CNC 4'x4' Plasma Build Ideas

[madosta]

Alright.

So I can access a FlowJet CNC WaterJet - but it's costing me $2/min to cut whatever I want. This quickly adds up and most of the stuff I am cutting and plan on cutting is max 1/4" steel and aluminum so a plasma should work just fine.

I want a CNC gantry kit that will also allow a router for the few times I will cut something at home. I can access a 5'x10' ShopBot router for free, but having it at home would be nice.

I know it will set me back around $5k... so it may be a while before I get to it.

Questions/comments/thoughts/gotchas from your experiences?

 

[Regnar]

You should have a look over at Mechmate.com I built one of there routers and have to say I love it. It has already paid for itself many times over. I will advise that although the Mechmate can do both a router and plasma most really dont like to mix. Plasma dust will stain your woods. You will also have to build just a little different for plasma with different grounding techniques. I wish you the best of luck on your adventure.

 

[affende]

torchmate.com

look into them ... i just bought a 6x10 HD (kaliburn system) Torchmate X from them at the beginning of the year and it is amazing.

I have been following torchmate for a long time on the offroad forums. Their support and service is top notch ... thats why i went through them for the table for my company. If its good enough for HD industrial use .... its good enough for the garage.

 

[Regal2800]

Hypertherm and Miller are both great equipment. between those two companies i would just go with the better deal.

 

[WarnerSteel]

I'll second the torchmate.com comment.

I bought a used Torchmate Small Shop 4' x 4' about 7 years ago off of craigslist. It came with a Thermal Dynamics Cutmaster 51 plasma cutter. I've never had any problems, but from what I've read, I'll go with a Hypertherm when the time comes to replace.

Even though I bought it used, Torchmate has been awesome with customer support. Having ZERO experience with any kind of CAD or .dxf stuff, I contacted them often back in the early days with questions. They were very helpful.

Mine is a very simple, entry level machine that does not have the auto height control, but works great for the basic stuff we cut out.

Here's a few pics of a bracket my son made when he was building his 64 Chevy truck and needed a way to bolt the brake booster to the firewall without drilling new holes.

 

[Elvenhome21]

Torchmate is rediculously expensive as a starter machine. your looking at almost 10k once you add in the plasma cutter.

I just bought a precision plasma (tensor cnc) 4x8 for about $4500 out the door, Table and motors only.
Add another $1000 for a used plasma cutter 1600 for new,
add $400 for a big compressor (at minimum of 8 cfm),
add $100 for desiccant dryer and filters,
add $1-400 for slats and/or water pan
Add $300 for steel inventory.
Add $300 for Mach3 license and cad/cam software
add $120 for a consumable kit

It took me about a 2.5 hours to completely assemble and run the wires for it. And about another 1-2 hours configuring the software and getting the computer to work.

Advice go with a hypertherm powermax. 45 or 65 is HIGHLY recommended as they are plug and play for torch height control. DO NOT bother using anything other then hypertherm or thermal dynamics for a cnc application, consumables will eat you alive in cost and cut quality will be horrendous.

Join Plasmaspider forum. READ READ READ. Download draftsight and inkscape and learn them WELL. watch and do the tutorials on youtube for those programs. Then download sheetcam, Learn that program well.

After about 2 months of learning them well then start thinking about the machine. Ive been planning buying this machine since october and have been learning the programs since Halloween and its still going to be a bumpy learning curv now that I actually have the machine.

Theres NO POINT in having a $7000 investment sitting in the garage and not having a clue how to run it. Its not a simple click on the drawing then click print. Its a fairly lengthy process until you get everything working smoothly.

 

[rslaback]

A guy I know made a poor mans plasma by making a long trammel arm (4 foot or so) that bolted onto the carriage of his CNC Router. Make a table that butts up against the router table, control the torch switch manually and you are good to go. You won't get pierce delay but if you program in a zig zag plunge you usually have enough time to get a full pierce before you start the rest of the path.

It isn't pretty but it does work.

 

[SunnyBeach]

This machine lives here in Ann Arbor. Lots of good information on the build process:

http://wiki.linuxcnc.org/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?GantryPlasmaMachine

 

[madosta]

Ok. I am a member on MechMate. I do not want a mechmate for plasma. I also don't want a torchmate. PPLLC has an awesome setup that I'm looking at!!! Thanks for the comments on the plasmas for CNC! That's what I want to know. Lots to think about going forward!

 

[Elvenhome21]

The tensor cnc that I bought did have some minor issues when I was putting it together. basically I was missing about 8-10 bolts, and the slide rails all needed the bottom hole re-drilled as they didnt line up by about a 1/16th but a step drill squared it up perfectly.

They also just changed from the Iplasma series to the BT series which adds another bearing to the gantry for more stability.

 

[TheIceMan]

plasmacam.com .... we have 1 of these at my work. Don't know how much they cost though.

 

[bullnerd]

Do want to build your own or buy a turnkey machine?

Machine needs to be a little beefier to run the router than it does for just the plasma.Beef = $$$

 

[Elvenhome21]

plasma cam run about the same as torchmate. With the plasmacam software you are still looking close to 9-10K for a 4x4. The plasmacam software is very user friendly for the beginner but it does have its limits. You also looking at $1500 just for the basic software.

Tensorcnc IS the cheapest machine of any decent quality. The ebay sellers Gearheadcnc and eagle cnc are very low quality as far as strength goes so I wont avoid them like the plague. Viper tables dont look to bad but they are in Virgina so I didnt look to much into them. The precision plasma/Tensorcnc are in the twin cities so I could pick it up locally.

 

[Elvenhome21]

If your going with a router you need a very stable table with the more powerful 620 oz motors. One thing is you do NOT want to use the table for double duty as a plasma table and router table. They are 2 totally different setups and functions. Plasma you need speed and a lite weight gantry for acceleration and speed, vs router you need strength and stability with torque motors.

Along with that wood dust and plasma DO NOT play nicely with each other. You have to completely clean out everything after you get done with wood to use the plasma, along with switching table slats, plasma eats the slats up vs wood neds a nice smooth surface to clamp down to.

 

[bsaint]

I prefer fiber laser. But thats just me.

 

[madosta]

I prefer fiber laser. But thats just me.

You and me both! I have had some aluminum sheet cut on a laser... for cheap and it looks awesome!!!

I don't want a turnkey system since I only have a limited budget. I would buy a used turnkey.

We shall see what I come up with soon. Woman is wanting new furniture though...

 

[ADSR]

I would talk to some of the guys over at pirate4x4.com

There is about 25 DIY vendor kits here. The 4x4 guys over there build these tables left, right and center.

 

[bullnerd]

Heres a semi custom one,

http://www.cnczone.com/forums/plasm...controller_candcnc_lcthc_powermax_1250_a.html

Heres an extremely low priced do it yourself,

Good build thread on a turnkey,

http://www.cncplasmabuild.com/index.html