My full enclosure

[zephyr9900]

TT350's enclosure inspired me to build my own so I'll say a few things about mine.

The height of the enclosure is really the driving dimension. TT350 made his 4 feet tall (the full width of the plywood he used) and it looks like he set his M998 toolchange position such that the top of the spindle enclosure door clears the bottom of his top perimeter frame.

I built my enclosure using a single 5x10 foot piece of Alumalite signmaking material. This is 6mm-thick corrugated plastic with thin pre-painted aluminum skins on each face. I don't have a tablesaw, so I had the sign supplies place cut the panel for me. They sliced it in half first, so my enclosure panels are about 30" tall. I dimensioned my enclosure frame so that the panels are flush with the bottom edge of the inside flange of the Tormach chip pan, and it works out that the top of my frame is 30" above the top lip of the chip pan.

The spindle enclosure door swings wide, and that presented a problem. Before I built the enclosure, I had M998 set at 3" below the top Z limit switch. In order to clear my enclosure, I had to raise M998 to be just 1/4" below the limit. Based on where the coolant and chips do and do not fly, if I were to do it over again I'd lower the enclosure height by the 3" so I wouldn't need to reach so far up to change tools...

Another aspect of the enclosure is that the front of the Tormach vise extends past the front edge of the chip pan at Y+ limit. When I ref the machine I need to remember to keep the door open (just forgot that one time, maybe I need an interlock switch?) but in actual machining, the vise clears the closed door when the spindle is just behind the fixed jaw so there is really no problem there. And the full machine travel is available when I have a workpiece bolted to the table (that doesn't overhang the table).

I used 1/4" acrylic sheet for my door, and perused the selection of replacement closet door wheels at the "big box store" to find a set that had the right offset to reasonably hang the door. I cut a double closet door track in half with a sheet-metal snip, and the doorstop is just a little chunk of acetal screwed inside the track.

The main power switch guard is a toilet flange (purchased new ) and rubber coupling.

My enclosure frame is possibly overkill. It is 2x2x1/8" aluminum angle. The lower perimeter frame is bolted to the upper perimeter of the chip pan. As I mentioned before, the panels extend below the chip pan flange so I didn't need to seal the frame to the pan. 1-1/2" angle might have sufficed but was not a whole lot cheaper than the 2". If it were not for the need to periodically disassemble the enclosure for maintenance, I would probably have pop-riveted it together. I assembled it with 10-32 flush-head machine screws from the inside.

That's all I can think of for now. I'll be happy to provide more details and answer any questions that come up. I love the enclosure! It doesn't really seem any noisier than the stock Tormach backsplash--the plastic-core panels must do a reasonable job of damping vibrations. And I'm using the stock backsplash panels on my lathe for now...

Randy

[zephyr9900]

No additional verbage.

Randy

[R.DesJardin]

That is absolutely awesome. Now I've got to do one. Does it clear the 4th axis drive motor? That's what bothers me now is having to take off the table coolant guard when I mount my 4th. The work station is really handy looking too. Top notch.

[justgary]

R.DesJardin -

I don't remove the table splash guard when I mount the 4th axis. I do have to remove the two left side screws (because I have yet not re-slotted the slots to let the guard move out 1/4" or so). I clamp the guard down with the feet of the 4th axis clamps so it does not move.

When I have the 4th axis mounted (and usually a Kurt D688 vise mounted as well), I just put the plexiglas screen diagonally across the table (from the far right corner of the guard to the near left corner), and let it ride up over the vise or 4th axis motor. Nothing drips off of the front of the vise, so it works for me.

It works well enough that I have not taken the time to modify anything. I have both the vise and the 4th axis removed right now, so I may do something before I mount them again.

I suggested to Tormach that they slot the guards so that they can move out a little, but I don't think that they care enough to mod their production. They figure you won't want to use coolant with your 4th axis, but I do anyway.

Of course, Randy is in another (upper) league with his enclosure...

Regards,

- Just Gary

[shneek]

Great Job!!!!. That's really cool.

[zephyr9900]

R.DesJardin and shneek, thank you for your praise. I've made a new (still plywood) housing for the workstation (I like that term, R.) now that the design has settled down, and will post a pic when I swap it in. It's actually painted, too! Well, the parts that show, at least...

