[outlawstc]

Hello all,
For the past week I have been wandering the world wide web looking for a good set of plans for a build yourself plasma CNC table.. I have had little luck!
I'm not sure who all is familiar with arduino micro controllers and reprap 3d printers.. If your not familiar with them look into it and see what it enables as a social conjoining of great minds!

This is what i see.. I see the opportunity for this CNC zone community to create a new form of personal revenue!

If the people on this forum wanted to we could create a very simple reliable basic plasma table which could have its parts manufactured and sold by any member who wanted to make a few extra bucks im sure such a cnc table would require part's that are milled, lathed, and plasma cut!.

What happens is everyone has the detailed shematics , bill of materials, and access to a resourceful database (created by forum members) for the steps of assembling the well thought out design..

I feel that many of the parts on the market for making cnc tables are overpriced simply because of lack of manufacturing of such parts..

The goal would be to make the system as simple and reliable as possible..
To design all the parts needed with the intention of fellow machinist, welders, "builders" to be able to manufacture the parts.. Doing this will increase availability of the open source system parts and will create a competitive market for the hobbyist to be able to obtain a more affordable quality cnc table!

Anyone who is interested in this feel free to respond with ideas or what they can possibly contribute to make this idea a move forward. also feel free to send me a personal message.

Br,
Outlaw

[jimcolt]

I suggest looking at some of the existing company sites along these lines, two of the best are: www.candcnc.com for drives, motors, height control electronics, electronic interfaces (cnc to plasma), etc. Also Precision Plasma LLC , they produce some well engineered mechanical machine kits and components that essentially can bolt up to the equipment from www.candcnc ,

Keep in mind that electronics have to be designed to work in industrially noisy applications. The plasma cutter produces an arc to the metal and is of pulse width modulated current control, both of which can easily disrupt non filtered/isolated electronics components such as the Arduino modules. Most of those that have built their own complete cnc plasma's, and rebuilt them a few times until they had adequate acceleration with minimal following errors in order to meet the speed requirements to get a good plasma cut.......have realized the amount of time (and time is money) that was invested...and may be reluctant to offer their work for nothing to others.

I have built two cnc plasma machines in my life, both took a lot more time and re-work than I expected. Since then I have bought 4 different turnkey machines from reputable suppliers.....and found that the engineering was already done. The software was designed for plasma cutting, the machines had acceleration, fluidic motion and were able to cut at the constant speeds that make the plasma torch work best. To me, and to many, the turnkey machines that are available in the $15k to $20k range are a bargain. 15 years ago a machine with this capability would be in the $40-$50k range.

Personally I think your idea of designing a universal, easy to build machine and sharing the plans with anyone is a great idea. After the work is done and tested however...it will probably have good value, and someone will decide to sell it for its value. I'd be happy to offer my advice from a component level and 36 years of experience with cnc plasma cutting.If someone could pull this off it would be an awesome feat. Ulitimately though....much of this type of engineering has been done, and is reasonably priced on the sites I mentioned!

Jim Colt Hypertherm

[outlawstc]

Jim Colt,

Thanks for the reply and input!
I watched some videos with you in them recently! Giving Chucke2009 a tour of hypertherm.
The past 3 weeks I have been thinking about which brand of plasma cutter i want to buy. That video plus some reviews i have read recently Have leaned me in the direction of Hypertherm..

Hypertherm has what I would call patriotic corporate ethics also quality and excellent customer support from what I've read.. Plus I like the fact Hypertherm has invested R&D into consumable design to create longer lasting consumables.

Next week I will be purchasing a Hypertherm Powermax 45 from my local welding supply.. is there a Jim Colt discount coupon code? Lol just kidding
You can buy other brands like Everlast, Longevity with more amps per buck but I like the fact Hypertherm is a USA company trying to follow the corporate ethics of the past!

Plasma cutter reliability has really increased in the recent years since they developed IGBT power switches.. The past mosfet designs fell prone to thermal runaway which would lead to sequential failure of the parallel Fets .. IGBT being more immune to this problem has increased the reliability in all high power plasma cutting machines that use that particular power switch tech..

I understand the situation of EMI problems between the controller circuits and the plasma arc. I understand there needs to be shielding and electronic filters to cancel or block this interference.. I have oscilloscopes, lcr meters, a logic analyzer, a spectrum analyzer... Electronics is a hobby of mine.. as well as programming micro controllers.. Although i am not a complete expert in EMI filtering I understand the basics.. I would use a spectrum analyzer to test and see the common bands of EMF a plasma arc produces then base filter design on removing the noise i suppose...

