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The table grates are okay, but they allow pieces to fall through, and they are a PITA to change.
So I am thinking of creating a tray, much like a water table tray. it would have a steel angle iron frame beneath it, with an expanded metal bottom to allow bits of dross and stuff to fall through it.
Imagine if you will ... a steel tray with vertical sides and a flat bottom. The tray is perhaps 3" deep and it rests on the table frame on all four sides. The factory grate slats are REMOVED from the table.
Stacked inside of this tray of a specific x/y dimension, are (?) quantity of lengths of electrical conduit, laid out standing vertically in a honeycomb pattern as in this photo. They are all the same length, and the height of these tubes can be SELECTED when they are made. They are perhaps 3/4" or 1" diameter, or larger, and they are arranged in the tray as you would place rolls of pennies into a shoebox, on end.
The tops of these vertical tubes serve as the "grate" the material lays on, and slides over. The plasma flame blows down through the tubes, or maybe nicks the edge of a round tube as it passes over. The tube can still support material using the remaining 98% of the round top surface.
As the tubes are nicked more and more, they become less able to individually support the material, however the close proximity of the neighboring tubes makes for a constant flat surface where the tubes have NOT been completely cut at their original top edge. So even if ONE tube is no longer the original length at any point around the circle, the neighboring tubes provide material support on six sides of that short tube, and only one inch or less away.
If a tube becomes too badly cut, it is easily lifted out of the honeycomb grid, and the other tubes remain in place while a NEW single tube is inserted into the empty position where the old one was removed, and tapped down to the bottom of the tray.
The original tray of tubes would take some time to create, and it would cost a little money. SAVE MONEY by asking your electrical contractor friends to toss the cutoffs from their conduit projects into a pile for you to collect and haul away. Do you have any idea how much old BENT conduit is tossed into the scrapyards EVERY SINGLE DAY? you only need ... six inches of straight conduit to make a piece for the table.
One man's TRASH really is another man's treasure!
After it is constructed, the table would almost be forever flat, based on hundreds of tubes, some new, some nicked, some cut even more, but no group of tubes so badly damaged that there would be a depression in the flat top surface to worry about.
1. Small pieces would NOT fall through.
2. Damaged tubes are EASILY replaced.
3. Dross build up can be handled EITHER by replacing the single tube, or running a belt sander over the surface of all of the tubes, using an aggressive course belt, or even a 7" grinding wheel run over the tops of the tubes.
4. LESS tip ups!
I truly believe this would work Grrrrrrrr..eat!
This is one of my summer "To-Do" projects for my 510 table.
Joe
I can make the sides of the tray using 14 ga. steel, and the frame out of angle iron. Then I will drop a 4x4 square of expanded metal into it, and put it through its paces. More summer fun.
