Build Thread New Dynatorch 5x10 Dual Drop side Frame/Water Table Build


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Thread: New Dynatorch 5x10 Dual Drop side Frame/Water Table Build

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    Default New Dynatorch 5x10 Dual Drop side Frame/Water Table Build

    Hello All,

    My name is Sean, I work for a small but growing metal fabrication shop here in Alabama called Titan Fabrication ( www.TitanFabrication.com ). We are about to make a large jump in our capabilities by bringing in a 5x10 Dynatorch system with a Hypertherm P85 and are really looking forward to doing some cool things with this machine.
    We made the trip up to Padukah a couple weeks ago to visit the guys and see the operation to help us to finalize our decision to go with a Dynatorch system. I would like to add that I can't say enough about the personal attention and great technical info we have received thus far in person from Russ, as well as through phone conversations with Leon. We could tell while we were there that several of the guys we met are truly excited about building these machines. As of this week we are officially in line to have our dual Dropside Gantry kit built and it should be ready for us to pick up in about 3 weeks.

    I have been on a CNC knowledge crash course for the last few weeks and have learned a lot but know I am only scratching the surface. It's very addictive once you get started!! First of all I want to express thanks to everyone that makes this site possible as well as those that contribute all the awesome information. There are some very ingenious people on these forums. I look forward to an interchange of inspiration by being a member here.

    The reason for starting this post is that we have decided to build our own machine frame and water table. I hope that we can benefit from community knowledge as it applies to what we are doing, and can hopefully give back by sharing some of our seemingly unique ideas and how they work out (or don't) in reality. The plan is for this frame and water table design to be completely CAD designed in a solid model and shared here so we can exchange ideas over a virtual build, hopefully ending up with a greatly improved end result. In the end I would like to make a publicly shared e-drawings file available so that others may be able to benefit fully from our combined efforts as they contemplate their own builds.

    Hopefully this topic will be successful in this forum without having to be moved to the main project log forum since this is somewhat specifically Dynatorch related.

    Now on to the build details…

    We have a lot of materials on hand already, and to an extent the materials that we have will determine the way that we build while trying to avoid making any major compromises for that reason.

    Current material plans are:

    4” x 7Ga.Square Tube Legs
    2” x 4” x 7Ga. Rec. Tube Main Frame Rails
    2” x 3” x 7Ga. Rec. Tube Main Water Table Frame Rails
    1.5” x 11Ga.” Square Tube Secondary Water Table Support/Frame Gusseting
    4” x 11Ga. Slat Material. Slot holders with provisions for slats every 2”, but normally running them installed every 4”.

    We are planning a dual chamber adjustable level water table that will most likely be constructed from of all things… 11Ga. aluminum treadbright… Yeah I know…but we have a several 12’ sheets and loads of drops in this material from a recent job. If we use it the tread side will be turned out and not really very visible (or at all if we skin the sides). We would prefer to use a different material, but this is what we have unless somebody needs some 4’x12’ sheets of this material to use for a more suitable purpose? Any input as to why we shouldn’t use this is welcome.

    One idea I have been anxious to open up to your scrutiny is the idea of having slat holders which are able to raise the slats for forklift loading/unloading. Obviously one of the great advantages of a drop side table is the ease of loading material onto the machine. It seems that with many water tables you give some of that advantage away by having walls which are above the slat surface to a varying extent based on table design. What we are proposing to do is to use several custom built hydraulic cylinders (more of a ram actually) which are a variation of a pancake cylinder to raise and lower the slat level by about 1”. This would allow us to run our water level right against the bottom of the plate for cutting if we wish, and also allow for above machine grade loading/unloading. These cylinders are of our own design and outside of some CNC lathe work would be constructed in house. Here is a picture of the concept I have put together on this so far. The ram is about 3.25" tall overall.


    We have not had the opportunity to do production work with a machine like this. From the outside looking in this seems to us like it would be a pretty big improvement. My question for you is, are we making a problem out of something that isn’t really a problem? Does anybody feel like they would benefit from having this capability? Thank you in advance for your input.

    Something else we hope to be able to get some input on is a good design for adjustable linear rail / gear rack mounts. We have seen some examples of these here, but hope to gather some information from those that have done them, how they have worked out and would you do anything different.

