Has anybody thought about, or succesfully built a CNC Table with multiple heads, for instance, I would like to build one that can hold an Oxy-Fuel AND a plasma torch. So I wouldn't have to manually change tools when switching from heavy plate, to light sheet. I would also like to add a drill motor on the same tool, so that I could drill holes on a part (or several parts) and then have the machine switch to its cutting routine and knock them out with the torch or plasma.

Easiest way is probably a biggish XY table with three Z axes mounted on it, one for each tool. No problems with picking up tools that way.

Just measure the offset to each tool when you're done. I plan to do this for my little baby when she's built :)

I was thinking about a metal ribbon or something with magnets to adjust head spacing and for a lot of heads just stick some on one side of the bridge and some on the other side, and the conduits can come from either end.


Has anyone here actually done a multi-head machine?

Multi-headed plasma needs syncro of the piercing with independant plasma units and THC adjust for each head. We did a conceptional design for a four headed one but the customer thought the NRE fee (engineering expense) as too high. I have helped build a two headed machine (one plasma one oxy) and the two heads were mounted opposite each other on the same carriage on the gantry. I think things move too fast for magnets be the primary holding feature. Some of the break-away heads use super strong magnets but there are locator pins to give it a pivot point.

From a cost standpoint it's about as economical to have a RASP setup (Redundant Array of Small Plasmas). That is, several smaller tables working independantly!

One operator can easily run two or three tables.

Multi-headed plasma needs syncro of the piercing with independant plasma units and THC adjust for each head. We did a conceptional design for a four headed one but the customer thought the NRE fee (engineering expense) as too high. I have helped build a two headed machine (one plasma one oxy) and the two heads were mounted opposite each other on the same carriage on the gantry. I think things move too fast for magnets be the primary holding feature. Some of the break-away heads use super strong magnets but there are locator pins to give it a pivot point.

From a cost standpoint it's about as economical to have a RASP setup (Redundant Array of Small Plasmas). That is, several smaller tables working independantly!

One operator can easily run two or three tables.

The magnets can actual be the locating pins. The main reason we want everything on one bridge and not on separate machines is space. The bed we are aiming at will be almost 20ft wide and a hell-of-a-long and the plasma units we would be using are only 100A as the majority of cutting will be oxy-fuel. It’s more like we want the plasma as a luxury for thin plate or stainless which we only do every now and then and a separate machine is a bit useless as it would sit ideal most of the time.<O:p</O:p