Originally Posted by
GTFreeFlyer
I saw a few people mention in other threads that they found they had drilled a few set screw holes on the wrong side of the parts. I thought, "How could they have interpreted the drawing wrong?" The views are standard 3rd angle projection. Anyway, I found tonight that I had also drilled a few on the wrong side, lol!
After reviewing the drawing, I guess I am to blame, but the views are very confusing. Take part 16 for example:
The view on the bottom calls out the two 10-32 threaded holes, but fails to mention "Opposite Side" as you would normally see. Yes, the holes are shown in hidden line font, so I guess you can say the drawing is correct, but after doing CAD drawings for a living for the past 6 years, I don't think I've ever seen a dimension pointing to a hidden feature (I don't think it is standard practice), unless it is specifically called out as "opposite side" or something like that. I guess if I really paid attention and compared it to the top view, I would have caught this, but I assumed to put the hole into the face where the leader line is pointing. I'm pretty sure this is where others got confused too. Bob, I know you read these messages. Perhaps incorporate this into your next list of fixes just to prevent confusion (even though the drawing is correct as is). That's just my suggestion to your already awesome plans. The same goes for the two counterbored holes in this part. I almost put the counterbore into the wrong side. Pointing to the hidden feature without specifying "opposite side" occurs on several parts.
Other than that, everything is going smoothly. I am enjoying my new drill press and getting lots of use out of it. It's amazing to see/feel the difference between a $2 drill bit and a similar $25 bit. Worth every penny, but I'll go broke fast if I keep buying the good bits even though I don't really need them for the soft 6061.
I'm match drilling as many of the components as I can to ensure proper hardware alignment later on. Going deeper into the aluminum is easy, just requires more cutting fluid and clearing out the chips more frequently.
I also found it to be much quicker to set up my vice under the drill press so that (for example) I can put a hole right on the centerline of the .75sq parts, and then drill all the centerline holes for all the .75sq parts first, and then coming back and drilling off of the centerline (such as in parts 16, 22, 23, etc). Setting up your piece under the drill press takes the most time (at least it does for me since I try to be a perfectionist), so reducing the amount of set ups really does save a lot of time. Try to group parts with similar features together, especially parts that have holes the same distance from a given edge, that way you can pop the part in the vice and you'll know that you'll always drill the same distance from the edge.
I still have a long way to go...
I need to start thinking about electronics soon. I haven't chosen my system yet. My budget for the electronics is $500-$600. I prefer quality over cheap Chinese items. I prefer a plug and play system, but don't mind wiring and soldering if I have to (I'm pretty good at that stuff). At the moment I have my eyes set on the Gecko 4 axis package (with 3 steppers). I want something that fits and is concealed in the Momus designed base. Will this work? A 4 axis driver would be cool in case I decided to experiment with another stepper in the future. What other suggestions do you all have for me?
Thanks!