, and I was always in the back of the machine, cleaning that trough out. I ended up installing two flat pieces of sheet metal that ran all the way over the mounting nuts on the base. That kept the chips up top where they were easier to clean once they drained.
My first attempt at using a chip tray liner was with a piece of upholstery vinyl. (I'm an Auto Upholster by trade so I had it laying around) It worked fine for a while until the coolant started effecting it by making it start to curl up and shrink. Anyway, I mention it because on that initial attempt I stitched some vinyl screening in the areas where the chips were washed under the mill during normal drainage. There was screen on the two sides and on the front drainage area and it did exactly what you've described.
When I switched to the PVC liner I had run out of screen so I didn't put any on. I still get some chips that get stuck under the mill but I do have a screen just ahead of my holding tank to keep those chips from clogging up the works. It's not a very elegant or esthetically pleasing as the OP's design but it keeps things flowing without any backups.
MetalShavings
I have now picked up from the fabricators my new Cliff inspired folded stainless chip trays. They fitted straight in with out alteration. I am pleased with how they turned out.
After it is in place there is a gap of about 10mm front and back, also after it is slid up under the 770 tray return, a similar gap at the lower end. I intend to buy some plastic edging for the sides that can be slid on when in position to reduce this gap. I may try fitting magnets on the inside of the top fold to hold in place against the Tormach Tray ends.
These trays in my case would not fit if made any larger.
Eagle eyed amongst you, would have spotted that I had left a dimension off my sketch . The length of each fold at the bottom I made to be 260mm.
An update on my new improved Chip trays for my 770.
I have fitted some Rubber Door rim which measures 15x6.5mm. This was prised on the front and back edges, when the trays were in situ. This rubber fits perfectly and prevents the chip trays from any movement. I also fitted a large exposed fin car boot rubber seal (35mm wide ) to the bottom ends to close up the gap and to help prevent chips from migrating under the new trays.
The rubber was bought on ebay.
I chose stainless steel because I think it looks better and for longer. It would have been cheaper in alloy. I would may be go a little thicker if made in Alloy.
Nice work John thanks for sharing.
Cheers,
Adrian