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Wednesday - Saturday


Today I worked on in metal shop getting everything ready to weld. This is a critical and time consuming
process because I need to ensure that the frame is square and straight. This involves a lot of machine
work on top of welding. I am getting it done though the X axis frame is coming along well, and I think that
I should be ready to weld by around Saturday.


Today I worked on finishing up the limit switch wires in the morning and started getting the computer
system set up. I spent the afternoon machining my steel to length in the metal shop. I should be able to
weld the top rails by tomorrow, and then I can machine them and weld them up to my other bars. Also
the surface plate should be here tomorrow.


The surface plate came today, and I welded the top rails, hopefully will be able to clean up the welds,
and then start drilling the parts. It is gonna take some machining to make sure everything is square and
flat. This is critical as to make sure that the rails are parallel, because if they aren't they wont run
properly.  The surface plate is cool though I have its rating and deviation. Its very flat, I have it's deviation
in nanometers. I was very hard to get in the shop though enlisting the help of a dolly, and 4 people to lift it
up to the table.
Today I did set up the fly cutter and started to clean up my rails. I am doing this to have a reference to
make sure that the welds are done square. I am planning on tack welding it on the surface plate. The fly
cutter worked really well, and the part is very flat. I will have more fly cutter work to do but hopefully I
can get everything drilled by around Monday.

This week I spent a lot of time in the metal shop working on the frame. It was a little slower going than I
thought it was going to be, but it was really productive I think that the machining has been going along
really well, and I am able to hold less than 3 thousandths of an inch across the rails, which is good
considering they are 31.5 inches long. Everything is getting to be really straight and square I should be
able to weld the rails up sometime soon. The next step is drilling and tapping, which will take a while,
but everything is coming out really good, and the machining is square and flat.

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Monday and Tuesday

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