[jeepsterjc]

Nice bends in that plate.....you have a brake?

--John

Thanks, but I had the machine shop brake them for me. I wish I had a brake that could do 3/16 plate! I think we have the same tubing bender though... JD2 Model 3?

[johndjmix]

I went with the JD model 32....works great!

--John

[Nacs Fab]

I have a Model 3 bender as well. Good stuff.

Jeepster, what final length did you go with on your gear rack for both x and y dimensions? I am ready to order my rack, but got to thinking I may not want exactly 4' and 8' lengths on my 4x8 table. I want to be able to fully cut a 4x8 sheet of steel.

Thanks!

Neil

[jeepsterjc]

I have a Model 3 bender as well. Good stuff.

Jeepster, what final length did you go with on your gear rack for both x and y dimensions? I am ready to order my rack, but got to thinking I may not want exactly 4' and 8' lengths on my 4x8 table. I want to be able to fully cut a 4x8 sheet of steel.

Thanks!

Neil

Hi Neil. Sorry I missed your post. You are doing exactly what I want to do- cut 4 x 8 with a "little" room to spare. I'm about to cut my Y rack to final length tonight or tomorrow. My Y rack length is 113 1/2" and I just cut the X-rack to 59 3/4".

I fired up the PC with Mach3 and the Bladerunner package and enjoyed cycling the X around under its own power!

I made my table 109 1/2 inches long and ran the Y-rails out 4" off of the back end of the table. This way that "dead zone" is non-existent and We have full use of the expensive real-estate.

I went with the JD model 32....works great!

--John

Great bender! I had a pin work out of the guide die, the pin cranked to 45 degrees and everything jamb up solid. That was half way through a pull on 2" 1/8 tube... Talk about going for an almost uncontrolled Chuck Norris round house whirl!

Here's where I am at, now-





I got some real cutting fluid for the 74 or 76 drill holes and did the drilling and threading yesterday, plus I got a major hike in. Bonus!

Does anyone have some test motion gcode?

[jeepsterjc]

Did I catch your attention with the subject line above?

That would be 10 more minutes of work on this thing by someone who knows what they're doing...

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSODQ8f3gwk&feature=g-upl]Plasma water table construction with machine torch and Dragoncut Bladerunner electronics - YouTube[/ame]

I'll use the table to cut the slat holders and other assorted brackets for holding the cnc cable chains, the magnetic torch mount brackets home switch mounts and the hard end-stops.

I know I don't sound like like I really know what I'm talking about but that's because I don't know what I'm talking about!

I have 300 feet of assorted 2 and 4 conductor 18 gauge wire coming to wire up the torch tng, homes and limit micro switches and some nice collars to use to mount the machine torch head to the tng plate.

[jeepsterjc]

Hello everyone. I'm looking to purchase an air engraver/scribe to mount beside my machine torch.

What do I buy? the costs range from $80 to over $300 on ebay...

[BBchevy396_]

A CP-9361, without a doubt. It is pricey,(look on ebay) but will hold up, and give you the best results. It is an industrial scribe, and the tolerances are fairly tight. With lower quality scribes, the tolerances in the stylus seem to be sloppy, and on a cnc machine, it tends to make your lines wavy and wander. Since it is essentially a "contact cutting" application, as opposed to the plasma, any looseness, or flex in your mechanicals, will be greatly magnified in the scribed results. I used a pneumatic slide, and it works great, but others have used linear bearings, or v groove rollers and a plate to make the holder, along with a small air cylinder.

Sometimes, just the right amount of down pressure is tricky to get, so stay small with a cylinder piston dia. 1" or less seems to work fine. (Just imagine scribing by hand, it doesn't require very much down force. ) It will take a bit of trial and error to get just the right amount. Also, it needs to be fairly quick to decend to the workpiece and lift, to keep up with the machine movement, without getting into a ton of precisly timed pauses to avoid divots, leadouts, and missing starts.

You will need two solenoid valves, one for the cylinder, and one to control the scribe, and two psi regulators. With the bladerunner, you should have aux 120v outputs, so 120v selenoids are the ticket there. I sourced mine from Automation direct, along with the poly tubing, fittings, and psi regulators.

