[mike2768]

Hi everyone I havent posted in a while. I've been working on a few things. First thing i started was a cnc plasma/router. Second thing working on becoming a new daddy again, it was a surprise but its cool. I need to get my machine done ASAP if you know what I mean. Heres a few pictures of where i am on my frist idem, You all know whats involved in the second idem lol :-). The piece of MDF you see holding the rails will be a 1/2" X 4" x 48" piece of aluminum. I was going to use either timing belt or roller chain, or maybe use ballscrews. I hope you like what I got so far. Let me know what you think.

[Dustin407]

Hey Mike,

Looks like your off to a good start nice rails and side plates you have there. As for a belt drive on a router table thats a big no no :nono: When the router bit bites into the wood it wants to go any direction but the way you want it too, just like a hurricane. The bit will grab the wood and stretch out the belt and you will get poor cut quality. You may be able to use a double or triple belt drive to avoid this stretch problem. Its not a problem with plasma because there is no cut force on the z head... I would recommend ballscrew or R&P....

[mike2768]

Thanks for the heads up regarding belt drive in a router setup. Thats what I was thinking also I figure belt wouldnt be good enough if set up as a router. I was more or less thinking that setup for the plasma only. I have a lot of parts to make now and the belt opions would be the less $$$$ to get this up and running. Thanks again for your thoughts.

[mike2768]

Wow only 1 reply, and over 200 plus views. I guess i'm doing a good job

[Boogiemanz1]

Hi Mike. all I know is what I have learned from the posts here. Most say that the ball screws are not fast enough to make changes of direction on thin material. Most of the builds for plasma use rack and pinion drive, and you can use a 3:1 belt reduction to aid in torque which enhances your acceleration.

I like your table, I wish I had gone with the 80/20 stuff instead of steel. You may want to check out www.precision plasma.com and Tulsa Turbo from this forum. A build by
Winegar is also a good read......good luck

[mike2768]

I have a little update, the machine has motion. Here's a little video of it moving around. Click link below. I ended up going with a roller chain, and you know it seems to work very well. Check it out.

YouTube - Broadcast Yourself.

[Boogiemanz1]

Mike, I can't see the video, but I would like to............jb

[mike2768]

That's weird, I just clicked on it and it went right to YouTube to the video. If you can't see it go to YouTube and do a search for mike2768

Mike

[Boogiemanz1]

Mike I found it with a search no problem...neat machine. What are you going to do with it?............jb

[mike2768]

Hi all, another update with the machine. I hooked the Lotos plasma cutter up today to see if there would be any issues with the high frequency, I had a little program cutting air and i was pushing the on/off torch switch. I did not see any issues with HF. The program kept running with no affects to be seen from the HF. I'm so happy i'm just waiting on a relay for torch on/off throught Mach and then let the cutting begin :-)

[chris.code]

My apologies if I am jumping in at the wrong spot, just joined this form and still not sure how to navigate. Seems that there is a wealth of knowledge on the board, I am looking for a CNC plasma table for our manufacturing class, any suggestions or comments would be appreciated. Thanks.

[mike2768]

Hi, it would depend on what the budget would be for a Cnc plasma cutter.

Mike

My apologies if I am jumping in at the wrong spot, just joined this form and still not sure how to navigate. Seems that there is a wealth of knowledge on the board, I am looking for a CNC plasma table for our manufacturing class, any suggestions or comments would be appreciated. Thanks.

[chris.code]

Hi Mike, I have looked at one from FastCut and another from Torchmate (now owned by Lincoln) we need one that is strudy, students are very hard on equipment. Unfortunately these will not come cheap, the biggest one that will fit in the shop would be 4x4. As for $$$ I will have to come up with a number and talk really nice to administration. Cheers, Chris

[mike2768]

Update: I have hooked up the relay for torch on/off and i have a video on youtube, do a search for mike2768 and check it out. it's just a short video of my machine cutting a small bracket. I'm very happy with the machine and how the roller chain works. I see no problem using roller chain, it seems good for what i can tell. Anyways check the video out.

[chris.code]

NICE, the cut quality looks good.

[dz1]

Heya Mike, looked up the youtube videos. great job on the plasma table! How did you hook up the relay to start the arc on the lotos?

Want to make a pantograph tracer setup with a foot pedal to start/stop it.

[mike2768]

I hooked the relay to the coolant input and edited my programs to start and stop the torch by including and coolant on and off command

[dz1]

what were the connections on the plasma cutter side of the equation? i have a lotos ltp500d with pilot arc. it says cnc ready, but I am not sure how to rig it up to an external relay or switch.

[mike2768]

The way I did it was, I just taped into the two wires that go to the trigger/on & off switch.

[dz1]

ok great thanks, I will see if I can find matching plugs to put inline so I dont have to cut anything