It would really be nice to get a group of knowledgeable people together to make open source electronics! Also open source mechanical parts! As well as a data based of the design explaining why filters are used in the locations they are so people can learn! then possibly expand on the concepts to further enhance the open source idea!

Br,
Outlaw

[Torchhead]

I guess it depends on what you value your time at. The era of "stick building" a CNC plasma table has evolved into the quest to build it as quickly as possible because the goal of most builders is the RESULT (cutting metal with a plasma torch) and not a learning experience. We have been selling CNC related electronics since 2004. It started with cards and I even published a free circuit for a primitive but usable THC. Others have been supplying (and still do) things like BoB's. The guys that want to tinker and spend hours over a hot soldering iron and learning electronics 101 are dwindling. The market has evolved to one where the goal is to get a machine that actually works and allows them to start cutting as soon as possible. The whole driver is not a quest for knowledge but a way to save money. It's MORE than just EMI. There are entire books written on EMI and RFI suppression. My average customer is a welder/fabricator or small shop owner and they just want a CNC table that works. They are not computer guys or programmers. They MIGHT own a DVM They have zero interest in knowing how to build a watch they just want to know what time it is!

As far as the mechanics there are dozens of ways to build a linear motion table and thousands of possible combinations. There are sources of machined components (cncrouterparts, precisionplasma, veloxcnc) there are dozens of build threads.

Don't get me wrong...I think open source is great. It is incredible what you can find on Source Forge and some of the forums. Microprocessors are evolving at the speed of light and getting faster and cheaper.
I may be wrong but the number of builders interested in a build-your-own-electronics-plasma-controller are so few that you may be a group of two. You WILL get a lot of interest from persons in countries that have limited access to pre-built electronics asking you to teach them how to build their own or just ripping off the plans so you will see it on EBAY

TOMcaudle
ww.CandCNC.com
Tired Old Grizzled Electronics Engineer

[BTA PLASMA]

We are probably one of one CNC plasma mfg that actually machines almost all components in house. The electronics we use come from CandCNC but we invested heavily into CNC milling (VMCs and bridge mills) and turning centers (Mazak lathes). The best part is 95% of all our equipment is actually paid off so our overhead is very small. 8020 and extrusions like it do not start out strait. Even the machined extrusions will twist and bow over time with very little heat cycles. A couple of the older names in CNC plasma will tell you plasma is not that accurate so you don't need accurate components. The reality is if you do not start with an accurate base the errors add up and your end result is very little repeatability and very poor plasma cuts.

For that reason you will see CNC plasma tables in the 100K and up realm that have welded, stress relieved and machined steel components. The bad part about this is the pricing is so high. A quarter of that can come from the CNC controls so depending on what you are doing be ready for expense as controls have evolved and the best systems in the world offer unbelievable results. We are going to take it up a notch and offer those welded, stress relieved and machined frames for pennies on the dollars because we can do it in house. Everything we do (up to 10x40 CNC plasma) is offered in full tables and gantry kits.
Plasmaland

[maillemaker]

Hi Outlaw:

I am also new to this. I make medieval armour and currently a set of gauntlets takes about 40 hours to make. About 15 hours of that is cutting out and deburing the plates. I think a plasma cutter could save me a lot of time as I can easily digitize my pattern (in fact I already have) and thus just want to cut it out.

There is a web site called Cloud based PDM for managing and sharing CAD - GrabCAD and it already has 3D CAD models of 3D router and plasma cutter designs. I don't know how good they are.

I've only been looking into this a few days but like you I kind of expected some lower-cost hobbyist solutions. I found one fellow's CNC router made from MDF on YouTube for like $400. I was kind of hoping to build something in the $1000-$2000 range.

I've been learning a lot of brand names here in the last few days and am amazed and dismayed that a lot of the manufacturers of these things are stuck in the 1980's "Call for Quote" mode of doing business instead of putting the prices on their web site. And it looks like most low-end systems start at around $8000 and that doesn't include the plasma torch or other things to make the system go.

The GoTorch system looks intriguing - it is currently on sale for about $3000 but does not include a torch nor a THC. But this is the closest I have come to finding a hobbyist solution.

I am surprised that some hobbyist has not made a complete DIY CNC plasma cutter solution and put it on the web. But, like I said, I'm only a few days into learning about this stuff.

I'm firing up the GrabCad designs now and looking them over.

Steve

[Tkamsker]

I was calculating a table lately for a Project around 2k for 2m x 1.5 m but the ballbearing spindles and rails are really expensive bu maybe a standard spindle will do itas well ,..