raising gantry height question.

[johno down under]

Hi all, I'm still very new to this hobby, and here in Aus there are not a lot of machines or operators that I can ask things /questions about plasma cutters.
The place that I bought the outfit off really just sell the units and maintain a spare parts department.
The table that I have is a plasma cam 4x4 with a hypertherm 45xp and what I would like to do is cut 4in square or 3in square fence supports to accommodate rails (for sheep yards)
I have been asked a few times now if I can do such a thing! I did do some searching to see if this has been done before. I am sure I'm not the only one to try this!

Looking at the way the table is bolted together, it looks like a simple job of just raising the rails with angle iron and re-bolting to the required height?? or making a wind up height attachment (all 4 corners)
Can anyone point me in the right direction, there must be a topic like this somewhere.
Just a little info about my situation here in Aus.........
At the moment I am just having a clean up and a break after the Christmas rush, In my TIN shed where the plasma cutter is the temperature is 49 deg or 120 f in your scale! My water table has to be filled each day (it evaporates!)
And..... where I live is well known for Brown snakes (the deadliest in Aus) the babies have the same venom as the big ones! and at the moment they are hatching out everywhere, no fun when they are running across your boots!
So that is why I'm inside thinking about how to improve what I have!
Thanks for any help with this one.
Cheers Johno

[acourtjester]

Welcome aboard there are a few from your part of the world here, there is a section on Plasmacam software here too. You can use the search function in the upper right to find some answers to your questions. Snakes bad news I remember seeing Steve Irwin on TV getting way to close to them for me a sawed off shotgun would be standard equipment.

[Greolt]

Johno

Where are you located? I'm thinking a little further north than me in Vic.

Could you remove the slats and make a temp support for the posts?

[johno down under]

Hi mate, just a bit further north..... Cowra!
My unit has a water bath (come as a complete set up ready to go from Metal form Group in Melbourne) even with the rails removed i still wouldn't fit 100x100 or 75x75.
The water bath is in two pieces with a high ridge in the middle, that was why i was thinking the only way was to gain height with the gantry. lowering the water bath would be harder that lifting the gantry i'm thinking!
Cheers Johno

[johno down under]

thanks for the reply acourtjester...............
"for me a sawed off shotgun would be standard equipment. " this would be a way to deal with them! but not here in Aus, we have some of the toughest gun laws in the world and also the snakes are protected.
Cheers Johno

[Rodw]

thanks for the reply acourtjester...............
"for me a sawed off shotgun would be standard equipment. " this would be a way to deal with them! but not here in Aus, we have some of the toughest gun laws in the world and also the snakes are protected.
Cheers Johno

I must confess, despite our gun laws, snakes will never be protected in the piece of Australia I call home! I think our brown snake is about the 3rd deadliest in the world but he does not have a very good delivery mechanism.

On the subject of sheep yards though, I think you are going about it the wrong way. Real Aussie Sheep yards should be built from bush timber gidyea rails

I'm not sure if your table lends itself to it, but you could look at mounting the torch overhanging the gantry and using some sort of a chuck that rotates your post giving you a rotary axis. Some tables have a gantry that overhangs the table on one side to allow this.

[robertspark]

Nope, don't have a plasmacam.... but ....

Why don't you just cut 4 x brackets with bolt holes mirrored to allow you to move everything up at the corners by a few inches?

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https://www.ironhorseauction.info/user_ ... 789862.jpg


Or if you really have time and money on your hands???
https://youtu.be/Klc1zRpfHu8

[acourtjester]

Protect snakes and no guns, sounds like the Democrats we have here US citizens are lowest priority.

[johno down under]

'Why don't you just cut 4 x brackets with bolt holes mirrored to allow you to move everything up at the corners by a few inches?'
That was my idea! but i haven't seen it done anywhere...yet. I thought that it would have already been done.
The method of manually unbolting, and re-bolting could take a while i was thinking a bit more elaborate and trying to come up with a wind up system???
Thanks all for the comments and the snakes that are still "going" thank you!!
Cheers Johno

[robertspark]

.... come up with a wind up system???

The wind up system will more than likley induce some play into the X and Y plane because of the nature of a sliding joint. This will probably show up in your cut because of the axis acceleration.

If you get something like say a rod and a tube that is a little undersize to the rod you can reamer the tube so you have a very snug sliding rod and tube ( also the length of the tube will dictate the backlash.... ) {Ive done this with a penumatic gearchange}. You can then use something like some a clevis pin to make it height adjustable over some notches)

The rod + tube will be relatively cheap..... its just the cost of the reamer.....

[Rodw]

Funny, watching that video and I remembered I have 4 x 300mm heavy duty air rams here. Not synchronised like the linear stuff he used but if you incorporated an endstop containing a set screw to adjust them for alignment, they'd be perfect for the application. I could be convinced to part with them as they are looking for a project!

[hsolve]

Just my two cents worth. I'm from the gong and what I have done when I built mine was to make a higher gantry in the first place and increase the travel of the 'Z' drive. If you raise your gantry, by what ever amount you need, then on your computer draw up a mounting bracket to hold the 'Z' to the gantry with indexed holes so you can more easily unbolt and move the entire 'Z' assembly up or down. I have 230mm under my gantry at the moment. When I get the motivation to redo the complete setup I will be looking for 300mm.