Which one to BUY???

[Metal-Mass]

Torchmate 2 4'x4',Tracker Pro 4x4/or Nitro,EZ-ROUTER, PlasmaCam, DynaTorch.
So this is crazy I am a new high school metals/welding teacher, and the school is brand new. They put a fume hood already in for a CNC table thats 4x4. Obviously its a school so funds are limited and price MAX would be $20k, and I think thats pushing it. What I want is comments on these machines cuz they all seem to be in my price range. I need the good the bad and the ugly on these so any help would be great. Oh and I have less than a month to get my proposal together.

Thanks

[Edwardo]

Just a suggestion, but being in a shop class is there any way you can have the students build your own? It would be less expensive plus give them all the skills they need to build there own some day.

EDD

[Metal-Mass]

Oh that sounds like a good idea, but i'm not I even know how to do that, and or what materials to get. I have some experience with both CNC and programing/electronic, but i dono if I have enough to take the students through the whole process.

[slammedxonair]

dynatorch #1 but they dont make a 4x4 not listed anyways. Give them a call great people to deal with. If i had to make a second choice i would say torchmate just because one of my wholesale suppliers has one and I have seen the cuts they can make. although the dynatoch does make smoother cuts and I believe it to be because it has servo motors and not steppers but dont quote me on that.

[Metal-Mass]

Yeah I called them today, and they said they sold a 4x4 table. do you know what type of controller or software they use?

[millman52]

Originally Posted by Metal-Mass Yeah I called them today, and they said they sold a 4x4 table. do you know what type of controller or software they use?

Their own operating system, works on Windows based PC CAD, CAM software is WE-CIM by Whitlock Engineering & others..

You might also want to look at Plasmacam http://www.plasmacam.com/indexfla.php

Also PlasmaRoute
http://www.plasmaroute.com/


If your shop is equipped with a few machine tools, small/medium lathe, knee type milling machine, Light welding equipment.

Building one is a good project. You can find all the information you need here. (about 40 hrs. of reading build logs etc.) Practically all vendors of electronic & mechanical parts needed are discussed here somewhere.

Probably the easiest electronics to hook up would be www.candcnc.com They also have good support & troubleshooting. & each part of the system is designed around the next. In other words made to work well together.

Hypertherm would be my choice of plasma machine www.hypertherm.com. Also great support.

I have no affiliation with any of the sources I have listed. Just know by some first hand experience & what others have posted somewhere here.


My build log starts here. Started building new 5 X 10 table today

By no means is my table the nicest build listed here. There are some that would rival higher end machines of $30,000.00 - $40,000.00 or more.

My table is currently Ox/Fuel but does deliver very accurate parts & is used daily in a production shop. Mistakes? Yep I made some & am currently refining some of them + adding plasma.

Good luck & you can count on help from many of the members here.

Neil

[Metal-Mass]

Yeah I have heard some things about plasmacam, mostly bad but that's the one the district has bought before. I have a quote from Plasma Route too. I don't have the and other machining tools that i would like just yet. so if I built one I would have to buy most all the parts.

[millman52]

Most of the machine work for the table can be done with hand tools & a drill press. A lathe & mill just lets you make pretty much all your parts. But doable without actual machine tools.

Plasmacam has some bad rap, but it was from older mod. machines. Most reports I have now claim they are a good machine.

Again I'm not pushing a Plasmacam. Just relaying what I have read or heard elsewhere.

[Torchhead]

General rule of the DIY VS buy is that even buying all the parts you will end up saving about 1/2 the price. In exchange you will invest time and frustration (:-)

In the end you want a table that is as automated and easy to learn (and fix) as possible for the students. When you do your own build that makes you the resident expert and support person(s). It's not always obvious but plasma cutting is harder to do than other types of CNC.

While an experienced operator can do limited production cutting with no Torch Height Control it would prove difficult for learners not to forget a stepn and destroy consumables (price a full set of consumables for your selected plasma cutter). Pierce wrong and you ruin the nozzel and if usually the electrode goes too. Let the torch touch the material while cutting and you suffer the same fate. If you have to replace consumables several times a day, you will start to see the cost savings of no THC evaporate, So price all your choices with a modern THC.

In a 4 X 4 size your options have opened up considerably. Lower cost control systems, hybrid high torque steppers and open software are creating integrated products that have lower costs, multiple sources of replacement parts and support.

TOM Caudle
www.CandCNC.com
Totally Modular CNC Electronics

[Metal-Mass]

Maybe I Have heard wrong about plasmacam, do they still use software that only they use? My beef with that is I want the kids to learn Industry standards. If plasmacam programming isn't used industry wide, they don't need to learn it in my shop. THC is a must I know, its worth the extra money. I think it would be great to build my own vs. buying. I see the benefits of knowing that machine inside and out and I like that, but being a first year teacher at a school that will open for the first time in the fall, I have a bit on my plate already. So which table would allow me to work on the table if it breaks to fix it with parts from the market?

[TerraWombat]

Originally Posted by Metal-Mass Maybe I Have heard wrong about plasmacam, do they still use software that only they use? My beef with that is I want the kids to learn Industry standards. If plasmacam programming isn't used industry wide, they don't need to learn it in my shop. THC is a must I know, its worth the extra money. I think it would be great to build my own vs. buying. I see the benefits of knowing that machine inside and out and I like that, but being a first year teacher at a school that will open for the first time in the fall, I have a bit on my plate already. So which table would allow me to work on the table if it breaks to fix it with parts from the market?

PlasmaCAM uses their own CAD/CAM and controller software. The PlasmaRoute you got a quote on uses MACH3, which is a very widely used controller in the hobby world and they're about to release an "industrial" version sometime soon.

If you're preparing the students to become professional CNC operators, I don't think either controllers I mentioned are a good choice since neither are widely used in "the industry."

You can almost use me as an example on which controller software to pick. I went to a school that had an OMAX Waterjet that I was trained on and learned the program inside and out. Now, I've chosen a career (not CNC-related), but I'm starting my own shop as a hobby (but also thinking about the potential for a side business). Unfortunately, an OMAX waterjet will run me more money than I make in a year, so that's out of the question - and there goes a lot of that training. Instead, I'm looking at getting a plasma table, mill, and lathe and using MACH3 to run all three of them. Had I learned MACH3 in school, I would be a step ahead of the game! For people like me, MACH3 is the obvious choice for machine controllers because of its incredibly low cost ($175 or around there).

Just some food for thought.

[Metal-Mass]

Yeah I have heard about MACH3, so I want a software that the kids can look at and edit the G-code. Is there one that offers a close to an industry feel that will operate on the tables I mentioned at the beginning of my post? When I learned G-code I used Word Pad and then uploaded the text to the CNC and ran a simulation. Talk about a walk AROUND.