Not Far Off now! New Pipe Cutter Accessory!

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Re: Not Far Off now! New Pipe Cutter Accessory!

Post by Joe Jones »

Yeah. The FREE ENERGY truck doesn’t come down my street anymore either.

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Re: Not Far Off now! New Pipe Cutter Accessory!

Post by Joe Jones »

Record heat has slowed down the progress. I refuse to work in a shop that it 99 degrees! Along with that, the miracle of online ordering. I found two different roller bearings I want to try, so I purchased four of each of them from a company online. It would seem a simple task to drop them into a bubble envelope and ship them to me, but they chose to offer the "free" option of UPSP ground shipping. So a six day delay immediately popped up. I didn't want to pay MORE for fast shipping than I had paid for the bearings, so now I wait.

According to the online tracking, they should arrive on the 17th.

Good news though! This delay has given me the opportunity to think through the entire device functionality, and I believe I have now eliminated the roller track that was part of the original design. This also allows pipe of a much LONGER length to be cut now. Of course, that will depend on the orientation of the plasma table, and what surrounds it.

I will make the 510 version first, simply because my personal goal is to cut larger diameter tubing than the 13.5" limitation of the original, and completely frustrating PlasmaCam pipe cutter design, and I am building this on my 510 table. However, the cutter will fit BOTH tables (the 510 and the 4x4) .

Finally, I am drawing up another version of the cutter that I believe I like the BEST! It is WAY out of the box, and it may well be the one I finish first!

So in summary, I currently have four different designs on the drawing board, and each of them will make any table owner happy!

It will be another couple of weeks until a functional model is made though.

Joe

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Re: Not Far Off now! New Pipe Cutter Accessory!

Post by Joe Jones »

Update:

This design is evolving quickly. It is now able to cut virtually ANY length of pipe or tubing, and from end to end. The maximum diameter is still at 48", but I may have to cut that down to 40" or even 36" My GOAL is to be able to cut shapes into the side of an oil drum, at a minimum. I am guessing that most of you will be happy with a simple pipe cutter than can handle 6" diameter tubing, but I still want to give it the "WOW!" factor. :HaHa

There is no need to wrap the tube with a belt, as the PlasmaCam cutter requires. You would need someone to help you place a long, heavy tube onto the cutter, simple because of the sheer weight of it.

At present, one additional gantry motor and gantry belt must be purchased from PlasmaCam to complete the assembly. :roll: This will make it dirt simple to set up. It is looking more like this will be sold in KIT form, with some components supplied by me, while others would be obtained at your local hardware store. This eliminates the need to ship five to ten-foot lengths of tubing, and other things you can more easily pick up in your local 'Big Box' stores.

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Re: Not Far Off now! New Pipe Cutter Accessory!

Post by Joe Jones »

8-26-21 Update:

So, the parts I ordered are all coming s-l-o-w-l-y, and everyone is using this covid hoax as an excuse for poor performance. :Mad

I have five different designs on the drawing board, but I am moving forward with the most interesting and promising design. I am waiting on bearings, and belts, and other components that are coming to me from ... who knows where.

This design is beyond bitchin'! The cutter will fit BOTH the 4x4 and 510 tables. It will allow a pipe or tube of ANY length, and ANY diameter from 1" to 48" to be cut on the 4x4 and 5x10 tables without any disassembly or modification to the table itself. It will also let you cut extrusion! Squares, angles, rectangles, etc. That will be exciting! I am working out the issues with the dies needed for the extrusion cuts.

This design does require the purchase of one additional carriage motor and one additional Z motor. I cannot control that. They are proprietary motors that are (currently) ONLY available through PlasmaCam. I am working around the backing plate and V-groove roller issue now, but I may cave and just ad the official "PlasmaCam Approved" components to this. No additional Z travel is needed with this cutter.

This design will NOT require the purchase of an additional gantry tube or carriage assembly. It is added to the table without bolts, or holes, or welding, or clamps, or anything. Set up is a matter of a few minutes. It is looking like I will put this together as a kit and sell it. When the kit arrives, you would need to go to your local metal supply store for the larger components that are not worth trying to ship. Oh, and it will not require the pipe cutting software upgrade either ALTHOUGH that is the crisp and clean way to set up the cuts! But all of the cuts can be drawn manually, and I will probably provide basic cut files that you can use.

