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IndustryArena Forum > CNC Plasma, EDM / Waterjet Machines > CNC Plasma / Oxy Fuel Cutting Machines > Retrofitting a plasma cutter and need motor reccomendations.
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  1. #21
    Join Date
    May 2015
    Posts
    684

    Re: Retrofitting a plasma cutter and need motor reccomendations.

    Quote Originally Posted by Jim Dawson View Post
    Sounds like you are good to go, now it's just a matter of choosing a control system.
    Assuming you are not wedded to Windows and you go with Clearpath Step/Direction controlled drives, consider LinuxCNC and a Mesa 7i76e ethernet card. There is also a $70 Mesa addon board that measures torch voltage and there is a number of ways to do THC with it within LinuxCNC. Or you could wire in your existing THC and let it control the Z axis.

    If you wanted to use your existing motors, there would be other Mesa solutions to drive them.

    The 7i76e has the advantage of having 32 inputs and in my experience, you can never have enough when building a plasma machine.
    Rod Webster
    www.vehiclemods.net.au

  2. #22
    Join Date
    Jun 2013
    Posts
    19

    Re: Retrofitting a plasma cutter and need motor reccomendations.

    Quote Originally Posted by rodw View Post
    Assuming you are not wedded to Windows and you go with Clearpath Step/Direction controlled drives, consider LinuxCNC and a Mesa 7i76e ethernet card. There is also a $70 Mesa addon board that measures torch voltage and there is a number of ways to do THC with it within LinuxCNC. Or you could wire in your existing THC and let it control the Z axis.

    If you wanted to use your existing motors, there would be other Mesa solutions to drive them.

    The 7i76e has the advantage of having 32 inputs and in my experience, you can never have enough when building a plasma machine.
    My boss ordered pair of clearpath motors. Ill keep that board in mind. Still not sure which way I am gonna go for control. Once I get the drives hooked up ill figure that out. For basic operation it will probably be linuxcnc or grbl with a uno. If those don't perform all the things I need ill upgrade.

    I believe our current TH should work fine.

    And I don't really care as to OS.

  3. #23
    Join Date
    May 2015
    Posts
    684

    Re: Retrofitting a plasma cutter and need motor reccomendations.

    I have never used grbl but have written my own interrupt driven stepgen for the Arduino and Linuxcnc with the Mesa 7i76e near doubled the velocities I could achieve. Speed is important for plasma so I would skip Grbl as I doubt it will have enough grunt to achieve the velocities a plasma machine requires..
    Rod Webster
    www.vehiclemods.net.au

  4. #24
    Join Date
    Jun 2013
    Posts
    19

    Re: Retrofitting a plasma cutter and need motor reccomendations.

    Quote Originally Posted by rodw View Post
    I have never used grbl but have written my own interrupt driven stepgen for the Arduino and Linuxcnc with the Mesa 7i76e near doubled the velocities I could achieve. Speed is important for plasma so I would skip Grbl as I doubt it will have enough grunt to achieve the velocities a plasma machine requires..
    I am doubting I will use it for the final control but it (An arduino) will probably be my choice for getting everything initially setup. After that will be figuring out what control best fits our setup once I have everything wired up. First thing after the motors are installed is finding the wiring pattern for the limits/E-stops and making sure everything is grounded well. (This machine was always very electrically noisy even with plasma off before so hopefully ripping everything out and starting over will work.)

  5. #25
    Join Date
    Jan 2014
    Posts
    28

    Re: Retrofitting a plasma cutter and need motor reccomendations.

    use a vital systems controller with there plasma screen the hilcon is one of the best industrial grade and works with no problems there support is tops . connect up some clear path motors to a 5 to 1 or 4 to 1 rack drive youll be fine
    want a cheaper controller do a masso just make sure you size the motors right do the math make it do 1000 ipm youll have a good machine
    buy using clear path motors you do not need drivers just power and step direction wires they are closed loop servo that never miss a step and are fully programmable
    if you don't want any of this go cand cnc what ever you do THC is important I think vital system does it the best with there screen

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