$337 Plasma Table

[majerus]

I needed to have some metal parts cut for a project and was tossing around the idea of sendcutsend, or trying out a plasma cutter. Exploring the plasma cutter route, my buddy and I noticed small plasma tables looked really close to 3d printers / laser cutters. With that idea in my head I decided to throw together a plasma cutter controlled by a laser engraver with really incredible results.

Prereqs (Really need this stuff, or a plan to get it)​

• Air Compressor - Clean dry air need to be able to keep up at least 60psi
• 220V outlet , 50 amps. (You can try 110 but expect to fight with breakers tripping)

Purchase​

• Laser Cutter - Longer Ray 5 - 15.7"x15.7" - $159.00
  • Pros:
    • Really like the Longer Ray 5 because it has a touch screen makes starting jobs easy.
    • Also has Wifi so I can send gcode to the machine.
    • For another $100 you can double the length.
  • Cons:
    • Flame sensor .. easily defeated with aluminum foil and electrical tape.
    • Movement Sensor.. also easy to bypass.
• Plasma Cutter - Yeswelder Cut-55DS-PRO - $249.00 or Tooliom TL-50C - $159
  • Note: You must use a Pilot Arc Non-High Frequncy Plasma cutter. Its not worth the pain of messing with the high frequency for the price.
  • I would choose the cheaper one, however i was under a time crunch so sprung for the extra $100 on the Yeswelder.
  • Pros:
    • Works as it should
    • Super Light
  • Cons:
    • None at this time
• Electronic parts
  • 5V Replay one channel - $7
  • Breadboard wires - $7
  • Electrical tape
  • Zip Ties

---

Build​

Wire up the relay that will be used to control the plasma cutter. The outside pin off the laser cutter is 12v, middle is ground, and the other outside is the pwm voltage. Wire them into the relay. From the relay out to the plasma cutter just use some wire and terminals and link it to the plasma cutter.

Next up we need a bracket to mount the plasma cutter to. You can use this 3d file if you want, then after you get the machine running cut it out of metal. From there just use a hose clamp to fix the cutting torch

How to use this thing?​

I would suggest for folks that are not very good with the computer look up lightburn (cost $80). That should let you create brackets and other shapes you will need in projects around the shop. If your more comfortable with a computer use FreeCad, and then import the designs into lightburn.

When you are in lightburn set the laser power to 100%, otherwise the relay may not fire as expected. Speeds and start delay are also configured in lightburn.

My workflow is to import from freecad, into lightburn. From there set the speeds and feeds, then export the gcode. Use the Longer webui to upload the gcode to the machine. Since the machine has a touch screen i kick off the job from there.

Couple of tips

• Cover the control panel with aluminum foil to keep the flame sensor from triggering
• Clamp down one corner of the machine, or use magnets to keep it from moving with the work
• Watch out for the handle hitting the gantry.

How to use this thing?​

I would suggest for folks that are not very good with the computer look up lightburn (cost $80). That should let you create brackets and other shapes you will need in projects around the shop. If your more comfortable with a computer use FreeCad, and then import the designs into lightburn.

When you are in lightburn set the laser power to 100%, otherwise the relay may not fire as expected. Speeds and start delay are also configured in lightburn.

My workflow is to import from freecad, into lightburn. From there set the speeds and feeds, then export the gcode. Use the Longer webui to upload the gcode to the machine. Since the machine has a touch screen i kick off the job from there.

Couple of tips

• Cover the control panel with aluminum foil to keep the flame sensor from triggering
• Clamp down one corner of the machine, or use magnets to keep it from moving with the work
• Watch out for the handle hitting the gantry.

 

[majerus]

Some pics of cuts and such..

 

[WhoWhatNow]

Very cool. Can you post some detailed pictures of the wiring?

 

[WildBill]

Sweet, I am planning on doing this with a cheap Yeswelder plasma cutter and a old laser setup I don't use anymore. Also want to make a water jet cutting head for it using an old pressure washer pump and ruby nozzle.

 

[whateg01]

I've thought about doing that while I get mine back to working. The issues I see are lasers don't usually have a feature for lead in/out. The interface is often either proprietary or limited in functionality. Often no allowance for kerf width.

Can the flame sensor just be disconnected?

Is there a way to implement some sort of THC? Can you use the focus to set the initial height?

Any way to set a pierce height?

 

[majerus]

Very cool. Can you post some detailed pictures of the wiring?

Yea for sure, here ya go. Basically from the laser just power it on, then on the connector find the 12v pin, the middle will be ground and the last outside one will be PWM.

 

[majerus]

Sweet, I am planning on doing this with a cheap Yeswelder plasma cutter and a old laser setup I don't use anymore. Also want to make a water jet cutting head for it using an old pressure washer pump and ruby nozzle.

Should work, make sure its a blowback, pilot arc and non high frequency and you will have no issues.

 

[majerus]

I've thought about doing that while I get mine back to working. The issues I see are lasers don't usually have a feature for lead in/out. The interface is often either proprietary or limited in functionality. Often no allowance for kerf width.

Can the flame sensor just be disconnected?

Is there a way to implement some sort of THC? Can you use the focus to set the initial height?

Any way to set a pierce height?

Use lighburn, it has both the kerf width in the advanced settings, as well as lead in and lead out. You decide on angle and length. I used it for the cuts. The one thing you have to make sure is you set peirce delay which you can see in the test images i was playing with . On 1/8" 1750 mm/s , .6 second pierce delay was the trick at 50 amps.

As for height I manually set it with the thumb screws as seen in the pic.

Kerf this was just one random cut not sure what the final turned out to be however ill say it went fine.


As for the flame sensor, i plan to mess with the software the cool part is i can still use the laser as nothing was modified in a way I cannot revert.

 

[stinkity stoink]

very cool stuff!! Although there’s quite a bit I don’t know what the hell you are talking about.

 

[niget2002]

Nice. There's another website I'm on where the owner designs 3d printers and 3d printed CNC machines. One of his machines has been converted to plasma a few times by him and a few others.

 

[majerus]

very cool stuff!! Although there’s quite a bit I don’t know what the hell you are talking about.

What ya mean?

 

[mike93lx]

This is awesome. Great job

 

[stinkity stoink]

What ya mean?

Here’s a start…. the other outside is the pwm voltage.
I‘m not knocking you. Im just not Well versed in a lot of the electronics you are talking about.

 

[majerus]

Here’s a start…. the other outside is the pwm voltage.
I‘m not knocking you. Im just not Well versed in a lot of the electronics you are talking about.

All good, it is the pulse width modulation pin. You can just plug it into the relay. Basically its the pin that tells the laser how much power to use. In our case this is used as a trigger for the plasma cutter. In lightburn when we set the laser power to 100% it drives this pin to its highest state. Not that you need to know that, let me know if you have any other questions.