I cannot decide whether to buy the motors from PlasmaCam and ship them with the kit, or have you buy them directly from PlasmaCam. I am GUESSING that they will not warranty motors that pass through ME, even though they would be brand new PlasmaCam motors that I purchased from THEM to send to YOU. They would probably claim that they will not warranty motors that I supply, even though they would be THEIR motors. :HaHa

According to UPS the parts are all coming in the next week to 10 days. I am already making the components I CAN make here.

Question ... Should I make these components out of regular steel and powder coat them, or would you be good with parts made out of stainless steel?

Joe
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Re: Not Far Off now! New Pipe Cutter Accessory!

Post by plasmanewbie »

Sounds killer! I always thought most things should be made from stainless. Its stainless! What could be better than stainless!
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Re: Not Far Off now! New Pipe Cutter Accessory!

Post by robertspark »

covid hoax????

count yourself lucky you have not caught it,

it's a horrible disease, you should take a trip to your local hospital and ask to see the patients in the beds, maybe get a chance to chat with one if they pull through

it's no hoax

some first hand experience may change your perspective and thank your good fortune to have not caught it (yet) and it you do... you get a mild dose
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Re: Not Far Off now! New Pipe Cutter Accessory!

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There is something going around, but it is not covid. The truth will come out in due time.

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Re: Not Far Off now! New Pipe Cutter Accessory!

Post by Joe Jones »

plasmanewbie wrote: Thu Aug 26, 2021 8:28 pm Sounds killer! I always thought most things should be made from stainless. Its stainless! What could be better than stainless!
Sadly, the good ol' U.S. Gu'mint gets involved in projects like this. It is no accident that moving parts on machines are powder coated "Safety Yellow."

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Re: Not Far Off now! New Pipe Cutter Accessory!

Post by Joe Jones »

As I set up this device, I will have to cut a hole in the back wall of my table room, so long pipe can be moved along the cut area from end to end. A 24-foot pipe would start at one end, and after (n) feet of pipe is cut, the pipe would have to slide forward to index the next (n) feet of cut area. Rinse and repeat. Since the table is in a room with only three feet of space at the far end, I will create a door in the wall at the table level. Then I can open it to allow a long length of pipe to extend beyond the wall, resting on rollers outside of the building. There really is no length limit to this design, and that is what I like most about it!

Alas, still no parts deliveries from UPS. Waiting for belts and bearings ... Waiting ... waiting ....

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Re: Not Far Off now! New Pipe Cutter Accessory!

Post by Joe Jones »

Hot damn! The FIRST batch of bearings has arrived! 50 of them in a box.

Evidently, dropping the box onto the far corner of my front porch, behind a column and out of sight constitutes a "front door delivery." :-?

Now I must wait for the other components to arrive....

Joe
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Re: Not Far Off now! New Pipe Cutter Accessory!

Post by Joe Jones »

I remember when things used to be MADE IN AMERICA.

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Re: Not Far Off now! New Pipe Cutter Accessory!

Post by Joe Jones »

This is a video I put together today. It shows a way to draw pipe cuts WITHOUT the PlasmaCam pipe cutting software upgrade. It also touches on the topic of the pipe cutter now in progress, as well as showing a couple of other design considerations I have shelved for now. Enjoy the 30 minute video. Comments are welcomed.

Joe

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Re: Not Far Off now! New Pipe Cutter Accessory!

Post by Joe Jones »

Yeah! The belts arrives in the mail today! Things are coming together. Now I am looking for a good PATENT attorney.

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Re: Not Far Off now! New Pipe Cutter Accessory!

Post by adbuch »

Hmm! Where have I seen this idea before? Oh - now I remember - it was about 3 years ago. James Eifion Thomas came up with this and posted photos and a video. Rolling a pipe along the table while cutting. He had a very clever idea!
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A very simple pipe cutter.jpeg
A very simple pipe cutter 2.jpeg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_sGmO2UusXc&t=37s

pipe cutter youtube.jpg

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Re: Not Far Off now! New Pipe Cutter Accessory!

Post by Joe Jones »

I did not say I originated the idea. I said I was experimenting with the concepts. BTW, John Derby also experimented with rolling pipe across the table. He used two rollers per side on TOP of the pipe to provide the X movement.

I got the idea from watching a Peterbilt rolling alongside me in slow traffic. As I watched the dual rear axles turn, it occurred to me that if a round shape was placed in the 'V' of the treads, the cylinder would roll in sync, in the opposite direction.

