[ed_v]

Hello,

My name is Ed and I'm new to the forum. I have been involved with hot rods, 4x4's, tractors, and pretty much anything with a motor for as long as I can remember. I'm considering buying a Torchmate 1 plasma table or building my own. My question is this:

Besides the table (I want a water table), What are all the components needed to build a cnc plasma table?

These are the parts I know of that is needed:

1. Controller
2. (2) side rails
3. gantry rail
4. the (2) gantry side rail pieces (not sure what they're called)
5. the z-axis
6. motor assembly

Can you fill me in on what I'm not getting?

I'm just trying to figure these machines out. I've done hobby fabrication for many years and I'm pretty electronic saavy, so the thought of building one does not scare me, but I do wonder if it is the smart thing to do economically.

Thanks,
Ed

[Teknition]

You can buy a premade table from Torchmate, Dynatorch, etc or you can build from kits or you can build from components, or from scratch. It all depends on your fabrication skills, fab equipment available to you, and your knowledge of electronics. Ive been a mechanic for 25 years and deal with electrical systems and electronics on a daily basis but I wouldnt go with components or a scratch build.

In all cases, for cnc use, I recommend staying away from the cheap chinese plasma cutters that are available. Most use high frequency starting and wreak havoc on electronics. I would recommend a Hypertherm plasma cutter.

-The PREMADE route means you lay out the most cash and are up and cutting with minor assembly and adding a plasma cutter- they can supply it or you can). Check the manufacturers individual forums for feedback on customer satisfaction and support. I think most of the major brands are well supported but you will have to research that on your own.

-The KIT route means you can save some cash and do some of the work yourself. It takes longer than the premade route and depends on your ambition level and fabrication skills as to how long it takes. You will buy a gantry kit (browse around Precision Plasma LLC to see the gantry components) and an electronics kit (browse around www.candcnc.com to see the electronics components) and then fabricate the steel table/water table/vacuum table part yourself. You supply the plasma cutter. Some tweaking and tuning of settings and a bit of trial and error cutting is required but there is lots of free support available. I have bought from both these companies and their support is top notch. There are also plenty of guys on this forum and candcnc's support forum that can assist you with the electronics from candcnc. You can see my build thread here http://www.cnczone.com/forums/precis...ble_build.html

The COMPONENTS route means you will shop for all the individual components from different vendors and try to assemble them into a working machine. This can be the cheapest if you know what you are doing or the most expensive if you dont. Trying to get billybobs stuff to communicate properly with fastfreddys stuff can be a challenge. Compatability would be my main concern and secondly would be support. If you buy all the electronics from 30 different vendors to try to save a few bucks, who if anybody will support it if it doesnt work?


The SCRATCH build (can be the cheapest if you know what you are doing or the most expensive if you dont) is a very long road in my opinion and is fine if you are an electronics wizard and enjoy the triumphs and pitsfalls of building electronics more than actually cutting steel. If your main goal is to cut some cool stuff out of steel, not figure out what a pnp transistor or a zener diode is, I would avoid this route.
Also support for this route would be even worse than going the component route.

The bottom line is, you have to do some research and see how you want to proceed. Before I made my decision, I read the plasma forums for weeks and pretty much had candcnc's website as well as precisionplasma's website memorized.

Brad

[jimcolt]

Good advice from Technition....I agree completely!

Jim Colt Hypertherm

[seanmurphy265]

I've been building my own since late February early March, and I am nearing the end. Right now I am learning all the software sheet cam, mach3, and I am ready to make my first cuts. I could not afford to go out and buy a kit when I first started. I built a Plasmabot 4.0 and so far I am happy with the outcome. Precision Plasma has came out with a hobby/home shop level kit that is nice, and not badly priced. Eagle Plasma has a nice affordable table as well.

There are trade-offs for sure!

If I were doing it again and going the DIY route; I would follow some different steps.
1. Make sure I had every single part on hand before I started the build. I am talking from a single washer to computer with software absolutely everything needed to get it running.

