Router to Plasma conversion

[drafterman]

I know that wood routing and plasma cutting do not normally go hand in hand. I am planning on building a plasma machine, but until then; here is what I did:
I had a break in the sign making business for a few days so I made a replacment slat table for my normal MDF spoil board. I also made a floating head for the torch that replaced my normal router mount. Then it was just a matter of splicing into my Miller plasma cutter so that Mach 3 could turn the torch on/off. My router table is all steel and based on the JGRO design (don't try this with an MDF router). I am attaching a couple of before and after photos.



Lessons learned:
1) never fire the torch until you have all the sawdust cleaned up.
2) THC is a requirement for anything less than 16 ga.
3) ACME thread without gear reduction just can't give you the speed you need for plasma cuts
4) I thought sawdust was a problem until the plasma dust and smoke started rolling...a water table would be nice.
5) Trust Weldtutor...he knows what he is doing.
6) Mach 3 and SheetCAM are must haves.

The cuts are excellent with hardly any slag to clean up. I will be using this machine to cut parts for my larger plasma table in the near future and then I will return this unit to wood routing capability.

Thanks again Weldtutor.

drafterman

[Weldtutor]

Originally Posted by drafterman I know that wood routing and plasma cutting do not normally go hand in hand. I am planning on building a plasma machine, but until then; here is what I did:

Nice workable conversion you have done Drafterman. It looks great!

Those clean cuts you are getting will be appreciated for the larger dedicated plasma table you will be building.

If you could squeeze in even a couple inches of a water tray with slats inside it would cut down a lot of the plasma smoke/dust.

Keep having fun. Glad to help.
WT

[Fiero Addiction]

I like your work supports, never seen anything like that. They look like they'll do a good job with minimal blowback.

[drafterman]

Yeah, steel slats were too expensive to waste on this machine, so I used some old scrap 1/4" pins that I had laying around (you could also use bolts). They work well and give you similar support to "sawtooth" cut slats.

[Normsthename]

Make a Water Table for your Plasma, you won't regret it
Today I cleaned my Water Table out for the first time in about 2 months.
I have only used my machine about 1 day each week.
I emptied about 5 lbs of horrible thick black segiment out of the tank, which would have ended up as Plasma dust in the air
My water table only has approx. 3" of water in it, and it does catch a lot of dust.
I am looking at building Mark 2, which willl have greater water capacity, and also a air/water tank to be able to raise and lower the water level to retreive small parts, and also to be able to clean the tank out easily.

Andy