You can see my set-up in my build thread here: http://www.cnczone.com/forums/precis...ladrunner.html

Unixadm also has a very good write-up in his build thread in the Precision Plasma section.

[jeepsterjc]

A CP-9361, without a doubt. It is pricey,(look on ebay) but will hold up, and give you the best results. It is an industrial scribe, and the tolerances are fairly tight. With lower quality scribes, the tolerances in the stylus seem to be sloppy, and on a cnc machine, it tends to make your lines wavy and wander. Since it is essentially a "contact cutting" application, as opposed to the plasma, any looseness, or flex in your mechanicals, will be greatly magnified in the scribed results. I used a pneumatic slide, and it works great, but others have used linear bearings, or v groove rollers and a plate to make the holder, along with a small air cylinder.

Sometimes, just the right amount of down pressure is tricky to get, so stay small with a cylinder piston dia. 1" or less seems to work fine. (Just imagine scribing by hand, it doesn't require very much down force. ) It will take a bit of trial and error to get just the right amount. Also, it needs to be fairly quick to decend to the workpiece and lift, to keep up with the machine movement, without getting into a ton of precisly timed pauses to avoid divots, leadouts, and missing starts.

You will need two solenoid valves, one for the cylinder, and one to control the scribe, and two psi regulators. With the bladerunner, you should have aux 120v outputs, so 120v selenoids are the ticket there. I sourced mine from Automation direct, along with the poly tubing, fittings, and psi regulators.

You can see my set-up in my build thread here: http://www.cnczone.com/forums/precis...ladrunner.html

Unixadm also has a very good write-up in his build thread in the Precision Plasma section.

Thanks for all of the info. I'm a noob with this and had been hoping that I could just mount the scribe to my Z tng...

Would this be appropriate for a pneumatic slide?
FESTO SLT-10-20-P-A DOUBLE ACTING MINI PNEUMATIC SLIDE | eBay

It has a one inch stroke...

Here is one with a 1.6 inch stroke... at least some of these look to be affordable.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/40mm-Bore-40...ht_1644wt_1394

Thanks, Jim

[BBchevy396_]

I think you need a longer stroke, as you will most likely want to leave it on the machine for scribe/plasma cutting combos, and will want more clearance. Keep looking... also, check Festo's site for the piston diameters, as you dont want one that is too big., if you decide to go that way.

[jeepsterjc]

I think you need a longer stroke, as you will most likely want to leave it on the machine for scribe/plasma cutting combos, and will want more clearance. Keep looking... also, check Festo's site for the piston diameters, as you dont want one that is too big., if you decide to go that way.

OK, thanks. Is this your slide?

SPZ-16-100-P-A-KF? 16 mm rod diameter 100mm stroke?

[BBchevy396_]

OK, thanks. Is this your slide?

SPZ-16-100-P-A-KF? 16 mm rod diameter 100mm stroke?

I think, perhaps, I'll have to goto the shop and look for you. It IS an SPZ, and it is 100mm stroke, but I'll have to look to be sure of the rod size.

[jeepsterjc]

I think, perhaps, I'll have to goto the shop and look for you. It IS an SPZ, and it is 100mm stroke, but I'll have to look to be sure of the rod size.

Ok BBchevy. I'm peppering you with questions. Sorry. I've found this and the price is pretty good...

I've got to keep the build going so I'm just motivated to get the goods, build and continue along until I'm finally cutting.

This is on ebay right now and it may fit the bill.

Bimba Ultran USS-015-BT Rodless Cylinder - Pneumatic Air Linear Slide Actuator | eBay

Or this one??

http://www.ebay.com/itm/PHD-CYLINDER...#ht_499wt_1416

I can afford it so if you can be my personal shopper and yea or nay I'll just buy it. Thanks. Jim

[jeepsterjc]

Well, I put a low ball offer in on the Bimba and it was accepted.



It has a 5 inch stroke and should be easy to rig up.