2. I would dedicate one solid week to building the table. If you have some fabrication skills and all the tools to do the job you can get have everything built in one week. It will take you longer to get your software/electronics going unless you have experience.

3. Do not wing it! I winged my table design (not the gantry or rails) and that takes up more time. Sit down draw your table out with a cad software, or follow the plans from your kit.
A. This will allow you to pre-cut every piece of material. Driving to your local steel company for an extra piece of tubing takes up build time.
B. This will keep your table build on track.
C. If you follow the plan from your kit this will make your software setup quicker, because you will be wasting time measuring figuring out your cut area.

4. Follow the plan..follow the plan!
I deviated from the table print and built my table larger.

I do not have that much time in my table. It has taken me a long time because I have not had the time to sit down and work on it. Sometimes I let the table sit for 2-3 weeks, and only worked on it 3-5 hours at a time.

I have a little over $3,000.00 for a 5'x9' table so that part I am happy. I literally built the largest table I could afford!

Know your limits!
I am a good fabricator and welder that's what I did for several years.

I am good at figuring out software and good with computers.

I am not so good at electronics.
So I purchased a ready to run kit from Probotix.
I purchased my THC from Eagle Plasma
Both companies helped me with Mach3 setup and with the small amount of wiring that I had to do.

Whatever your weaknesses are in a particular area make sure you get a product with good support.

There are several ways to go and there are positives and negatives with each. A complete package cost more $$$, but you are running quicker. The DIY method can save you a lot of $$, but it takes longer for you to start cutting.

If I had an existing business with good customers and income flowing in already; I would go with a Torchmate or similar route.

[bdrotaru]

you can watch on ebay. there are a few good plans to buy from there. In my opinion you will realise that is much much cheaper to build.
Depending on machine size you can build your machine with 1500$ (4x4) or 1800$ (4x8)
You can use rest of money to buy a good plasma source.

[ed_v]

Thanks for the great info guys. It is really appreciated.

Ed

[tjb1]

I'm doing a scratch build and it's not as extreme as tech made it, you don't need to build drivers and everything but maybe I am looking at the steps wrong. I consider mine scratch because I designed the table myself, I am using carriages and electronics from cncrp but I don't really think that would make it a kit or component build. Right now it is looking to be $2500 for a 4'x8'(few inches overcut per side) cutting area table(table size is 120"x80") with rack and pinion x-y and acme z

[tjb1]

Duplicate

[Teknition]

I'm doing a scratch build and it's not as extreme as tech made it, you don't need to build drivers and everything but maybe I am looking at the steps wrong. I consider mine scratch because I designed the table myself, I am using carriages and electronics from cncrp but I don't really think that would make it a kit or component build. Right now it is looking to be $2500 for a 4'x8'(few inches overcut per side) cutting area table(table size is 120"x80") with rack and pinion x-y and acme z

I woud class your as more of a component build. Building from scratch isnt buying a carriage assembly and premade drives. Scratch built would be buying a chunk of raw aluminum and a bag of bearings and then machining your own carriage assembly. The drives would be made from a bag full of electronic components that you solder onto a circuit board.

Brad

[pimpbike]

Depending on your skills scratch building is not a bad way to go. In the short term buying premade is great. It gets you cutting and making money right away. In the long term when a component in your system craps out you'll likely have no clue how to repair it. You'll be at the mercy of the manufacturer especially if they are using proprietary components. When you build it yourself you pretty much know your system inside out which makes troubleshooting a lot faster, easier and cheaper. If you decide to buy a premade machine, Stick with a Mach 3 based machine. So that excludes Torchmate.

[MAS]

been there done that. you'll regret it.
most clunky unpredictable software on the market.

[pimpbike]

been there done that. you'll regret it.
most clunky unpredictable software on the market.

Sorry but I run over 200k worth of cnc Equipment on Mach 3 because the "industrial grade" controllers were flaky,impractical and too pricey to repair. My machines now have 10x more capability than they had new and now I know how to repair my own machines if I need to. You're obviously doing something wrong if you find it unpredictable.