[slammed99]

Im looking to buy a entry level cnc plasma table, something in the 4x4 or 5x5 range, im completely new to these tables i have been doing some reading on them, Was hoping you all could give me some info on what not to buy and what to buy.

[PITEK]

My advice would be save a bit of more money and buy a reliable table, this would save you a lot of trouble in the long run and money too. You can also try to build your own to your specs but that takes a bit more time and patience. My local welding supply store has a Plasmacam that runs very good with rarely any problems which has made me want to buy one. Cheap prices look very good at first but it may turn into trouble later on. From my personal experience I will NOT recommend Lightning CNC tables, it has not been good from the start and I am almost double the money of what I paid for it getting it to work and no tech support after I bought the table. Just keep searching around and don't rush into buying.

This is my advice and good luck.

[slammed99]

Thanks for that input, i was looking into the Lightning CNC. have any of you all used the Pro cut cnc tables? I have also been looking in to the Burn Tables with Tracer Technology

[bings]

We have a Esprit Viper 2011 machine with Hyperterm 260HD Plasma with Phoenix V9.7 software touch screen control and true hole tech this M/C is 4X2 mtr It also has a gas cutting head fitted,only a few hundred hour running extraction unit included it is surplus to our requirments now and will be going up for sale soon Good machine good backup from Esprit i would buy the same agian if i needed to.If you require any more info please email me ([email protected]).

[Torchhead]

Avoid tables that do not have the THC as part of the package (installed and working).
Avoid vendors with poor support. Look for vendors that have a phone number and some form of on-line support FREE Support forever is worthless if you can't use it!
Avoid tables that have poor performance. There are minimum numbers that predict if it will cut sharp turns and square corners. The vendor should be able to tell you the specs INCLUDING the most important number for ACCELERATION. Avoid any table with numbers below 15 IPS/sec. If you cut thinner material than 1/8 that number needs to be even higher.
High performance does NOT mean high speeds. A faster table is not better as long as you can hit about double your highest cutting speed/ The higher the speed the lower the possible acceleration
Avoid tables with no manuals on the electronics. Someday you will want to do something (like add Home switches) and you need to know how to access those inputs.
Avoid tables that use the cheap TBA6560 based import cards. Unless you buy spares off EBAY.
Check the warranty....who do you call if something quits working. Avoid vendors that won't state the warranty or that pass you off to the warranty and support of THEIR vendors.
Make sure the vendor includes some form of IHS (Touch-off) either mechanical or electronic
Ask how you connect your plasma up and make it work with their controls Will it even work with your plasma cutter?
Make sure all of the software they supply is FULLY Licensed (you get a license) and not DEMO or copies of their one license.
Just because its in the checklist of features does no mean it actually works.

You do not have to give up these things on an entry level table. Research and Educate yourself and troll other forums. Learn from the mistakes of others.



"The bitter taste of poor performance and bad support lingers long after the sweet taste of low price fades"

TOMcaudle
www.candcnc.com

[PITEK]

That was complete, solid, crystal clear advice by Torchhead, follow that advice as it will save you many, many headaches.

[Ajancnc]

Check out this CNC Plasma Cutting Machine

If you like this machine then PM or contact me for complete details.

[Torchhead]

Yep...that's a good idea. Buy an entry level table from a vendor 10 time zones away!:tired:

[BTA PLASMA]

We offer HIGH SPEED plasma solutions at bargain pricing. Because we mfg almost everything in house for the mechanics and our overhead is not large you get a great machine

STAR-LAB CNC plasma tables, Plasmaland

[shiner2001]

Run, don't walk, away from Burntables.

http://www.cnczone.com/forums/genera...esolution.html

[Wombilly]

AVOID AVOID EMACH PLASMA, no THC fitted, massive EMC and EMI problems,

[plasmaMac]

Luckily there are some good solid companies out there you can trust with your hard earned cash.

There are machines that have pluses and minus depending on the type of things that are important for you to accomplish. My entry-level machine is a PlasmaCAM. It has served me extremely well. I know that there are some other really great options that are available as well. It is nice to have good options!


All that I can do is tell you what worked for me. Every one is different, so just because I have had nothing but good things to say about my machine, does not mean that my machine would work for your specific requirements.

When I look back on it the best way to describe what I needed it may have started like this: I need a machine that a very small child could potentially operate with ease!

My time (spend well or spend poorly costs something. If I can spend money to optimize the amount of productivity that can get out of my time, then I’ll do it. Because at the end of the day, there is absolutely, no limit to the amount of money that I (or you) can make in a lifetime but there is a limit to the amount of time that we have before any given day ends.

I realized early on that I needed a machine that would allow me to materialize my wildly creative and custom ideas (before I forgot them!) quickly, effective and precisely without the complications that could stifle my overall output. I can be pretty ADHD by how I go about my typical work day and on any given day, I could have a ton of different projects that seem like they are all going on at once. So the fact of the mater is, like most people, I just don’t have a whole lot of spare time to deal with things that are more complicated than they need to be.

Unfortunately, the vast majority of the machines that I looked at seemed this way.
Just straight up, more complicated than things needed to be in order to be effective.

I really needed something that could be dropped off on my doorstep and ready to use within hours. My goal was to be able to start producing with the machine as quickly as possible…and boy did I ever!

One thing that I can’t stress enough, is that if you know exactly what you want (to accomplish) as the end result and you imagine it and live it out in your head for couple of moments, chances are is that you’ll find it exactly what you are looking for.

For me, the PlasmaCAM was exactly what I was looking for. No other machine had anything close to what they offered for the price (totally my opinion). I was most impressed with the ability to be able to go from Design to finished product without having to spend a huge amount of time screwing around 4 or 5 different software programs. No other machine out there had what plasmacam had in terms of a software program that was as powerful as their designedge (Flawless).


A few of the other things that PlasmaCAM offered that were definitely favorable were:

1. PlasmaCAM’s warranty was 3 years (1 year seemed to be pretty common amongst the machines out there)

2. Uses Servo motors ( I really hope that I don’t start a big pissing match over my love of servo motors over steppers. I apologize if I offend anyone, …lets just say that they give me the extra torque that I need, and corner acceleration …definitely way nicer on intricate parts, not to mention higher rates of cut speeds without missing a step!

3. Support is free (it has become pretty standard for most companies to offer free support and some machines probably require more intensive levels of support that others), And in all honesty, depending on how motivated folks are, after you get the machine going, there really hasn’t been a whole lot of reason’s to call George in tech. I imagine he must be like the Maytag repairman or something!

4. Their Ohmic sensing torch height control, requires absolutely zero user in put! That is truly amazing....!

5 They established in 1998. Good track record in the entry level market. PlasmaCAM is definitely one of the most well known out there.

all in all, we are extremely fortunate to have some really great companies that I know will do you well. This thread has some great honest advice on it and I can't thank guys like Tom (Torchhead) enough for their contributions, which for years have undoubtedly shed light and clarity on the often confusing nature of CNC plasma.

Good luck Sir!

JAG

Just a head up..take a closer look at the tracer technology (there are a lot of steps left out of their youtube video, I found out), you'll be able to see how gimmicky the whole thing is if you ask them what it takes actually to digitize the a part (go thru the steps). You can pretty much do what they are doing for less than 10 dollars (i got all of the parts online, installed it on our table, had my fun, then I immediately took it off, because there are way better and faster ways to accomplish the same thing....sans the laser ..... I wouldn't have even bothered until I found out how cheap LED lasers are online!)