Hi huys, great forum extremly helpful for DIY projects.

First i was thinking of buyng a torchmate2 kit, then i realised i could only afford a TM1 and after i realised i could do it myself and make great savings.

So i'm on a budget about 2000$ (without the steel)

I ordered the steel yesterday.

Now comes the hard part, i'm thinking to use linear motion guides for both X and Y (igus drylin T tk01-20 or THK SSR) i'm waiting on the THK quote so i could decide, i'm leaning on the THK right now.

I will use rack&pinion wich my engineer is disigning right now (i hope :) )

As for the drives&steppers i really have no ideea what to choose

gekcodrive
granite VSD-A
cncdriver.com controler

for motors i GUESS 5nm - 600ozin steppers will do

the thing i have no ideea of is the power source (nuts)

any kinf of help/oppinion will help.

look at www.kelinginc.net or www.candcnc.com
and have a look at their power supplies. I don't know what your main voltage is ( I am guessing 220), you need to tell either supplier what it is.
You can build one yourself as well.

things got a litle clear

i ordered the electronics/steppers from dubble (including the power suply)

the THK rails are way off my budget, they quote almost 4k USD wit taxes. so i'll order the igus T tomorow.

the sad part is i got shiping dates for 15 days and i can finish the steel work in 2 days.

Look at BishopWisecarver rails and vee bearings, or even skate bearings, which can be found cheaply here www.vxb.com

the vee rails for my aplication seem a lot more expensive than the igus T, my table will be 7.2X11 feet , the rails from vxb.com are not that long so i guess i'll go igus for the short axis and maybe something like in the picture for the long one.

just finished the sides of the table, i'll post some pictures monday (forgot my camera home today )

it cost me 9 tubes 60x40x2.5 thats 220$, it should be 8 tubes but my engineer friend cut the last one in the wrong spot (nuts) , good thing the steel suplier is right in front of my shop :)

i think i'll wait and weld it together after i install the rack, it will make drilling a litlle easyer.

Hey Gallop,

Rick at Superior Bearing is great to deal with for V-Bearings and Rail.

www.superiorbearing.com

gdb

the sides, side no 2 warped a litlle (overweld it) (nuts) , i hanged it and put some weight on and heat it a litle bit .. if its not straight tomorow i will make another one.

You need a solid bench with some good clamps to jig the piece up before you weld. That will stop most welding distortion. Or, use an oxy-fuel flame to pull the frame to level.

You need a solid bench with some good clamps to jig the piece up before you weld. That will stop most welding distortion. Or, use an oxy-fuel flame to pull the frame to level.


tx for the post, i don't have oxy :(

i'll just make another side.

update , igus rails coming on monday and motors& controlers next week thanks to dubble

found a shop capable of making 3 meter long rack, i'm going to visit them monday morning.

i got the motors moving with mach3 tx to dubble.

now i got only 3 weeks to wait for the rails .

Bekx,

Just had a look at your build pix. How come your shed / workshop is so tidy and uncluttered?

You're a disgrace to the home tinkering profession. By rights your shed should be chocablock full of equipment, materials, useful junk and sundry items.

Hang your head in shame!

yup i'm realy ashamed of my shop, i don't have a lathe and nothing cnc yet :) (or the motors spinning , cuting virtual shets of metal count???)


but sometimes things like these apear in my shop :)

finaly got some time to work on my table.

yesterday i painted it with red primer but forgot to take some pics.

Hey there bekx, Looking good so far. If it will not cause you to much of a rework I'd turn those rack gears with the gear teeth to the bottom side. Turned tooth down debris will not accumulate in the teeth.

i thought about turning the teeth down but for now its easyer this way.

my concern right now its the alignment of my table, everything is 1-2 mm off at one end, and thats after i twicked it a litlle, u think 2 mm is too much??

the gantry is moving freely tho,

anyway i intend to make another gantry from aluminium profile 80/60 or something like that

tomorow i'll get a long stainless shaft 15 mm and maybe will fit the long axy's motor

If you have the precision rail down both sides of the table they need to be in exact alignment. your table rails can be out a pretty good bit without causing to much grief.

I used 1 rail on only 1 side of my table to guide the gantry in a straight line. For the other side of the table I used cold rolled flat bar with wheels on top & bottom. I really didn't want the second side to do anything but roll.

