2M X 3M CNC Plasma Build

Hi guys,

Tom here, I'm 22, Aussie and new to CNCzone. I'm a 4th year mechatronics engineering student, grew up on a farm and been sticking things together with a mig since I could walk. We've got fairly decent workshop as my father is a boiler maker by trade and we're always making/repairing farm equipment. Anyway I've always wanted a CNC plasma and I had the spare cash so I got to work buying parts.

Fast forward a few months, plenty of late nights and its up and running, works as well as I'd hoped. Mach 3/Smooth Stepper Control, NEMA34 steppers and 06B chain drive on X & Y axes. Linear guides I've manufactured from 5mm flat and machined square groove rollers. It was never built for super duper accuracy, more so a tough, reliable and cheap. It's got a resolution of 0.7mm and positioning accuracy fairly close to that. MINITHC for height control. Cost me just under $4000 excluding the plasma source. Running a 60A Chinese source, organizing a unimig razorcut 45 as I'm limited to single-phase.

In the future, I'd like to add a rotational axis and set up for oxy-fuel cutting. Any advice/feedback is appreciated. Happy to answer any questions or post more photos.

Cheers,
Tom

http://www.cnczone.com/forums/attach...d=368710&stc=1http://www.cnczone.com/forums/attach...d=368712&stc=1http://www.cnczone.com/forums/attach...d=368714&stc=1http://www.cnczone.com/forums/attach...d=368716&stc=1http://www.cnczone.com/forums/attach...d=368718&stc=1http://www.cnczone.com/forums/attach...d=368720&stc=1http://www.cnczone.com/forums/attach...d=368722&stc=1http://www.cnczone.com/forums/attach...d=368724&stc=1

https://www.facebook.com/tommcc21/vi...12991758738912

any reason for the chain drive? what is the repeatably of the table?

I was deciding between toothed belt and chain drive, chain was cheaper and I could grab it off the shelf at my local bearing shop. Haven't measured repeatability (I'll get back to you) but it's definitely sub millimeter. The biggest limitation of the chain drive is the resolution. (15tooth * 3/8"pitch) / 200steps/rev = 0.028'' or about 0.7mm. But, good enough for what I'm doing.

Tom, great to see another Aussie plasma build. I was originally going to use chain drive but then I started playing with a manufacturing business that bought a lot of laser cutting so I upgraded to rack and pinion and made my first cuts this month.

http://i210.photobucket.com/albums/b...psavb99qvq.jpg

I gotta take some more photos as this one is a bit out of date. My accuracy is about 0.07m and I was hoping to be +- 0.1mm.
I'm running LinuxCNC and an experimental branch for torch height control using LinuxCNC's PID based features. Its still a bit early to know if it will work. So far so good but it is fun making that first cut!

Hey Tom, looks good. I'm also new to CNC plasma stuff. I'm 56 and having a go at building a plasma for cutting decorative patterns in unwanted beer kegs. Make good fire pots. I have a Unimig Razor cut 45, but it doesn't have the cnc extra output ports. Did you end up using the same plasma and if so did you have the one with the factory cnc ports?
Am at the point of hooking my plasma up to the controller. A mate has built a 3 axis controller and we need to hookup to the board to fire, feedback that it has fired and voltage for thc control. Any help would be appreciated.

Cheers Stew

Hobart, Tas

Tom that seems to be a very heavy duty table for a plasma.... are you planning on cutting very thick plate or adding a water table? why so heavy table...looks like you could park a car on that baby....
Rob
PS you dont use a water table or vacuum system on your table?

Yep I ended up going with the unimig razor cut 45 with the factory cnc port (Just voltage divider, arc ok and torch on) could just wire straight in using the miniTHC or similar if you don't mind opening the case or I'm sure unimig in melbourne could install the cnc ports in your machine. Very happy with the unimig machine, cuts much straighter in thicker plate than the larger chinese plasma.

Yep, probably over engineered, but when I fork a sheet of 16mm plate on (near 400kg) I'm glad it's solid, always square and level.

I've cnc plasma cutting machine but I'm new to it. I've dsp 501 to control it. I don't know how to configure dsp parameters. Including ctting speed for motors and how much ampere torch i should use?. Can anabody help me to configure my dsp for cnc plasma cutting machine. And which software to use for drawing and then convert it into a format required for cnc plasma cutter.?
Waiting for reply.
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Just an update, got the oxy set up on the table for a job cutting 2'' plate https://www.cnczone.com/forums/attac...d=403630&stc=1https://www.cnczone.com/forums/attac...d=403632&stc=1