I am looking to buy plasma/oxy fuel cutting gantry. I won't be cutting anything above 1/8 with plasma. I would ideally like to cut upto 5" with propane/oxy torch. Both 1 plasma and few torches has to be on the gantry at the same time.

the table size would be 10' wide and 20'+ long.

I would build my own table and smoke draft (no water table) myself.

it is essential this machine is robust for 24hour running 6 days a week.

any help appriciated.

Brian.

$50k should get a good second hand one, without building it. Or if you get one of the old Linde oxy/fuel trace cutting tables that has been converted to CNC, even if you have to put a Plasma torch on it, they usually have 4 or 6 gas torches.
Al.

"it is essential this machine is robust for 24hour running 6 days a week.

any help appriciated."

Glad I don't work for you! (:-0

I am currently looking at esab shadow 2 gantry. I don't have any experience with this company so I am weary and would like to know what other options I have.

Second hand machines are gamble. Right now, gamble = no no no.

Torchhead: whats wrong with 24h 6day ? ;)

If it were my $50K I would look at one of the current generations of new servo based CNC tables. I would buy two separate tables each one designed to be optimized for the job. I would put asside a couple thou to go visit the plant and see/feel and get demo's on the machines. You won't find many oxy tables in this group but actually the challenges are less than plasma if you don't get crazy and want torch height control for oxy cutting! You should be able to get two tables optimized for each tyoe of cutting (and they are vastly different in terms of the CNC needs) for your budget.

Give the guys at DynaCNC a call. It's cooler in the Northwest this time of year anyway! They have a lot of their tables in heavy production environments.

As for 24/6: I can't seem to work more than 12/7 but then that's just me (:-)

Tom Caudle
www.CandCNC.com

Do you think my budget will fit 2 tables? Ideally I would like to get 1 for plasma and another for flame. two beds, to gantries, two computers.. didn't think it would fit the budget.

I will make few calls this morning including dynacnc.

any suggestions for flame?

24/6 - look at the upside, think of the overtime pay.

Hi,
I'm the owner of EBF Inc in Qc, Canada. We build cnc plasma table, flame cutting, high def plasma table and we offer many option.
We offer complete turnkey systems with installation and training, we don't sell some bolt and flat bars kit, but heavy duty cnc machine designed to run 24h/day. We have build machine from 23 000$ CAD up to 272 000$. Our best seller is the 5X10' with waterbed with plasma and oxyfuel combined.We sell only Innerlogic plasma that are designed with a 100% duty cycle, thay don't build hand machine and they sell only to manufacturer. We do the full maintenance on their unit as well as parts sales.Our process is fully automatic for both, the machine select the tool needed, preheat is fully automatic, and Torch Height Control is a standard feature for us.I'm sure we can do something for you for your budget, feel free to call us if you want more details or we can arrange a visit to one of our many customers.
Thanks,
Alexandre Gaudet
E.B.F. Inc
Tél: 819 357-8002
Fax: 819 357-8004
electrobf@videotron.ca

Go to plasmasouth.com look at the CSI series5...
or an MG.

Stout gantry, made to carry several torch stations and made to perform...

my2cents
JPG

thx for the website. i will give them a call monday.

its too bad they are resellers so i probably be paying more. we'll see.

PM Me at jpgdesigns@yahoo.com

I have a quote from 2003 on an 8' x 20' Dual Side Drive,
Burny 1400 Plus Control, Hypertherm G3 PowerMax Plasma
as well as extras pricing.

Or
They can be reached directly:

Kris Asadorian
Cutting Systems, Inc.
4567 East 71st. Street
Cleveland, Ohio 44105
(216) 928-0500 Ph.
(216) 928-0502 Fax
www.cuttingsystems.com

I was going to purchase the machine quoted... but came across a deal on a used machine.

James

This will make you sick. My company just bought a MG High Plasma and did not have room to add it to the FAb department. So they cut up a 10' x 40' Farley Wizard with a water table.
Do not shy away from used equipment IF you buy from a reputable dealer who will service the equipment in a timely manner. A good reseller will rebuild from the iron up. Check out this web site http://www.franeklaser.com/plasma-cutting.htm
My experience with a plasma running 24/6 (mine do) is that a heavy duty plasma will have at least 1 major breakdown every year. If you run a light or medium duty plasma 24/7 it will breakdown more often. If you are truely going to run that much look for Burny drives and controls. The components are very robust and service is excelent either from CMC, http://www.cmccontrols.com/, or any independant.

I may give them a call. Any ideo on the 5 series model? i think CSI.

I checked CSI website - should give them a call tomorrow. thanks for the heads up.

Look at hypertherm's edge and voyager controls. My cousin retrofits them onto older units. They seem to be bomb proof, as he has had his for 10-12 years on his own machine. Even though it is windows based the control is stable. I seem to recall that they will clone the connectors in the back so it is a plug and play system on an old burny machine! This control has auto nesting right from the shop floor. No need to purchase a separate software package. Where are you from in Canada? My cousin's website is http://www.iesonline.cc Also checkout http://www.towmeup.com