Hoping for information going to build 8 x 4 plasma

[Polisher]

Thank you for for letting me join your forum I am going to build budget 8 x 4 CNC plasma table not sure where to start belts or rack and pinion ball screws or the best places to buy parts from based in England any information gratefully received

[acourtjester]

you will find a few here from England that may help with suppliers. I have built a few tables and would not recommend ball screws for plasma. Belts are fine for short distance like reducing speed (gear reduction) but not for drive lengths.
Lots of help in the software and electronics section.

[robertspark]

As acourtjester says ballscrews are not for plasma....plasma dust is very hard (think case hardened steel) and acts as a great grinding paste mixed with ball screw lubricant.... Also long ball screws can suffer from whip and flex when driven hard.

I use belts (on a nearly 5' x 5' table) the belts are under a fair bit of tension to stop any flex and movement... The belts are htd profile 5mm pitch 20mm wide direct driven with 20 tooth pulleys. The belts have a steel core which.helps their rigidity.

8' would in my opinion be a bit much for belts.... But I'd happily do it again with belts.... But I am only a hobbyist. I may for a commercial application use rack and pinion which I could convert to if the day job took a turn for the worst.... And extend the table to take a full size sheet.

I am in the UK, near Liverpool.

My stepper motors I have always bought from https://cnc4you.co.uk/
My drives I bought from AliExpress.... They cost too much from zapp autmation https://www.zappautomation.co.uk/ at the time. (I use leadshine AM882H drives (no longer made.... Since updated to EM802 or 806 by leadshine)
I don't use mach3/4 but uccnc, bought direct from CNC drive http://www.shop.cncdrive.com/
My toroidal stepper motor drives power supply 50vAC @ 800W I bought direct from vigortronix who make them in the UK and will make whatever you want if you get chatting with the owner as o did late one night https://www.vigortronix.com/SinglePrima ... l230V.aspx

... Rod will be along shortly to plug linuxcnc and plasmac.. .. For which you would need Mesa hardware

http://store.mesanet.com/index.php?rout ... uct_id=311

http://store.mesanet.com/index.php?rout ... uct_id=128

There are other more local suppliers but I bought mine from the us and they arrived quickly

http://eusurplus.com/index.php?route=pr ... ry&path=63
http://shop.cnc.gmbh/en_US/shop

To be fair plasmac is beginning to look very impressive as a free dedicated piece of plasma gcode interpreter software (but I would need to rethink the round wheel I learnt as to where I presently am.... I have linuxcnc and I dabble but time does not permit for a full committment to plasmac. If I were starting again I'd probably start off with it as the hardware is very cost effective, support is presently enthusiastic and in full development mode.... But I'm not sure long term how that may pan out... Only time will tell .... But its cost effective and may prove resilient for a number of years.... Linux and windows can be marmite (love it / hate it).... I dabble in both but it's a bit of a mindset change with both if you are not use to the other (as rod will tell you plasmac is plug and play.... And linuxcnc can be installed from live bootdvd / usb stick..... Yes yes but I like to always know how stuff works under the bonnet when one day it may not be working as intended... Or is no longer supported as the original developers move on .... Anyway here is plasmac for you
https://forum.linuxcnc.org/plasmac
And some of the original threads are in here (before they had the plasmac forum / heading)
https://forum.linuxcnc.org/plasma-laser

[Polisher]

Thank you for your help ,very interesting glad I joined your forum

[robertspark]

Oh yeah, if you are after rack and pinion, one UK supplier is:
https://www.bearingboys.co.uk/Gears-and-Racks--3276-c

I've used them for various bearings before, but to be fair I've not used their rack + pinions (yet), delivery has always been quick and well packed.

[Polisher]

Spent today costing the project out with rack and pinion and rail with all the the other items required and it is working out quite a lot about £3,000 also I don't have a power source, only a Chinese cut 50 so we'll have to have a re think suddenly small factory tables don't look so expensive

[robertspark]

If you plan on using a cut50 then I would not consider a big table and not one with rack and pinion as your cut quality is likely to be very rough....

https://www.r-techwelding.co.uk/welding ... ma-cutter/

https://xtremeplasma.ecwid.com/ (a sponsor on here)

I think that rtech sell Xtreme plasma tables (they look exactly the same) .... But with finance deals.... Curiosity there are no prices on the rtech site for the tables or plasma systems.... May require a call imho

Rtech do some of the better low cost plasma cutters and they do tables too on long term finance.... Or shorter term zero % interest.... If you wait until the right time of year you can get 10% off which helps.... Or speak to them over the phone and they can sort something out

(I have a tig from them and am very happy... Plasma I went hypertherm.... As I had an older smaller hypertherm I replaced.... Would have liked the 45xp.... Which they kindly brought out 6m after I bought my 45 non xp....)

But all my stuff only sees occasional hobby use

£3k for a DIY built table seems a bit much imho.... As I could have done mine for about £1.2k to £1.5k
..... It has been a long road of trial and error and wasted money on inferior and unsupported parts to end up at this sort of a list... :


After spending ages on designing something... I would recommend this as a kit which is what I have ended up with this kit: ~£170 + vat on arrival

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre ... 3305259810


Then went to my local steel stockholder and got some 2" SHS and flatbar for the slats allow £200 or so

4x stepper motors ~ £120 plas VAT and delivery

https://www.cnc4you.co.uk/Stepper-Motor ... 01B-Nema23

4x stepper motor drives ~£50 each ... £200 total

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre ... 2370049400


50v toroidal power supply ~£55 Inc vat and delivery from vigortronix direct.

