[repauli1]

Great forum! My first post....

Hello all, I have started my home made 2x4 CNC Plasma table project. I have been reading the heck out of all the builds here and elsewhere. For my table I went with Weldtutor style X and Y supports, but I used 2" tube for rails on X and 1" tubes on Y. Used eighth inch wall tubing, checked for trueness before cutting.

I used 2x4x1/8 for table frame, and as main support for Gantry.

I am using doubled up skate bearings from VBX, and for control I purchased Probotix 400"/400"/280" steppers, 10 amp 40vdc power supply, and their PBX-2RF breakout, and unipolar steppers.

I am planning on belt driven X and Y axis, and ball thread Z.

I will post a few pics, I have frame done, ang gantry rolling smooth. Need to start on X rails next.

Any comments suggestions welcome... Ohhh little bio on me...

Ex Navy Welder, ex fitter, programmer, pc builder, now own a DDC building automation business, so fab and electronics are in my blood.

I will say I like to engineer on the fly, I envision what end result will be, and design on the go. I will draw it out on paper, but cad it as an as-built.

Will upload pics ASAP

[repauli1]

Well I am using Forum Runner, on an iPhone and cannot get photos to upload. Error says redirected too many times. Anyone know what causes that error?

[repauli1]

Having trouble uploading pics from iPhone, any suggestions? Using Forum Runner app

[repauli1]

Pics

[repauli1]

More pics

[repauli1]

More pics

[repauli1]

Question for all, now is my chance to lighten the gantry, what are the benefits other than motor size? Remember my gantry is only 34" wide, weighs approx 40 lbs without rails, and z axis and two motors. Will less weight result in smoother reverse directions?

[repauli1]

Electronics

[repauli1]

Another pic

[repauli1]

I ended up installing a second motor on +X axis to prevent slight wobble on direction change.
Water tray being built tomorrow, and slats. About 2 k invested total. Painted with truck bed liner

[repauli1]

First cut

[repauli1]

[repauli1]

Some pics of water pan, and torch mount.

[repauli1]

Before cleanup

[repauli1]

Cutting this tonight!!

[LeeWay]

That is a nice build. I do want to add a couple small water tables to mine as well. I have been using it a couple weeks now and it is as everyone said, messy as hell. Even though mine is in an open ended carport, the black and white soot just drifts everywhere. Water will help with that a lot.
I notice that you and I both have the same Z axis. Those are very nice well made items. Easy to install as well. Another thing you did that I want to do is install a shield for the torch handle. That should be easy enough to do.
Keep up the thread and show us what you are doing with it.

[repauli1]

Thanks, the heat shield for torch is actually a support to help keep it level, but the side benefit is what you said, a shield against water & heat!
It takes a while to get use to using MACH3, but starting to get the hang of it. Most of my cuts will be letters, so I have to learn how to do all that weld & trim stuff with fonts so I can "stencil" them.

[LeeWay]

Lettering can certainly be a challenge. CAD handles letters and fonts much differently than typical Graphics programs. I think I would stick with Corel Draw for doing that, rather than CAD. I do use CAD for my lettering on parts though. Just a simple block line letter font. One pass on a V bit and done. Not very elaborate, but easy and effective. That font is called GDT.SHX. I have to explode it and that makes it polylines rather than text.

What do you use to draw in?

[repauli1]

Use A9cad. Also Visio

[repauli1]