I don't have a rotary axis (I must be the odd one out on that point) so thanks for answering R.DesJardin's question, Just Gary. It saved him a lot of postage mailing his rotary axis to me for evaluation and clearance checking.

Randy

[justgary]

Randy -

I think that to be safe, R.DesJardin should go ahead and send his 4th axis to you for a fit check. It's only about 90 pounds, so UPS will take it with an overweight charge. It can't be much, and I'm sure you'll hurry with it and have it back to him in under a year.

I'm probably the odd man out on using the rotary table with the guard still on. I have gotten used to it that way, and since I'm really pretty lazy I'm sure I'll keep it that way for a while. It looks goofy with the clear guard just flopped up there, but it seems to work.

Keep up the good work, Randy. You have already posted a hefty handful of great ideas, and several of them are on my back burners to do. If I only had more time... Maybe I should rent you for a week to come and fix up my machine (of course, you'll have the decency to clean my shop while you're at it, right?).

Regards,

- Just Gary

[PoppaBear10]

Wow!!!!

You definanatly have a future in the "Mobile" home structure design biz!!
Super nice Job!!

scott

[justgary]

Randy

In fact, I don't see why you couldn't sell upper enclosure kits that fit over the Tormach stand. Doing the math and the cutting and then putting everything in a kit could certainly push some people into "pimping" their mills.

I'm starting to wonder if an enclosure wouldn't help my fight against rust. It would keep the dew out (yes, on cold mornings, I have water condensing on my machine) as well as the sound. I have not done it yet, but I plan to put a 20W light bulb inside the main (front) tool cabinet to help keep everything dry. Tormach thoughtfully left a little hole in the wall for me to do that. If I had an enclosure, I'd also put a 40W bulb somewhere inside it near the machine (probably behind the spindle in the little opening). As summer comes, rust control will be get very important to me...

Regards,

- Just Gary

[R.DesJardin]

If not a kit, just pimp the plans and or a parts list. I doubt you could make a living off them but hey maybe milkshake money......
and no I can't part with my 4th, it's a vital part of my manufacturing. But I will have to redrill the coolant guard for now, "maybe when I grow up I can get a full enclosure?"

[zephyr9900]

You definanatly have a future in the "Mobile" home structure design biz!!

Thank you kindly, Scott. When I designed my patio roof structure I did calculations for shear and uplift for (if I remember right) "100-year" winds. When the building inspector came over for its final inspection he said that if there was ever a tornado here, he was going to come over and strap himself to it.

In fact, I don't see why you couldn't sell upper enclosure kits that fit over the Tormach stand.

Somebody couldn't afford it--either the buyer or I. There are $407 of materials (plus the cost of the toilet flange and coupler--I can't find the receipt right now) in the enclosure. Even assuming I could buy enough to get a 40% discount that would be about $250 before I touched a tool to anything. The Tormach drip pans are neither square nor even (on mine the front-to-back varies 1/2" between the left and right sides) nor is the top of the flange level. I hand-fit all the pieces.

I could see shrinking the length and width by an inch so that the enclosure bottom frame be pre-assembled and then set over the drip pans and mounting holes drilled--but that has to be done precisely because there is no room inside the rolled flange for even a socket--I machined an "anti-rotation" block out of a chunk of aluminum to restrain the nut while I screwed the bolt from above. I would reverse the top angles so that the flange was outwards, because I had to saw most of it away to clear the electronics cabinet (something I had not thought about up front...) I'd wrap the cost of a miter cold-saw into the project because it would not be cost-effective to machine all the angle ends on the Tormach like I did.

And then there's the cost of crating and shipping the kits.

If I was going to give myself minimum wage for the work I'd be doing, and given the setup times for the various operations to batch-produce the pieces (countersinking 112 holes per frame etc.) I wouldn't see selling the kit for less than $350 plus the cost of packaging and shipping.

I'd want about 50 orders up front with deposits. For now, I hope I've documented it well enough for people to use as a basis for their own enclosures.

Randy

[zephyr9900]

(yes, on cold mornings, I have water condensing on my machine)

Thank goodness that's not something I need to contend with where I live. But I've designed instruments to work in a coldroom, and we did pretty much the same thing as you're talking about with the light bulbs--kept the stepper motors powered up full-time etc. to generate some heat to help prevent condensation.

Even in the benign conditions of inland California I've been using Boeshield T-9 on unprotected ferrous surfaces, and it seems to do a good job.

Randy