Yes, I heard about James' idea, that of rolling the tube on TOP of the table rails a few years ago, but I never saw the photos or video. This takes care of the length limitation, as the pipe can extend to any length, assuming there is a support bar at the extent for the rest of the pipe to roll on. :Like

The cutter I am working on now is a different setup. It does use two rollers that are synchronized in rotation, but I believe this offers more flexibility, and will work better in a shop environment. We will see. I am still waiting for two orders of bearings to arrive.

I am also in search of pipe cutting layout software that is NOT PlasmaCam's upgrade. Someone must offer something ... somewhere, so a person can lay out the paths for the various coping, intersection and angular intersection of tubing, etc. I haven't found it yet.

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Re: Not Far Off now! New Pipe Cutter Accessory!

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adbuch wrote: Tue Aug 31, 2021 2:39 am Hmm! Where have I seen this idea before? Oh - now I remember - it was about 3 years ago. James Eifion Thomas came up with this and posted photos and a video. Rolling a pipe along the table while cutting. He had a very clever idea!
David

A very simple pipe cutter.jpeg

A very simple pipe cutter 2.jpeg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_sGmO2UusXc&t=37s

pipe cutter youtube.jpg
Albeit crude as a test unit, his crane neck extension of the torch while maintaining Z movement works! On the presumption that his torch still cuts at TDC (Top Dead Center) of the tube, the diameter capacity is limited unless he extends the torch out and away from the backing plate as the tube diameter increases.

I do like the wheels that roll on the rails. This works for cutting out letters or shapes, but his setup will not work for cuts that separate the tube into two or more pieces. They would cave in when the support of the rail wheels failed to hold up the entire piece. This is why I began to experiment with the conveyor rollers. A tube on these 48" rollers could be cut into (24) 2" rings, for example. The cut rings would just roll along with the uncut source material until the last cut was made.

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Re: Not Far Off now! New Pipe Cutter Accessory!

Post by adbuch »

Joe Jones wrote: Tue Aug 31, 2021 3:20 am
Yes, I heard about James' idea, that of rolling the tube on TOP of the table rails a few years ago, but I never saw the photos or video.
Photos and video in the link below. You participated in the thread sited, which included photos and the video.
David
https://owners-community.com/viewtopic. ... ow#p288258
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Re: Not Far Off now! New Pipe Cutter Accessory!

Post by robertspark »

clever idea it is :Like

I went with a cheapish Chinese 4 jaw centering 4" chuck on a bracket below the table.... only does short lengths though up to 4'
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Re: Not Far Off now! New Pipe Cutter Accessory!

Post by Joe Jones »

adbuch wrote: Tue Aug 31, 2021 4:16 am
Joe Jones wrote: Tue Aug 31, 2021 3:20 am
Yes, I heard about James' idea, that of rolling the tube on TOP of the table rails a few years ago, but I never saw the photos or video.
Photos and video in the link below. You participated in the thread sited, which included photos and the video.
David
https://owners-community.com/viewtopic. ... ow#p288258
rail rider.jpg
Okay COLUMBO! Bust my chops! You are communicating with a guy who has dealt with SEVERE MEMORY ISSUES for most of my life. It came from a terrible bicycle accident I experienced at age 12 that put me in the hospital for a month, while they injected me with all sorts of experimental skin regeneration substances to rebuild the left half of me FACE that got nearly scraped off in the accident.

Okay, so ... some three %$&^# YEARS ago I apparently saw this, and even responded to it. Thanks for REMINDING ME about it. The FACT is that I do not remember ever seeing this. That DOESN'T mean I didn't see it. Most of the time I cannot remember what I had for dinner LAST NIGHT. Some a*s hat at PlasmaCam banned me from the OC after they made a PRIVATE MESSAGE public, which revealed their character in spades. If there was ANY other table and software out there like PlasmaCam's, I would buy it in a heartbeat and sell off EVERYTHING "PlasmaCam" that I now own.

Tell me this. What is your issue with me? If you want to be a "fact checker" go work for FACEBOOK. They LOVE that over there.

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Re: Not Far Off now! New Pipe Cutter Accessory!

Post by adbuch »

robertspark wrote: Tue Aug 31, 2021 12:53 pm clever idea it is :Like

I went with a cheapish Chinese 4 jaw centering 4" chuck on a bracket below the table.... only does short lengths though up to 4'
Yes - I have seen quite a few folks using a motorized chuck for pipe cutting. Robert Johnson had one that he showed a while back that looked very interesting. Also the Wolfs setup that uses a clever support so that square pieces can be cut as well.

