The mill enclosure, take 2 (and old post mortem)
Ok, now for some lesson's learned...
Particle board, even when kept dry doesn't deal with vibration well (or much of anything else for that matter). For that reason (and some large radial cracking that occurred on the underside) the original enclosure was scrapped.
Here is a picture of the new enclosure:
The bottom is made from 2ftX4ftx 0.75inch plywood (good high plycount stuff) bolted to a smaller piece that fits in the stand.
The edges are 3.5inches tall on the three short sides and 6" tall on the back made out of a pine (which I don't remember) but it was for exterior trim if I recall.
The mill sits on a piece of scrap 3/4 inch plywood.
The PVC frame will have a shield hung from it made from ~clear vinyl carpet protectant (~1$/linear foot). I will add some pictures of this later.
The wood is sealed on the inside (not the outside as yet and it will be determined if I will do it by how much fluid I spill on it) using the "Epoxy" floor protectant like you would use for a garage. I would not use this again, as it doesn't cure very well when particularly thick... but it is much cheaper than a gallon of real epoxy (and looks better too). I ended up using 2 gallons of it, one to seal the wood, then some wood filler to add a slant to the drain so the fluid would drain nicely, and then a final coat of the floor protectant. I then put some gorilla glue over any cracks that formed and in the 4 corners where the PVC enclosure will rub as it will quickly wear through into the filler as the filler is not particularly rigid or strong.
There is a drain that drains straight into the coolant tub. This stainless steel drain was covered with the floor protectant to ensure that the fluid did not get around the drain into the wood or the filler. It doesn't look quite as nice as it did before I did that but hey, function before form.
The total cost of this enclosure will be higher than the other one but this enclosure will be much much more durable.
I hope others will tackle this, as it is an easy solution to a common problem of aluminum everywhere and coolant containment.
Particle board, even when kept dry doesn't deal with vibration well (or much of anything else for that matter). For that reason (and some large radial cracking that occurred on the underside) the original enclosure was scrapped.
Here is a picture of the new enclosure:
The bottom is made from 2ftX4ftx 0.75inch plywood (good high plycount stuff) bolted to a smaller piece that fits in the stand.
The edges are 3.5inches tall on the three short sides and 6" tall on the back made out of a pine (which I don't remember) but it was for exterior trim if I recall.
The mill sits on a piece of scrap 3/4 inch plywood.
The PVC frame will have a shield hung from it made from ~clear vinyl carpet protectant (~1$/linear foot). I will add some pictures of this later.
The wood is sealed on the inside (not the outside as yet and it will be determined if I will do it by how much fluid I spill on it) using the "Epoxy" floor protectant like you would use for a garage. I would not use this again, as it doesn't cure very well when particularly thick... but it is much cheaper than a gallon of real epoxy (and looks better too). I ended up using 2 gallons of it, one to seal the wood, then some wood filler to add a slant to the drain so the fluid would drain nicely, and then a final coat of the floor protectant. I then put some gorilla glue over any cracks that formed and in the 4 corners where the PVC enclosure will rub as it will quickly wear through into the filler as the filler is not particularly rigid or strong.
There is a drain that drains straight into the coolant tub. This stainless steel drain was covered with the floor protectant to ensure that the fluid did not get around the drain into the wood or the filler. It doesn't look quite as nice as it did before I did that but hey, function before form.
The total cost of this enclosure will be higher than the other one but this enclosure will be much much more durable.
I hope others will tackle this, as it is an easy solution to a common problem of aluminum everywhere and coolant containment.
posted by Greg at 5:52 PM
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