Thanks for the advice.

[BBchevy396_]

Looks like that should work great! You can add a spring to help with the retract and a stroke limiter for when you're actually scribing. You can then just remove the limiter for tons of clearance when your not. Looks like a nice unit, rigid, sturdy, and decent price!

Now to find a good new/used CP scribe for a decent price and you'll be in the chips.

[jeepsterjc]

Here's some more progess. I've lengthened the motor wiring and have a nice setup nearing completion.



I bent up some HREW curved tubes to two corners of the table against the long wall. Now the motors won't get crushed from pushing the table too close to the cement wall.



I do have a question, too. I'm installing a CP9361 Airscribe to the table, too, and wonder how it should be mounted...

Should I attach it with my pneumatic linear slide to the TNG or to the main Z vertical motor bracket?

Also, I could use some help with sorting out what nylon airline, press fittings, regs, and valving to buy...

I don't know how the little TNG stop pin will deal with the massive vibration that it would be constantly under, and how the airscribe programming will interfeer with all of the tng jazz. Remember, I'm a noob... thanks for explaining this to me.

[WTF-J]

The table is coming along great...

...The Aqualu tub on the lift; not so much. :stickpoke

[jeepsterjc]

The table is coming along great...

...The Aqualu tub on the lift; not so much. :stickpoke

Totally rolling on the floor laughing... thanks, eh!(chair):banana:

I'm surprised that I've been enjoying the basic steel fabbing so much, I'm slowed down again trying to sort out what I need to operate the airscribe. Now that I have a temporary plan for the torch head and scribe mount I can start messing around again. I need the plasma table to make its own parts now...

[jeepsterjc]

Time has passed by here with work taking tons of evening time as well, but holidays have begun. I haven't been entirely idle in the shop though. I gave the plasma table, keeping in line with the modestly sized rubber on the WTF Jeep Scrambler, an 8 inch tire upgrade. The new wheels can take greater loads than before and the table is now remarkably easy to scoot around the shop. It was easy to push around before, now though, I don't have to put all of my weight into it to get it moving.

The plasma table homes are all wired up- x, y, a and z. There are adjustable hard-stops on all corners and I design several of the home micro switches to be adjustable in their mounts, too. They make dialling the table in an easy job.

I've got darn near 200 feet of 2 and 4 wire control cable in the thing and am thinking of using a couple of the square Ford 5.0 engine harness plugs to separate the plasma computer control table from the main plasma table.

Here are some shots showing where I'm at.

The control table fully wired:



The magetic break-away torch body mount and TNG/Z-home switch relocated:



One shot of the X and Y homes and hard stops:



The table in current form:



The A axis home and stop:



Another X-Y hard stop and homw pic:



So, now I need to figure out how to fire this puppy up. I plan to use it to make better cable chain guide mounts and the real slat mounts.

I've really enjoyed sorting out what software I'll use for my 2D design work. Pro/Engineer, now Creo Parametrics 2.0 is the system I've been using for several years. The sketcher is amazing and is all that I need but I won't be able to afford owning it after I retire. At $50,000 per seat, well, not going to happen!

I have been playing with LibreCad and Freecad, and they are both totally useable and easy for 2D. They both run in Linux, which is a hobby of mine, too, so that is a major factor. That and they are totally free.:thumbsup:

I have a few configs in Mach3, the CAM software to understand about ports and pins but am close now.

[jeepsterjc]

My cnc cable chain guide rolls at about a 5 to 5 1/2 inch diameter. Here is a pic that shows what it looks like:



I'm worried that this tight radius will shorten the life of my plasma torch cable. I called Hypertherm and they recommend an 8 inch minimum diameter.

Should I worry about this? The fellow at Hypertherm said that if it ran in a manufacturing plant that off course it would wear out faster but in my low-use application I could be OK?

[Nacs Fab]

Did you drill and tap your motors to accept the socket head bolts like you have shown in one of the photos above? I see the socket head bolt go in from the backing plate and it sure is sweet that way. I'm having minor bolt and belt interferences and would love to turn the bolt around.