David

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdhYtSslBZI
rotary pipe cutter test.jpg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2fscbLNtGU
wolfs pipe cutter.jpg

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Re: Not Far Off now! New Pipe Cutter Accessory!

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Joe Jones wrote: Tue Aug 31, 2021 3:21 pm Okay COLUMBO!
LOL, now that's funny. Loving your concept Joe. David seems like a very thorough guy with a good memory, I don't think it's anything personal.
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Re: Not Far Off now! New Pipe Cutter Accessory!

Post by Joe Jones »

I thought about the chuck concept, but that makes it difficult to cut the center of a long tube on the table. So I am sticking to a dual roller design that has no length restrictions.

Joe
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Re: Not Far Off now! New Pipe Cutter Accessory!

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Joe Jones wrote: Wed Sep 01, 2021 12:05 pm I thought about the chuck concept, but that makes it difficult to cut the center of a long tube on the table. So I am sticking to a dual roller design that has no length restrictions.

Joe
the 4 jaw chuck was just a quick solution to a problem for me, and it does square tube too, being a 4 jaw self centering chuck.

I would have never thought of the roller design and can see it's advantages, as long as your tube is uniform and straight.... don't think it will work with an oil drum though given it has ridges and tapers etc and there is likely to be slippage on the contact surface or a difference in movement between the two ends, but it is very cleverly thought out..... as long as you don't need to cut the end of the tube.

mine was mainly to do short sections of lobster back bends of 2 1/2" exhaust tube which probably won't work with the roller idea unless you segment the cut and then allow for some cleanup at the segments

nope I could never do this way too much skill but nice to admire

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Re: Not Far Off now! New Pipe Cutter Accessory!

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robertspark wrote: Wed Sep 01, 2021 2:13 pm I would have never thought of the roller design and can see it's advantages, as long as your tube is uniform and straight.... don't think it will work with an oil drum though given it has ridges and tapers etc and there is likely to be slippage on the contact surface or a difference in movement between the two ends, but it is very cleverly thought out..... as long as you don't need to cut the end of the tube.
The design is specifically FOR cutting the end of the tube, and things like oil drums. :roll: A cone shape can be cut on it. You only need to have a flat level surface the torch can ride across on the Y axis. It could not roll on two tubes, but it certainly could be given a center axis to rotate on. I am hoping to experiment with a lot of stuff that is way out of the box. If a tube is cut into rings, that can be done easily. The rings would just roll on the tubs along with the stock piece, unless they were too thin to stand on the edge, like some coins cannot stand on end.
mine was mainly to do short sections of lobster back bends of 2 1/2" exhaust tube which probably won't work with the roller idea unless you segment the cut and then allow for some cleanup at the segments
Holy cow! There is $10,000.00 worth of TIG welding right there! Nope. I don't even want to think about tackling something like that.

Joe
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Re: Not Far Off now! New Pipe Cutter Accessory!

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robertspark wrote: Wed Sep 01, 2021 2:13 pm
I would have never thought of the roller design and can see it's advantages, as long as your tube is uniform and straight.... don't think it will work with an oil drum though given it has ridges and tapers etc and there is likely to be slippage on the contact surface or a difference in movement between the two ends, but it is very cleverly thought out..... as long as you don't need to cut the end of the tube.
We're going to find out. :roll: Oil drums are one of the main reasons I am building this. Old oil drums are distorted and dented, but you can buy clean, nearly new condition oil drums all day long for around $8.00 each. At least I can here in Kentucky. Or at least ... I COULD ... before steel prices changed. They may have gone up now. I stil have ten uncut drums in the FrankenBarn. :Sad

At any rate, I wanted to cut around the drums at the top, just below the rolled steel rim ... text that can be illuminated or set off in some way. A strip of 16 gauge powder coated steel of one color could show through the text of the oil drum with another color on the exterior. "Snotsdale Manor Country Club" :lol: drums could be made for trash cans around the clubhouses and pools, etc. The strips could be bolted or riveted to the drum's interior surface for a classy look. Set the strip back a bit and wrap a strip of LED lights around it beneath the text, and you can have illuminated text for night viewing and "courtesy lighting." Use cheap lawn lights with the solar panels to power them. A 12" podium stand beneath them would give them some more class, and make them easier to empty.

Maybe the country club's LOGO centered between the ribs, on two or three sides? Cutting the drum at the ribs will give you two great fire rings that would cost about $4.00 each to make. I want my device to have a 48" diameter capacity, even though it would almost never be needed. Just because!

Joe
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