Sunday, October 27, 2013

Welcome to the Monkey Lab


I had a client request that I make an aluminum panel for mounting an LCD monitor and touchscreen for his research group. He supplied the monitor, touchscreen, a light, and a drink dispenser. Hmmm- sounds interesting. Who would be using the touch screen? Monkeys of course. Wow...
Here is how I did it: To begin with, I found spec sheets for the monitor and touch screen online.


I used FreeCAD to make a 3D model of the components and an assembly.
Then I used HeeksCNC to create CNC code for milling out the panel.

Milling the whole thing on my Bridgeport CNC was a challenge. My Y axis travel was barely 10.75" and the cutout for the monitor/touchscreen was 10.3" alone. This meant that I needed to slide the ram that the milling head attaches to back and forth in Y to get the full range. To do that, I had to pick up on a known edge, with my edge finder, several times. That was a bit of a trick, but I got it to work.
Here is a picture of the finished assembly:
My client was very happy with the panel. Maybe I will make another and install it in my kitchen...