[JPMach]

And so starts yet another build log.
Will be a 5x10 with linear rails, ac servos, water table, and attached rotary axis large enough for about 16" dia pipe or sqr or rect tubing. Got a lot of ideas for it from several builds here, can't remember all the names but Dnelso and magma joe are 2 that I can remember.

I went with 8x3 x 3/16 tubing for the sides as I wanted a deep water table and it works out easy to build the tray and have plenty of room for rails, racks etc on the sides. Water tray will be full 8" deep, probably have the slots about 1/2" below the top. That way I can upgrade down the road to oxy fuel or high amp plasma without changing anything. Water tank is about 320 gal, have a local fab shop bending that and a few other pieces up for me, should have sometime next week.

This showed up yesterday

[JPMach]

Tonight's progress on the table. Mostly all tacked up, have to get a new setup in the lathe tomorrow and then I should be able to weld er up while thats running.

[JPMach]

Little bit more done today. The pieces of tube sticking out the side are what the long tube for the rotary pipe support will be welded to. Also since the table top is about 38" high these will also have tray bolted to them for a platform to stand on to get parts off the table a bit easier.

Weld some plates on for the feet and I can think about flipping it over to figure out a few more things like the tool box mount and elec cabinet

[JPMach]

Got a little bit more done this weekend. Tomorrow I have to take a break and get some parts finished and out of the shop.

Got it flipped over, toolbox mounted, electrical cabinet skeleton in (could probably hold up a small family of elephants but hey, it adds rigidity to the whole thing too), rotary support guide on and shelf for rotary on.

Can also see I laid the gantry channel on top about where it will be left to right. It should have about 9-10" of clearance under it when done


The shelf for the rotary;
If anything its a bit low, but I can always make a riser, harder to make shorteners.


I'll have to spend some time cleaning up a few welds to make them pretty for paint later. Next will be to finish the arm for the control console, and then hopefully the linear rails will be here this week. Should also be getting the tank and table pieces from the fab shop sometime this week as well.

[JPMach]

Rail just showed up!
4 pcs of 30mm rail and 2 short pcs of 20mm rail plus trucks and scraper kits

[PlasmaGuy]

JP,

I'm enjoying your build.

Where will the four 30mm rails go. I'm used to seeing one 30mm rail/ X-axis side?
Guessing you traded with my friends in Salisbury, NC for your HIWIN material

Looking forward to more photos!

Tom

[JPMach]

2 are for the long axis (Y axis) on the sides of the 8x3" tubing, 2 are for the top of the gantry channel for the X axis. The short 20mm ones are for the Z which I will build very similar to the velox style but with more like 10" of travel. Yep rail came from overstock.

Hopefully will have some time later this week to measure and get a bunch of sheet for the sides and electrical cabinet, should be getting a call that the tank and table steel is bent pretty soon now, then lots of welding again.

[JPMach]

Finished up a drawer slide out for the plasma and got one linear rail mounted today. My arm is tired from hand drilling all those damn holes...
Built some spacer jigs to space the rail roughly down from the top of the tube and then shimmed down to a taught stringline. Probably not accurate enough to mill aerospace stuff on but more than accurate enough for a plasma with automatic torch height control. Once I get the other side mounted I may bolt some plates to the trucks and see how much width variation I have. If it's small then I can beef the sides of the gantry up a little bit, if larger than the sides of gantry will need to be able to flex a little bit to allow it.

Also can see the control console arm, still needs trimming for ht but I have to figure out the console yet too. I may try to make some delrin washers for the pivot with setscrews to apply a bit of tension so the arm takes a little bit of force to move, rather than moves out of the way when you push a button.

[JPMach]

Got the other linear rail on this morning, lifted the table up, took it outside and turned around so the water tank can be slid in and test fit etc. Once down where I could better reach the top I measured for horizontal width over the trucks, A tad bit more variance than I wanted to see. So I guess I'm going to be spending the next couple days shimming the rails out to get that down to acceptable levels. I had shimmed them vertically to install but kinda hoped horizontally would be ok. So I'll shim one hori to a taught string line and the other shimmed so the overall measurment stays consistent. Might have to build a giant extension for the digital calipers to get more precise than the slip stick.