AXBBE motion controller and breakout board (all in one 24v compatible) + UCCNC software €199 plus VAT and delivery

http://www.cncdrive.com/AXBB.html
http://www.shop.cncdrive.com/index.php?productID=1009

24v power supply ~£25
5v power supply ~ £10

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre ... 1886747221

Htd belt £6

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre ... 2643279227

Htd pulleys £5 each, you need 3x at £15

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre ... 2632208005

Torch height control ~£200 to maybe £270 for the minithc (email Dennis direct for the minithc)
I have and like the minithc (you can send it you cut voltage from gcode or onscreen (with a bit of screen editing)

https://minithc.com/
(If you go the mini THC route, you would probably be better to get an idc <>lpt lead for the AXBBE and plug the AXBBE directly into the mini THC from port 3)

Others recommend the pricecnc avhc10
https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre ... 2288076009

Probably another £100 for miscellaneous....

This presumes you have a PC with windows on it... And a keyboard and mouse...
(I presently run a fanless SSD PC with a known brand SSD and all my ancillary hardware is wired..... Keyboard, mouse and pendant

You will need Sheetcam in my opinion.... But there are others about such as estlcam too which could be made to work similar to sheetcam (although in my opinion sheetcam is better for plasma as the post processor is very customisable)


You will need a case / box to house all your stepper motors power supplies and motion controller.... I used an old large pc case at first which I welded some mounting plates to internally.... Plus added fans to for cooling ... I now have a very large timber case that I built but I have a lot more now than just a plasma cutter to control (routers, mill, lathe, servo spindle, vfd, THC, and can switch from mach3 mach4 uccnc and linuxcnc via patch panel arrangement)

[Polisher]

Wow that's very helpful of you ,would it be possible to see see a picture

[Polisher]

Have ordered carriage, downsizing project to 4 x4 do have a large surface table so should be able to get it flat, it's begins ,also on the lookout for a better quality power source my cut 50 has been very good for car restoration but I think that is it's limit

[robertspark]

It all depends what you want to cut (thickness + material), and how fussed you are over the finish / accuracy?

I came from hand marking things out (measure twice, cut once), cutting out with a jigsaw or hand saw or angle grinder and hand filing / angle grinding to finish....

Whilst it may be nice to cut 3/4" steel plate..... do you really have to?.... As a hobby user, 1/4" (6mm) is as thick as I've gone and as thick as I have to hand..... if I need thicker, I normally cut out 6mm under and oversize and weld the plates together..... but I normally have gussets and other things for added strength.

I went with a Hypertherm 45 (non XP.... as I got it 6m before they brought out the XP! )

In all fairness.... I use 30Amp consumables most of the time as I do a bit in 2mm too.... and probably would have been fine with a 30A hypertherm (to replace my older 30A hypertherm I had...) but the 45 is nice if I've got to gouge something out and cut off boltheads etc .... just not the petrol tank bolts I almost did haha....

Now I just draw a shape in CAD and export to sheetcam, and export the gcode file to the machine and I'm holding the part in the few minutes.....

you can always extend a 4x4 table later if you want.... note that you need to allow for the space of the carriage in your 4x4 size.... as the carriage will create dead space for you as your rails need to extend past the 4' same with your belts (less so with rack and pinion.... as you can carefully plan the location of the pinion to minimise waste).

{I'll post pictures later when I'm out in the garage}

[TJS]

Some great information here in regards to builds. If I were to do it again I would acquire just the rail portion of it and make my Z car and use the gear rack set up. I have a hypertherm 85. I was like Robert where I figured I would not ever come close to cutting out 3/4" plate. Well I thought wrong. The second real job I had right after I got my table running was making backhoe bucket ears which required 3/4" plate. The only mistake I made was I did not tell sheetcam to do an overcut which was not a big deal but now I know.

[Polisher]

I want it to cut ,brass ,copper and bronze as my local laser cutter won't cut this for me

[robertspark]

I want it to cut ,brass ,copper and bronze as my local laser cutter won't cut this for me

sorry can't help.... never done any of them....

here is a post on copper:
viewtopic.php?f=60&t=27853&p=168314&hil ... ma#p168314

here is a post on brass (probably similar to copper....)
viewtopic.php?f=4&t=1391&p=177517&hilit ... ma#p177517

and one for bronze.....
viewtopic.php?f=4&t=26682&p=160695&hili ... ma#p160695

search button top RHS is your friend

[Polisher]

The laser cut cars have arrived from eBay ,the seller recommended 12 mm wide belt I can buy some 15 mm or even 20 mm belt my instinct is to go as wide as possible is this feasible please ?

[SeanP]

I made the mistake of using 10mm wide htd belts on my machine, should have gone to 15mm maybe, can't really complain they have done 6yrs hard labour now and still going strong.
It just on really fast change in direction there is a slight wobble, most jobs it not noticeable at all, you need to get a fair tension on them or you get a bit of movement on the small pulley.
I was thinking I wonder if adding a tensioner between the pulleys rather than using the motor might not be a better bet? it would give more contact on the small pulley, might try it myself one day.

Pulleys.png (19.51 KiB) Viewed 1006 times

Pulleys.png (19.51 KiB) Viewed 1006 times