[plain ol Bill]

OK folks I will start to document the build of my 5 x 10 plasma table build. There have been a lot of inspirational builds made and I would like to thank each of you for your contributions . Jcar's build was especially an inspiration to me. I have been asking questions for quite awhile now and getting ideas from a lot of places. I have unabashedly stolen ideas from other threads on this site and others. I have used manual plasmas for years and fully understand just how nasty these things can be. So the choice was either a water table or a vent system to get rid of the black nasty stuff. I chose a water table because of the simplicity of and quietness of operation, versus a blower to the outside of the building. A blower in the winter also would have exausted any/all warm air in the shop outside also. Another benefit of a water table is using the water to help control warpage from heat.
The decision of size – likely most, if not all, of my cutting will be 4 x 8 sheet material. BUT knowing Murphys Law prevails on most everything I do I decided I might as well make it large enough to drown that damn Murphy in it! I decided to use “V” tracks and wheels for my system. One reason was their cost was lower than any super accurate linear rail system I had investigated. Let’s face it – plasma is not the most accurate cutting system there is and this system will in all likelihood be more accurate that the plasma machine anyway.
I believe building the table was for me going to be the easy part of this project since I have a lot of steel fabrication experience in years past. I decided to make the table just a little over 5 x 10 so the inside measures 62 x 122. That gives me a couple of inches to play with on sheet size. I also thought a low table might be better since I don’t have a lot of head room in my shop w/ just 10 ft. eaves (if any of you build a shop be SURE to consider head room and then add another 2 ft. or more to that!). So currently my table is 21” from the floor to the top of the table itself. I figure I can always add legs to pick it up further if and when I need to but will start out like it is.
I found the concept for the water table on I believe a Thermal Dynamics web site and liked the ideas so I followed their concept for my table. I will try to keep this thread updated as I progress further folks. I’m not afraid to ask questions about things so if I can help you in return ask away.
Pics are of my progress so far.

[plain ol Bill]

I will add some more pics in a couple of replys to the thread guys once I figure out how. For some reason I'm not getting them up.

[DRL]

OH BOY!!!! A new project. Figure those pictures out and let us watch over your shoulder every step of the way. Where's Tenino? I'm in SW WA and would love to come give you a hand, probably not close enough.
DRL

[plain ol Bill]

DRL I am in Tenino, just N of Centralia or SE of Olympia. I'm still trying to figure out how to get some more pics up but not having any luck. I'll try resizing one and see if that works.
Well I don't know what I did but it worked! Thats all for now folks.

[supertechster]

Very, Very nice! Got a couple of questions...
What Voltage and Current do you use for the plasma head?
What does the water do exactly? Instantly cool the cut? What about the 'slag'?
Top Left pic:Wife likes the PINK chair.... How much? (or where can I get one like it for her).

[douglasco]

hey notasupertechster - not good for your reputation to post in the first thread you read in a forum.

Bill, Nice work, nice shop. I think an overhead should have been the first thing i put in. Whats the yellow press do?

[plain ol Bill]

The yellow press is one I made for hot forging work. It has a 4" bore cylinder on one side and a 6" on the other. I can squish hot iron really well using it. Most of the work done on it is in making damascus steel for custom knives. The overhead has a beam running down the length of the shop and then I have other beams that shoot off to the sides also. I will have to add one more beam over my table (of course the one place I have left to put the table was the one place I did not put a beam up when I built the shop. That damn Murphy strikes again!). I can handle 2000# overhead w/ my chain fall but the little Horrible Freight elec hoist is just good for about 1000# w/ a two part line hookup. The big green machine is a 110# air hammer for forging work.

Supertechster I found that chair at a thrift store for $5 and it has served me well. My knees are shot so I do most of my work sitting down when I can. Currently I have a 30 amp. Esab plasma that I use manually. I will be purchasing a Hypertherm 1250 for use w/ the table. It will run off 220V, single phase. The water table is primarily to catch the extremely fine dross the plasma system blows out of the kerf when cutting. Without a method of catching that fine dross your shop (and lungs) will be black in a very short time. The water also will splash onto the bottom of the plate being cut and cool it therefore helping to eliminate distortion. I also plan to use and oxy/acet torch w/ the table for burning heavy plate. But the torch will be a future addition as I want to get the table up and going first.

The table is 95% complete and I still have a gantry/drive system to build. Once I have a gantry that will move freely up and down the table, and I am happy with, I will then order in the electronics package for it all from Tom Caudle at CandCNC.