I am using oxy/fuel which creates much more heat than plasma. I was afraid if both sides of the gantry were on captive guides, hest on the gantry might make it "grow" enough in length to either bow the gantry or create a bind situation. With rack & pinion on both sides of the table & master/slave arrangement on the drive motors it's really very solid.

the rails are paralell but the table is 2 mm smaller then expected at one side, my concern is the pinions will not fit the racks perfectly at that end, thats why i keep the racks with the teeth up right now, will have all the time to modify it when i cut flanges and brackets in a second :)

the rails are paralell but the table is 2 mm smaller then expected at one side, my concern is the pinions will not fit the racks perfectly at that end, thats why i keep the racks with the teeth up right now, will have all the time to modify it when i cut flanges and brackets in a second :)

Well being as your racks are bolted on you can shim behind the racls to make them parallel with your guide rails.

I bolted my racks to a strip of 1/4" X 2" strap then bolted the strap to my table in case I had to do the same.

I need to shim behind one of my racks too. I have a bit of run out on 1 side. I really haven't figured out why the top of my table where the rails are is as near square & parallwe as I can measure with a common tape measure.

I can only assume the sides of the 6" box tube where the rack is mounted is cupped in a bit.

i must say all this is a lot harder then it seems.

after making one motor flange myself i realised i'm not that good with the milling machine, so i made a drawing and went to 3 diffrent machine shops to check the price and build time.

so shop no 1 - will call me in 2-3 days.. that was thursday (no call till today)

shop no 2- 80 USD/pice ...they will come to me to weld something for them eventualy and i will rip them off.

shop no 3- will get me the stuff done monday morning for 25$/p

with a litlle luck i will got x-y movement next week.

IT'S ALIVE.

well at least it moves on both axes nice . :D

Thanks for all the help CNCzone.

the only thing i'm not pleased with is the iGUS rail, i don't think igus rails are made for cnc machines , maybe for furniture or doors or anything else.
Anyway the replacement isel rail is on its way .

from my last post a lot happened with the table and i've learned many things about cnc .

first.. i said earlyer it moves nice on both axes.. well i overestimated nice a litle. it moved ok at high jog speeds and not at all at (estimated) cut speeds.

so after 2-3 days of tuning the motors and the mechanics i can say it moves acceptable on the long axis Y.

I realised 1:1 gearing is not good ,my motors have enough power to move but at cuting speeds they jerk a lot so i put some rubber between the motor and the flange ,got rid of maybe 50% of jerking, i got new gears too but not installed yet.

it seems my machine will not be operational till the new rails arive.

If anybody bothers to answer me how much they charge for plasma cuting i would apreciate.

IT'S ALIVE.

well at least it moves on both axes nice . :D

Thanks for all the help CNCzone.

the only thing i'm not pleased with is the iGUS rail, i don't think igus rails are made for cnc machines , maybe for furniture or doors or anything else.
Anyway the replacement isel rail is on its way .

what size of rack and pinion do u have for x, y where did u get it from
did you drill out the mounting holes? I m looking for 3/4 x 3/4 20to30 pitch
but cant find that size in that with and hight that a resonable price.

anyone that know of someone pm me.

the rack is about 3/4'' but don't know what pitch or pressure angle , its "modul 2" (euro size) and i imported it from Italy,

the mounting holes i drilled myself, it's not hard at all.

what size of rack and pinion do u have for x, y where did u get it from
did you drill out the mounting holes? I m looking for 3/4 x 3/4 20to30 pitch
but cant find that size in that with and hight that a resonable price.

anyone that know of someone pm me.



http://www.stdsteel.com/gr_stock.htm Give them a call but looks like 1/2" X 1/2" is the largest they list online in a 20 pitch 20 deg. gear rack. I used 3/8" X 3/8" & didn't have any trouble drilling the rack for clearance & tapping my frame rail 5-40 I'm sure you could get by using 6-32 socket head cap screws if the 5-40 is small enough to scare you off. If you get spiral point taps they will run the chips out ahead of the tap & keep from binding in the threads. In fact I drilled then tapped using power on my mill. Made for quick work.

standar steel 75" for $24, 1/2" x1/2" as millman says. Think is the cheaper..

Has anyone tried this, zerobacklash rack and pinion by perload 2 pinions?

For rack & pinion applications requiring precise positioning and repeatability, the system backlash can be eliminated by using two pinions - one to drive the axis and one to "preload" the axis to remove the backlash.

