Two questions

[AZCoyote]

First question: On a small plasma table (30 x 40) with a light Aluminum gantry, is there any good reason to drive the X axis with two steppers or is one enough? Assuming the gantry is tight and square. (All my steppers are 200oz)

Second question: If a 3 axis controller drives x,y, and z, what additional axis does a 4 axis driver control?

[jcc3inc]

Sir,

If you use a substantial main rail, and have good bearings in contact with said rail having a reasonable distance between front and back sets, this "delta braced" setup will NOT need two sets of drives. We made machines up to 6 feet wide having this configuration for plasma cutting, and they worked well.

I will enclose a pix of one approach.

A plasma cutter is a two axis machine; the third Z axis responds to initial height setting, arc voltage sensing during cutting, and retract at the end of the cut. A suitable auto-torch-height-control will do this job.

Regards,
Jack C.