[AdvanTech]

Anyone have one or have any input about them? We are looking at buying one for about the price range this is in.

Any input or recomendations?

http://www.trackercnc.com/

[traveler]

The best support imaginable comes from Ken at Tracker. My situation is a bit different than most because I had a unit that just was not satisfactory. Ken at Tracker put me on the right road to correct all my problems. I cannot praise Ken and Tracker highly enough.
If this was e-bay they would get a rating of AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA++++++++++++++++++++++++

never set a pace you can't maintain
Tom at Accufab LLC

[AdvanTech]

Thanks for the reply Traveler. We are also looking at Plasmacam, shopbot, and others.

Anyone else got any feedback.

We will be using it to cut wire mesh. Anyone with some plasma experience see any porblem with this? Mesh sizes vary from .20 square opening to 5 inch square openings. The 5 inch mesh has about .200 dia wire.

Will the openings be a problem for the torch? Do they cut air?

[DSL PWR]

I think the pilot arc may time out on th 5 inch stuff, but finer stuff should work fine.

[AdvanTech]

Can you program it to shut off in between wire? Or maybe program it to rapid between wires?

[DSL PWR]

That would probably be difficult. You would need to overlay the the sheet on the profile when you make the toolpath. Then you would need to zero the machine and have the sheet indexed on the table perfectly.

[AdvanTech]

So it would be possable? What kind of Plasma table are you using? Know anything about Tracker?

[DSL PWR]

I don't have one yet... but I've been around them and used them. I plan on building one in the new year.

[Ries]

I have cut a lot of perforated and expanded metal on my plasma machine- but nothing as big as a 5" mesh. Expanded up to 2" openings that I have cut has worked quite well, in fact I think aside from a really big shear, it is one of the best ways to cut things like this.
I think the variables would be in the plasma power supply, not the cutting machine. the cutting machine will trace your part, you just need to make sure your power supply doesnt turn itself off. I do know interupted cuts like this make for heavy consumable use. So figure on going thru a lot of tips and electrodes.
Even with the big, .250 wire size, I think a shear is the best for rectangles. Of course, you are talking one big shear, and you have increased blade wear due to the interupted cut.
I dont know if there is a really great way to cut mesh like this, but the plasma machine should work. One trick might be to use sacrifical backing plates, so the machine was always cutting- a piece of 1/4" plate that you just tossed out when it got too cut up. It would last quite a while though, as the slag would tend to weld the cuts back together. Since the machine was always reading a cut happening, it wouldnt time out between mesh openings. You would need to have a good auto height system to climb up when it came to the wires, though.

[traveler]

I haven't cut anythng with a five in mesh but if it were repetitive cut it would not be too hard to rapid travel between the mesh and make the extra time worthwhile. I use auto cad and what I would do is after the drawing was made, draw a five inch grid over the drawing with an offset of perhaps 3/8" cut at each grid to drawing intersection. When choosing the cuts order just choos the 3/8" sections.That would allow rapid travel between cuts and would save consumables. The cut lines would look like a series of dashes. Got you completely confused? e-mail me your drawing and I'll set up like I'm discribing.
Never set a pace you can't maintain

[AdvanTech]

Well we have ordered a Tracker. Should be here in a couple of weeks. I'll let you know how it goes.

Thanks for the help.

[AdvanTech]

Well we got the machine about a week ago. First impression is that its a nice machine for the money. It could use alittle easier instruction on leveling and squaring it but so far it works great for our application.

Started cutting mesh on it right away. It produces very round circles and the sizes are right on.

One question. We are using the hypertherm torch because of the holes in the mesh. We got hte Powermax 1000 unit. It says it can cut up to a inch think. I figured we would have to turn the amps down on some of the material we cut. Useing mesh with like a .125 wire diameter as an example. I started with the powersupply set at 30 amps and it wouldn't cut through the wire. We ended up turning it all the way up to 60 for everything we are cutting. I am guessing that the pilot arc it has does not kick into the real acr fast enough to get through this in time. It seems that by the time the real arc kicks in its halfway through the wire. Slowed the feed down some and it helped. Am I on the right track here? Is the pilot arc weaker than the cutting arc?

