New Machine Build- New low cost 4x4 and 4x8 plasma tables? (!)

[carbidecraters]

I was amassing parts last year for a 4x8 or 5x10 cnc plasma table. Well I bought some rails that could have been used for a serious cnc milling center (way overkill). I was thinking about using CandCNC.com's electronics and building the table here in the shop I own. We have multiple cnc mills and cnc lathes and manual and welding equipment. I figured I could put together a 4x8 or 5x10 table for 5-7K that would be fast and pretty accurate. Well I priced out the aluminum and even with the rails I had everything seems to be a clustermess of looking around on here and abroad seeing what people were building and what budget tables were offering.


I got sidetracked after the frusteration of trying to piece my electronics together and my parts to work well enough together I was still lacking the building experience and time to make it happen. I scanned ebay and saw old dinosaurs for sale and aluminum extrusion tables for sale. I needed the ease of going from concept to cut in meer minutes. This is when I noticed the little Torchmate tables and noticed they are using a driveshaft to power the X axis from both sides of the gantry....BRILLIANT!! I was thinking multiple motors which would be ideal but the driveshaft idea could work if your table is absolutely square and then I wasnt sure about how either side would react or how they setup backlash. I noticed a ebay names precisionplasma selling bolt together kits that you just add a simple plasma kit from CandCNC.com. Well I asked the seller a bunch of questions and ended up traveling to take a look at a table that was made up. To my suprise the table was driven by 2 motors on the X axis!! Yes and it had antibacklash built it!! Yes... I was pretty impressed by the engineering on the table itself and the fact that it used V groove rails vertically instead of a flat rail horizontally like other tables use. Wouldnt it make sens not to make a shelf to let the dust build up on and ruin your slides??? So I am sitting there and Ron (the owner) powers up his PC next to the machine and in literally 30 seconds from windows loading it was cutting out a shape with Mach 3!.....30 seconds!! It was rapiding at 1000ipm!! It had good accuracy and the frame was very very nicely built. They mig and tig the frame together on frame tables to create a very nice platform for the machine. This was a 4x4 table and we are in talks about a 5x10 or even a 8x14 table.

Very impressed with these guys! Great engineering on the tables!

They are using Candcnc.com (torchead's site) electronics with their plasma. Its plug and play!!

Here is one of their tables on the bay

http://cgi.ebay.com/4-X-8-DIY-CNC-ME...3A1%7C294%3A50

Their website www.Precisionplasmallc.com

The head engineer gets on here from time to time so maybe he will chime in. Thanks Ron I was very impressed!!