Hello to everyone reading. First time poster from northern California.
Iv bin reading for years and have to say thank you all for contributing to my cnc addiction. I have bin collecting a lot of robot guts for multiple builds. wile only 1/3 threw the treacherously long EG thread so I am very undecided still. I have contacted RAMPF about details on there epuself and it sounds promising and i may well have to give that a try if its not to pricey. Along with my x2 and my 3040 I have got 4 of the new 2015 series dyn4 with 750w 16bit encoders and 2 of the dyn2 with 400w 16bit encoders. I plan on buying 2 more of the 750w with brakes installed and 2 more of the 400 with brake and 2 without. So that will take some time to save up. Ill worry about rails and such after that. Its hard to argue with 16bit encoders and DMM is amazing to work with and has some of the best customer service iv ever dealt with. I tried to get a price quote from Parker for some nema 32 steppers for a plasma table some months ago and after 2 months of referring me through 4 different reps I cant say anything good. I could have already had steppers from china well before they ever got back to me lol.

So after a long time of contemplating different approaches I have found myself with questions I can't find answers to.

I plan on using 6 of the 750w servos. Going for the largest work envelope wile still getting high speed rapids pushing for 800 ipm. leaning toward a bridge mill using 25mm rails with 5mm pitch screws with double ball nuts maybe rack and pinion but id rather do some sort of anti-whip on the screws. But I still have no idea how big of a work envelope could be achieved with 6 servos. I know its overkill unless you build it right!
maybe 1 on x and 1 on z and 4 on y? or go vertical and use 2 on each?

I had contacted tormock to see if they would sell me a frame and to no surprise they rudely said no and that they don't sell frames to hobbyists. Novakon might have gone for it. while the Torus Pro has better specs in every way and has financing and servos as an option I don't think id be happy with a bench top machine in the end. So aside from bolting a bunch of dura-bar together and filling with EG which would probably cost an arm and a leg just to ship. An interesting thought I had on EG filled steel beams gathering that the biggest issue is that the steel structure is not as repeatable as iron do to thermal expansion being much grater with just a few degrees. What if you were to imbed some sort of piping for coolant in close contact with the steel or the steel shell actually being the coolant piping to prevent this?

Also looking more into tool and die methods from the view point of additive manufacturing of metal parts I feel as if plasma arc welding is superior to the current Direct metal laser sintering methods in a lot of ways. mainly PAW with wire feed won't leave powder inside a part. I have contacted a plasma arc welder manufacturer about this very subject. But what I'm trying to understand is why I can't get one of those cheapo 3 in1 plasma cutter/stick and tig welders and leave the plasma torch on in tig mode and add an outer jacket for shielding gas? lol like a hose with a valve? there are some companies that make an adapting black box to turn your tig into a plasma arc welder. If I were making money with a business doing this Id probably buy a plasma arc welder but for the purpose of testing and proof of concept a $200-300 piece of crap 3in1 is ok. I'm very surprised not to have found any topics on plasma arc welding on the zone given that it wood be one of the best ways to weld up a frame. plasma arc welding is also a lot more affordable than lasers and a lot safer.

The DMM dyn2 and 400w servos are going to be for a mach3 automated welder/additive manufacturing of some sort. But what im still trying to wrap my mind around is how to get modbus to control the welder and wire feed at the same time? Im not even shore modbus would be the best way to do it. Maybe something as simple as a reed switch attached near the poles on the wire feed servo might work. but then i think it would have to be off instead of holding position

Also thinking hot wire vs cold would have some advantages over passing the current threw the work piece since AM is much more like brazing and you don't need full penetration. Although I don't think it would work as well with aluminum since you seem to need alternating dcen-dcep to clean as you go. it also seems to make sense to me using very thin wire with micro plasma arc welding should help minimize heat input.

Sorry for the rambling.
Any input is appreciated.