[plain ol Bill]

The channels and angles were laid out and drilled before assy. started. The rack gears will set under the angle and flush w/ the outside edge of it. IE: the angle protrudes 1/2" past the side of the channel and the rack is 1/2" wide.
To test the lay out I laid the angles on the channels and droped 4-5 bolts in each one. I straighted one angle to a tight wire stretched from end to end. I put a piece of 1/8" welding rod under the wire on both ends. Then I used another piece of weld wire as a feeler gauge to straighten the angle and bolt it down.
I then clamped a short piece of fl. bar to the outside of each angle and cut another pc. of bar to length (71 3/8" lg.) and used this as a gauge to set the remaining angle to width for bolting.
Now that I know the holes will line up and work for this I can take the angles back off and wait till my "V" wheels and track get here. Then I can drill the track and the top leg of the angle to bolt the tracks on. I will drill all the parts, check hole's w/ a temporary bolting up, dis-assemble and paint the angles before final bolt down. Thats all for now folks - time to wait for parts to get here hopefully this week.

[Weldtutor]

OK folks I will start to document the build of my 5 x 10 plasma table build.

Great looking start to your table.

Good descriptions & pictures of your build methods are sure to help to inspire others.
Thanks for sharing.

[millman52]

Nice job Bill, I'll continue to follow your progress.

I built my table to handle Plasma & ox/fuel , leaving both systems mounted at all times. I've been thinking a good bit lately about finishing the plasma "Z" axis & purchasing a plasma rig for it. Just a case of to many irons in the fire right now.

[plain ol Bill]

I have been working on the gantry the last couple of days. and it is progressing well I think. Will get some pics of it posted up in the next couple of days.
My bearings and "V" rails got here. I was putting the angles that the rails ride on down again today to check a dimension and spent all afternoon chasing 1/8" out of parallel somewhere. I thought I had checked this before but will likely have to slot a few holes. The rails need to be within 1/16" of parallel to each other if the bearings are going to run right. I'll figure it out tomorrow - my frustration level was getting too high today so I just shut the shop up and came in.

[Jcar]

Bill,

All I can say is WOW!!!! That's a sweet looking machine you've got going there. I'm looking forward to watching your progress.

[plain ol Bill]

I am not the fastest person in the world folks but have made a little progress and want to update the thread. I got the side rails on and straight then happened to think "how am I going to take these off, paint them, and put them back on again in the exact same place?" So I welded some tabs onto the channels butted against the angles. After drilling for the "V" rails and painting they went back down without any problems. I then drilled the "V" rails themselves and bolted them on.
The gantry side plates are made from 1/4" steel plate and some angle iron to make pockets for the cross pieces to sit into. I don't have the hardware to bolt it all up so took some pics after clamping and testing for width and rolling back and forth. The Mechmate web site gave me the idea of attaching the gear racks using 3M VHB (very high bond) tape to hold them in place. Time will tell but everything I hear about the tape is that it is very capable of holding these rack gears in place. Not a lot of room in the area for mechanical fasteners so if they ever fall off I'll break out the welder on them!

[Apples]

ahhh, I dunno abut the sticky tape lol.

Will be interesting to see how it goes.

[theweldor]

They glue in windshields, I have to believe that will hold them well.

[Apples]

It will be interesting to see how it does hold up. I guess try it, see how it goes and if it falls off just bolt it on.

I assume that this is some kind of NASA tape?

[plain ol Bill]

I don't know if it is NASA or not but they use it too hold truck trailers and parts of cars together with. I ran a sample wherein I took a piece of 1/2" square stock and put it on a pc. of angle iron. After a couple of days I tried to get it off and had to get a pry bar to do. Will let you know how it holds up when I get the table in service.

[gene]

Nice table........Just curious if anybody here has ever thought of building a plasma cut set up based on a circular pivot idea rather than a gantry?......Guess the kink in the road would be converting staight line steps.........

[tinman13]

Nice looking table Bill, I'm only about 30 min. away from you if you need some help on setting up the CandCNC stuff let me know, I'm no genius but sometimes a sounding board helps!
Good Luck, Steve

[Big John T]

Nice table........Just curious if anybody here has ever thought of building a plasma cut set up based on a circular pivot idea rather than a gantry?......Guess the kink in the road would be converting staight line steps.........

No kinks if you use EMC2... they have the kinematics to handle that.

John