The simplest zero-backlash rack & pinion drive utilizes a split-pinion. A split-pinion consists of two pinion halves and an axial spring pack. The pinions halves mesh with opposite tooth flanks on the same rack, eliminating the backlash. The axial spring pack is used to preload the rack & pinions to insure that no backlash develops during the operating cycle.


check out http://www.atlantadrives.com/zerobacklash.htm

i think that a litll overkill for plasma and from what i found till now about machine components , any part that says ZERO backlash on the label costs more then my entire machine.

Eloid,

I agree with bekx I am using the simple straight cut R & P with spring loaded drives. at this point I can tell that I have any backlash. The simpler you can keep things the less maintenance there will be down the road.

im not suggesting to buy anything, just reusing the concept into "my diy cnc
router/ plasma design" ( with a diy backlash adjustment). If it works for you and it simple great....But I know with time you will see wear on your rack, mostly cuz its mild steel, therfore i can see a nice way to counter it as needed. And the maintance will then follow.

@ eloid . hey i didn't say it's not a nice thing to have on a router/plasma maybe i'll use something like that on my future comercial units :)

The cable cariers arived today... got a serious security sistems guarding it.

guys, a litl help plz.

I got a Lincoln electric plasma cutter, only 65 amp , its the euro make and has euro conectors, dont know if u are familiar with this but i'll give it a try.

i opened the torch to see what wires to hack.. big surprise.. the wires from the buton change collor sowhere in the cable so i don't know wich 2 are the comanding wires.

i take the multimeter and measure with the button pushed.. and it's not only 2 wires contected.. 3 of them got conected when buton is pushed .. and 2 seem to be conected all the time , it PIN 1,2 and 9 on the conector. 2 and 9 seem to be the conected all the time and the triger conect PIN 1 with them .

I got a relay on my board but don't know how to wire those 3.... hack them all and conect 2-9 and 1 to the board or only one is enough (2 or 9)

i really don't want to burn my plasma or cnc controler before the machine is finished

tx

Hi,

What code of T slides sytem did you bought from Igus? Could you tell me, please, what was the price of T linear system?

Thank you.

Zoltan

the width its 31,5mm , it cost about 230 euros for 2,3meters and 2 shutles.

i can sell u the rail and shutles for 100 just come and pick it up, i'm installing the isel now :)

.. any info about the lincoln plasma pins? the manuals are useless.

Hi,

Thank you. Could you, please, tell me the order code for ordering to igus? I could not found in their catalog this T with rollers as is your only with balls. I would come to pick up it but I am in Europe.

Thank you again.

Zoltan

ups....I did not realize that you are from Romania...I was thinking you are from US...did not looked to your country..In which town are you?

Zoltan

Hi,

Thank you. Could you, please, tell me the order code for ordering to igus? I could not found in their catalog this T with rollers as is your only with balls. I would come to pick up it but I am in Europe.

Thank you again.

Zoltan


dont think we'r talking about the same rail, igus is the one with delrin shutles not with rollers, the rails u see on my long axis is isel .
i'm from bucharest btw.

what are u building?

so it's a secret .. nvm

evrything is good now .. drawing perfect circles... with a pen yet.

hooked up the plasma at the controller but mach don't want to switch it on/off.

3 hours of various setings and measurements and still nothing, the hardware works, i can switch it with a lpt control program but couldn't find the right seting in mach yet.

Hi,

I missed your question. I am from Arad and live in Timisoara most of the time. I have built few routers - CNC. You can see them on CNCzone under my ID posts. Now I am trying to build a laser. I would like to build a real CNC router but for now I postponed. If you want to discuss about, in Romanian, send me a pm. Thank you.

Zoltan

I made the first cut yesterday.. half of circle and almost finished rectangle :D

the onlY sheet around was a 0.6mm stainless 304 . it warped like hell

i use a lincoln electric pc65 plasma, using it manualy was a pain and with less then worst results...

do u think 65 amps is enough to pierce 12mm plate? (1/2 inch), give me a hint , should i buy a more powerfull thermadyne or hypertherm?

.

yes 65 amps should my 55 amp miller does. more may be better good luck

how about piercing delay in sheetcam?

i ordered a machine torch today.. and it's in stock, 600 euros +vat...

the onlY sheet around was a 0.6mm stainless 304 . it warped like hell
For cutting thin material you need a water table.
I cut 1.5mm Stainless Steel on my Plasma with a water table and it cuts nice and flat :D
I have not had a chance to cut thinner material yet....
how about piercing delay in sheetcam?
In my Hypertherm manual it lists all the pierce delays :)
On 1.5mm Stainless there is no delay.
For 12mm M/Steel it is 1.5 seconds (I think from memory....)

