Newbie- Looking to the pros for advice

[rbmedic75]

Guys I appologize in advance I am sure these questions have been asked a thousand times but I couldnt find a straight answer in the search engines so here it goes.

1. Anyone have expierience with plasmaroute? good bad or ugly?
2. I have a fab shop that I am making custom truck parts for diesel's bumpers, traction bars, intake horns basically lots of metal brackets and stuff. I am in nned of a CNC plasma table to increase productivity and accuracy. most of the vendors reccomend the automatic Torch Height Control for all aplications. But one told me that if I was gonna cut 18g or thinner it was a must but thicker it would help me out but not required. My question is which one is true the thinest material I will be cutting is 3/16" for the front bumpers do I need the THC or how much benefit would I get from it? Is it worth the $1200 for my application? Looking to get a system that will and I wont outgrow without breaking the bank. also anyone run the pipe and tubing cutter for the plasmaroute looks pretty slick a lot of my work is pipe so I think its a must. Thanks for the help guys and again sorry if this is redundant


By the way why do the threads reads page backwards page 1 is the latest and page 10 is the start or is it just a setting i need to change

[Torchhead]

1. Go look in the main section of the posts in the Plasma Forum and find:

"PlasmaRouteCNC-New Table Ordered"

"Plasma Table Shopping" Post #73

There are a whole string of posts from several owners.

2. For commercial cutting a THC is essential. Even on thicker material you are dealing with cut gaps that need to stay within .020 + - to provide good cuts. It's hard not to get at least that much warp even in thicker plate. You need IHS (Initial Height Sensing) because you have to know where the top of material is even manually cutting. You can take the time to do that on every sheet but it's a LOT faster if you have a setup (floating Torch Holder) to do it automatically. That constitutes part of the cost of the THC on the table (it's not JUST the Digital Torch Height electronics). You will go through consumables ($$$) at a high rate of speed if you fail to pierce at a height greater than your cut height or ever let the tip (nozzle) touch while cutting. You can use a drag tip to protect the nozzle but that prevents getting a good cut with CNC. Yes, you can add the DTHC later but unless you go ahead and order it with the right Torch Holder (aka Floating Head) it will not be a simple plug and go upgrade. In the end you will save a few hundred dollars and pay for it in consumables and bad cuts.

One of the reasons (justifications) you find for not using a THC is in a lot of systems the THC is not integrated in as part of the motion control and so there are no Z electronics. You have to buy an expensive stand-alone THC unit and that adds a lot to the cost (more than double the 1200 you are looking at). It's easier to say you can add it later to soften the impact.

Once you have a CNC plasma table you will find all kinds of things to cut (or your friends and family will) that are on thinner material.

For pipe cutting you HAVE to have height control of some form since pipe can vary well over the tolerance (.063) on the larger stuff.

Most recent tread is the higher page numbers.

TOM Caudle
www.CandCNC.com

[rbmedic75]

Torchhead I thank you for your reply. I just got done reading the thread were you were talking to (i believe Jim Colbert) about the THC and had made up my mind to go ahead with it. I was down to basically 2 tables the TM and the PlasmaRoute. I have not ordered it yet but have definately decided to go with the PlasmaRoute. I like several things about it over the rest. 1st off the 2 were the only ones I could find pipe and tubing cutters with (I am sure there are others but didnt see them) the TM required the table grate to be removed for the tubing cutter (not practical for me) where as the PlasmaRoute is a stand beside chuck driven setup that utilizes an extended gantry which is perfect for me. My parts will be a combination of flat plates for brackets and pipe and or tubing for the same project my goal is to all pieces in one file for a specific item and be able to open it and say cut and cut all pieces for that particular job. The plasmaroute seems to best fit that bill. Nonproprietary software is a huge plus. as well as the cheap cost to upgrade to a combo table Router/Plasma. the willingness for me to ship my plasma cutter and router to them for them to make custom brackets and install the cnc cards for free. Just seems so far like a good co to work with

[jimcolt]

rbmedic 75,

THC (torch height control) is absolutely necessary on all materials thicknesses...if anyone tells you you don't need it on thicker materials...then they have probably never operated a plasma system that has a good quality torch height control. Pierce height is as critical as cut height....older technology height controls can control cut height to within plus or minus 5 arc volts (close to +- .020") of the plasma torch manufacturers recomended height. Newer technology THC's control to plus or minus 1 volt (.004") ...and there is a noticeable improvement in cut edge quality and angularity when these types of torch to work distances are maintained.

As important is the ability to pierce (different height than cut height) at an accurate height...this function provides for better long term cut quality as it dramatically improves the life of the torch consumables.


Jim colt Hypertherm

[Torchhead]

The DTHC we supply has the ability to hold down to 1/4 volt "span". Each type of metal can have that in it's Cut Profile and is settable from 1/4V up to 8/4 volts (2volts).

We are doing final testing on the Digital Current Probe option that allows real time cut current and the ability to have a variable trip point for Arc OK (or you can use the ARC Xfr signal on units that have it) by material and also a "window" of acceptable cutting current for a Cut Profile that will fault out and either warn the operator and/or stop the cut if desired. It's just another set of parameters that can be used to diganose cut problems or prevent bad cuts from "Pilot Error".


TOM Caudle
www.CandCNC.com

[Edwardo]

I wanted to edit my comment but ended up deleting it, but there are a few guys in the Dynatorch thread in the midst of builds and retro fits that may be worth checking out if you havent done so yet, if anything just for more info on cnc tables.
EDD