Just a tad over Joe's capacity, probably the last time I can lift the whole thing with him.

[JPMach]

Got the tank, table and riser tread steel today. Though somehow my print that said 16" wide for the treads (leaving 1" to be able to sweep crap off) they got bent about 17" or even a touch wider so now I have to do some proper banging and notching to make them fit inside of the rotary support tube. They will also be notched for the leg outriggers so that will drop them down about 2" from where they are sitting now, bolted in, gives a good place to stand and reach farther on to the table etc being the table is a bit taller than most.

Water tank will have 2 drain/fill pipes welded in, welded to the bottom and top, along with a couple pieces of bar to keep the tank from bulging too much under air pressure. Tank will be fed with a regulator to keep max psi down to a minimum.

Lots o welding to do this week, along with a few jobs to get knocked out and order some sheetmetal for the elec cabinet and machine skirts.

[Kerryfisher]

Coming together well! sounds all to familiar with oversize bends
I did a video showing my water tank setup,,,,,might be of use to you,,,, I would go for a 2'' air valve min.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PBdJoRCh8k

[JPMach]

Thanks, I was looking at elec valves that I could control from panel, will have to see what bigger ones cost for drain if I go that route or not. I do like your trap and top plate to keep the water from shooting up. I ran a big plasma at a large industrial shop once and when the water level was low (air blowing out fill pipe) that thing would shoot geysers half way to the 25' ceiling.

[JPMach]

It holds water! And its not peeing yet.....


Will have to wait a few more hours to really see but looks good so far. If it passes this shallow test then I'll run it full to test the corner seams too. Welded a ball valve in the bottom of one of the traps for no to drain it, eventually will be a flat face spigot welded in there that sticks up from bottom of trap almost to flush with bottom of table pan. The a couple studs and a plate a little bit above that so it doesn't shoot water to the ceiling.

[JPMach]

Been busy running some paying jobs through the shop last few days, but did manage to get most of the electrical cabinet welded up. Hoepfully will have this tank welded up in the next couple days and pressure tested. Has 2 fill tubes that have cutouts at the bottom where the air will push the water up to the table pan, the 1/2" rod and the fill tubes are welded to the bottom and will go through the top and be welded as well to help keep the tank from bulging under pressure. Also got a 2 tank cleanout covers fitted and welded a 1/4" ring to the inside that the bolt to on each end so I can clean the sludge out of tank some day if needed. Will have some better pics once its together a bit more. Is also a drain port on the bottom and will be an air inlet port and a 2" exhaust port on the top. My plans are to eventually put electric valves on the fill and exhaust valves (probably build an air cylinder mount to run the 2" valve) so that I can fill and drain the table from the control console with a switch.

[Kerryfisher]

Good stuff, hard to see off the pics,,,,you aren't restricting the flow on the two pipes are you with the cutout are you?
Maybe if you had say 3 legs of 1/2'' bar and raised the pipe 3/4'' up you might be safer.

[JPMach]

Cutouts are 3/4" tall with just two sections of 1/2" wide left per 1-1/2" pipe, connecting to a bottom ring about 1/4" thick. Should be plenty big enough cutouts I think. I'll have the diverter plate in the table pan covering the top of the pipes with probably 1/4" to 3/8" gap to the table bottom, should keep any debris going down the fill pipes small enough to not plug the cutouts in the bottom as well, plus a small trap at the top as well.

[Kerryfisher]

Ahh just the ticket! good stuff.

[JPMach]

Well it's a tank now. Just have to wait for the silicone to cure on the clean out covers before I can pressure check it. Hopefully have it holding good tomorrow afternoon.

[Kerryfisher]

Good job, soapy water time!,,,,I used some tractor inner tube on mine, you would think silicone will do the trick though.

[JPMach]

Seems to be holding fine now, after fixing half dozen pin holes. Will leave it with 3 lbs on for a day and see how bad it drops.