Hello everybody!
First post here on CNCzone.
A bit about me:
I'm a bit of a metalworking hobbyist; I have a lathe and milling machine, ironworker, tubing bender, and several welders in my shop. I spend a bit of time with the TIG welder making non-structural brackets, braces, etc. for my construction business. I also do a bit of automotive welding/repair. I'm an ex-Navy Nuclear Electronics Technician and have a solid background in electronics, and continue to use those skills on and off. I have a good deal of electronics test equipment in my shop, including an oscilloscope. I am also a reasonably skilled computer user; I used to be the network administrator for a LAN on the USS John C Stennis, and owned my own PC repair and consulting business for a few years. I can muddle my way through Solidworks and Autocad, but am far from proficient at either program. I have a basic understanding of CNC hardware and software, but really need some help from more experienced people in this field.
I have a friend that owns a 5x10 plasma table and I have been fortunate enough to be able to use it when needed. It has been enough to give me a very basic entry-level understanding into CNC. Last year I purchased my own 4x8 CNC plasma table. It's a budget machine, but was set up well and working in a daily production environment. I paid next to nothing for it; the Powermax 1100 alone was worth more than what I paid for the entire setup. I fired it up and did a bit of playing around with it, but I knew that I wanted to do some upgrades and modifications. I haven't had time to work on it this summer, but now that winter is around the corner my weekends and evenings will allow some extra free time. So, I'm looking for some advice! I don't plan to use the table for any kind of production work; it will strictly be a hobby-type project that will help me to build my CAD skills and learn more about CNC. Here's a short video I threw together of the machine right after I bought it:
https://youtu.be/mI-VzClAdF4
I would like to accomplish a few things with this table:
1. Add water trays to limit the smoke/dust/etc. in my shop. I already have most of the material for this...but haven't finished building yet.
2. Add automatic torch height control
3. Get rid of the 486/66 and use my shop PC for control.
4. Upgrade my motion control board; maybe smoothstepper? Some other interface board?
5. Purchase some new motion control and CAM software; Mach3/4 and sheetcam is my current plan
I'm willing to spend some time and $$ on making this table work reliably. I really don't know that much about CNC yet, so any advice on my project would be greatly appreciated. If you were in my shoes, how would you proceed?
Thanks in advice for your help!