[traveler]

I doubt that the pilot arc is different from the cutting arc. My thought is that it needs that short amount of time for preheat. As you found, slowing the travel should solve the problem. I too have had little sucess with reduced amps, I sloved that problem by not sweating the small stuff, crank it up! I believe that it takes a given number of btu's to preheat and if you have fast travel and low amps it just can't catch up to pierce. I believe if it makes a difference that you are not doing a constant cut and repeatedly have the condition of new therefore cold metal.

never set a pace that you can't maintain

[gl1200a]

We were looking very seriously at the DynaCNC and then we got the info on the TrackerCNC which is very impressive for the same money. The Tracker CNC has a much more explicit DVD and we're more comfortable with the ease of use from design and scanning to cutting with the Tracker. Any comments or advice? Thanks much. Norm

[traveler]

Norm, I have nothing but the best from Tracker. Their support is the best in the business. I have been using their stuff for about 4 years, oops, time flies perhaps it has been 5 years, anyway, they really give you your moneys worth

[Scott V]

We were looking very seriously at the DynaCNC and then we got the info on the TrackerCNC which is very impressive for the same money. The Tracker CNC has a much more explicit DVD and we're more comfortable with the ease of use from design and scanning to cutting with the Tracker. Any comments or advice? Thanks much. Norm

Forget the cd and try to find somebody to demo both machines. Putting down that much money, two plane tickets to their factorys will tell you much
more then the internet will.

Carl,
my internet friend has a tracker and he likes it. He flew back to the
factory before he bought too. Dave Cress of Dyna-Cnc came by my
little shop and he is a serious person as far as making his tables
as best as they can be. I also really like the idea of Mach 3 and
CandCNC THC on his tables. Make up your own mind by looking
and using both.

Scott

[Torchhead]

At the risk of being accused of being a shill ( I sell THC controls to several OEM's and DYNACNC uses a custom version of one of my designs) I would urge you to look past the hype. There are just too many statements on the Tracker site that make me uncomfortable. (like calling stepper motors AC) and the positioning of direct drive as a "feature". Their wonderful THC does not appear to have a way to readout the tip volts while cutting or a way to preset the volts to match different material and tips. The bearing and rails are functional but no match for precision slides and recirculating bearings like others use. Their upper cutting speed of 198 IPM is puzzling. Most torch tables I see have 300 to 400 CUTTING speeds for steppers and up to 800 IPM for servos. There are circumstances where < 200 IPM will not be fast enough. Since their rapids are faster than their cutting speeds I can only speculate that their Windows based software limits the top speed or they are using LR type stepper drives. With direct coupled steppers and Rack and pinion you can easily get 400 IPM speeds with modern chopper drives. We have a home built table that I have seen do 26IPS (over 1200 IPM) with steppers If you don't know what to look for and what the technical answers are then it's hard to make a comparison from a DVD or photos. I could mock up an F16 and splice in some video but you might not want to buy one if your intent is to have something that will fly at MACH 2 and pull 9g's.

Before you write that check know in your heart you have done the research and asked the right questions. Factor out what I say as being biased but at least go join some independant user groups like the CNCMANUALPLASMACUTTING Yahoo Group and get some opinions from other Torchheads. Get educated BEFORE you buy.

If you don't think I know of what I speak, check out my commercial steel cutting site at www.FourhillsDesigns.com. I cut steel every day and teach classes on how to make money using CNC to do it.

[gl1200a]

Well, we did our research and read several reviews and comments from others in newsgroups and ordered the TrackerCNC today. DynaCNC came close, but the Tracker actually came out better and their software reviewed very well.

Thanks for everyone's comments and help.

Norm

[Torchhead]

Could you be so kind as to point us to those reviews and newsgroups? I would like to understand what I missed in reading the Mfg's own website and videos.

[Torchhead]

I guess Norm ordered his table and got too busy to give us the information he used to do a profoundly quick review (24hrs or less). I was interested to know what people use as the deciding criteria for one table over another. Was it price, a specific feature, proximity of the factory or what? Oh well.