This is a little “artsy” Photoshop work. These are the steel corner angles I made for the HB2 project. For a little extra finesse, I rounded the corners and they are in their final paint color.

The color I have chosen is “John Deer Yellow”. I like that shade as it seems to have some “character” rather than bright or lemon yellow.

The background in this assembled graphic is actually an extremely out of focus shot of these same components. That way I would be sure to have a color that was compatible but not exactly the same for use as the background.

Now you know the color I have selected for HB2. Yellow is a popular tool color these days and I just HAD to be different than other versions of this machine.

There is of course more pictures and information published in the THMShop website.

“Hey Dan! Ya got yer arm in the way!”

Yep, I guess I do. There are better pictures in the THMS web story.

I have also opened one of the linear rail/bearing packages and taken a closer look before drilling the holes. All is well and construction is proceeding.

It is another one of those 100+ degree Texas weekends. The coolness of last weekend is gone.

Frankly Scarlet, I like doing this so much I don’t give a um… hoot. Turn up the fans another notch!

Parts is Parts

Great weekend weather so there was some comfort working in the metal shop. Progress is being made on HB2! The picture shows a few of the components made today.

The linear rails are not here yet so that is holding me up a bit on painting the steel rails but there is plenty of other things to do. The rails are drilled except for the rail mounting holes. I feel certain the templates are fine as the rails are the same brand as recomended.

The X3 mill is coming in handy making the large holes. There are other ways suggested to make the holes but a boring head is the best.

There is a LOT of holes to drill. Anyone contemplating the full build, The templates are a MUST. Direct layout from the plans would be a killer for me. The money spent is well worth the time saved and accuracy created.

Something dawned on me whilst whittling away the hours this week end. This process of building the machine from raw stock is not the process to follow if the goal is to only save money on the purchase of a CNC router. I am doing this because I love to build machines. I am doing MACHINE SHOP work here, not CNC router work.

This is very much like my Ham Radio hobby. A few hams still like to build their radio equipment. Others buy their radios from the store and just like to operate. Others build what they can and buy what they can’t. In the end it doesn’t matter. We just do what light’s our fire!