Andy

"For cutting thin material you need a water table.
I cut 1.5mm Stainless Steel on my Plasma with a water table and it cuts nice and flat"

Andy, do you cut the material under water ??

do you cut the material under water ??
No, the water level is approx. 1/2" (12.7mm) underneath the material.
It is not recommended to use a Hypertherm machine torch under water.
With my setup as soon as you pierce the material, the compressed air blows thru' the pierce hole and causes the water underneath to 'bubble up' this cools the metal as you cut :)
Also, as soon as there is a pierce line made, the water gets forced up thru' the slit and onto the top surface of the sheet which also cools the metal.
When you do a new pierce, the air pressure blows the excess water away so the torch never actually gets wet.

Hope this helps

Andy

Thanks Andy, I´ll be cutting next week and have a water table.
But I have seen a video at http://www.sme.org/cgi-bin/getgmnpage.pl?/html/METV.htm&&&SME&
There they was cuting with the torch itself under water.. the video is no longer available, it was about all cutting systems.
Luis

I have seen videos of Plasma cutting under water, but there torches are rated for underwater cutting.
The Hypertherm machine is not rated for underwater cutting.
I once had my torch cut the outside profile first before the inside.
The torch lowered down into the water by about 2" before I stopped it! :eek:
I had to clean the torch out, and dry the insides before it would work again....

Andy

I think your face really looked like the icon!!! after that you really need Ativan....

so water tables actualy do more then just geting rid of the smoke.

i must think about this,it will not be so easy to get a water table inside now.

If I were building a MK2 Water Table, I would incorporate a reservoir tank to be able to raise and lower the water level.
That allows you manually raise or lower the water level using air pressure.
This allows you to emty the tank to retreive small parts in the bottom of the tank easily, and also you can clean the segiment out easier.

I am trying to modify my existing water table by using a 14 gallon Beer Keg for the reservoir.
I will put a fitting into the bottom of the Keg that connects to the water table outlet.
Then in the top of the Keg I will put two Ball Valves.
One attached to my air supply, and another as a vent.
When I want to empty the water table I open the vent letting air into the Keg allowing the water to fill up the Keg using gravity feed.
When I have collected my cut parts, or finished cleaning I close the vent and open the Air valve to force the water out of the Keg using air pressure and back into the Water Table :)
There are some good examples on this forum, do a search.....

Andy

hey, that's what i want to do with the water table, if i get work with thin sheet ..

i just made a hole thru 10 mm plate it took about 2 seconds.
i have to wait for the machine torch to make exact setings.

why do manual torches have better piercing and cuting tolerances..???

why do manual torches have better piercing and cuting tolerances..???
With a hand torch when cutting thick materials, you angle the torch to start the pierce.
Then when the material has pierced thru' you bring the torch back upto vertical.
You can't do that with a machine torch!

Andy

they don't say anywhere in the manual to angle the torch..well i never pierced manualy, tried once but too much sparcs on me and give it up, with the cnc i have no fear, i'm behind the monitor and pc :))
the machine torch arived 10 minutes ago..they mixed up the consumables uff

hey, now i realised i pierced the 10mm plate at 40 amps so at 60 i hope it will pierce at least 12 mm, i think most jobs will be from 4mm to 12mm.

i got some rfq's for cuting 10mm stainless plate, i'm a litlle afraid to take the jobs, one plate is about 1500 euros, think i'm going to start with some steel

so i made a movie finaly.

http://s303.photobucket.com/albums/nn149/superbecx/?action=view&current=plasma1-0001.flv

the thc arived !!!!!! and the home made z axis too,, installed the axis, didn't have time for the thc yet.

Tx Tom.. very fast delivery and very well packaged (love the buble bags )

hi
how is you lincon plasma working ?
how muchy did you pay for it ?
i'm in the midle of my cnc plasma project and i don't know wat to chose
is the THC working on it ?
thank you

CRISTIAN IASI

hi, i saw your tread , Lincoln does work , i cut 10 mm plate with good results, without thc i seem to use one nozzle for 2-10 piercings and no more then 1 m cuts.

If u got the money go for hypertherm, u got cnc interface and non HF start , while i got no problems with the hf till now , the cnc interface i miss a lot, cause i can't hook up the thc to the Lincoln yet.

So thc not working, though i can use the table with the mp1000thc hooked up.

I've seen your thread, well can't say the angular steel is the best idea, it has virtually no structural strength , it might work but it could get u a junker machine

Well if u from Iasi i guess i can tell u more on yahoo mess.