    Along those lines another thing we have considered is using linear bearing rails on both sides of the x axis. The Dynatorch gantries are not normally set up this way. They use a linear rail one the master side with floating v-groove wheels on the slave side. It appears though that the construction of their gantry is symmetrical, so we could do this if there was enough advantage in doing so. It seems all of the very high end machines (not meant to take away from the Dynatorch) run linear rails to guide both sides of the x axis. Obviously this comes with very critical alignment concerns which I would imagine is one of the main reasons why Dynatorch builds their gantry the way they do. What is everyone’s input on this?

    Well, this post is definitely long enough, and should hopefully be a good start. We hope to be well along in the construction of our frame and water tank by the time our Gantry is finished, so this thread should stay moving along pretty good.

    I look forward to your input

    Sean

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    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails New Dynatorch 5x10 Dual Drop side Frame/Water Table Build-water_table_cylinder_img_1-jpg  
    Last edited by LiveOff-Road; 01-15-2012 at 03:16 PM. Reason: Add Links


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    LiveOff-Road,

    Welcome to the forum. Your dual drop table sounds like a fun build. I custom built the 1st (that I know of) Dynatorch Dual Drop table design in 2009. I already had a Dynatorch table I purchased in 2005. I redesigned the existing gantry and table into a Dual Drop and added several new features. I might add that Leon Drake, who is the engineer at Dynatorch gave me some valuable tips during my redesign process. Here is a link to my build;
    http://www.cnczone.com/forums/dynato...h_upgrade.html

    Dynatorch recently introduced their own Dual Drop table they call the XLR8 Dual Drop. Most likely they have provided you with a set of table plans for the Dual Drop Gantry. I would suggest that you don't deviate from the plans. Leon has been designing and building plasma tables for many years so I'm sure the plans incorporate tested in the real world proven designs.

    To address some of your questions;

    1. Using Dual Linear rails on each side?

    Dual linear rails on each side of the X or long axis is something you normally see on a extreme high end industrial (translated extreme high cost) plasma machines. These machines have machine tool type tolerances like Haas Verticle Machining Center would.

    For the home or small shop builder installing 2 oposing linear rails spaced 6' apart in the verticle and horozontal planes within a couple of thousands of an inch of each other is a challenge to say the least. Can it be done? Some say yes. I say its not worth the effort.

    An industrial builder is able to acheive this by 1st placing their welded table in an oven to stress relieve the welded frame and then by putting the frame in a bridge milling machine (12' or more travels) and machining 2 flat linear rail mounting surfaces (way registers) on the welded frame. This ensures each linear rail is in perfect alignment with the other. This process also adds big money to the cost of the build.

    2 other methods can be used to address the alignment problem.

    1. Use one fixed linear rail on the master side and a V rail with a 'floating wheel' on the slave side that can move back and forth to compensate for any misalignment. This is what Dynatorch uses. This method works great and I use it on my machine as well. The slave motor holds the gantry in perfect alignment while the floating V wheel compensates for misalignment between the master rail and the slave side rail.

    2. Adjustable floating rail mounts. I attached a picture of a Koike plasma table with adjustable rail mounts so you can get an idea.

    My suggestion is to stick with the floating V rail design which has an added benefit of being self cleaning.

    Aluminum water tray?

    I would stay away of the aluminum tray for a couple of reasons. Aluminum corrodes much quicker that steel. You will need some type of additive for the water which after cutting awhile can become an interesting mix of a brew.

    You also have to consider the material slat support system which will be submerged in your water tank will be steel. It will have to be able to hold a great deal of weight and most likely be welded or attached to the tank its self. Perhaps WSS who frequents the forum will chime in to give you some tips on the holding tank system as he built a killer set up for his Dynatorch table.

    Hydraulic lift cylinders for the slats?

    If you are concerned about gently loading your material on the table I would consider using some magnets with chains and suspending the material from the forks when loading. Also be aware cutting with water directly under the sheet is an invitation for a unwanted shower for you and your expensive equipment. Much like pointing a compressed air hose at a pool of water 2" away! I like to run my water level about 4" below the sheet. At that height it provides a happy medium between smoke and dust removal and splashing water. In addition splashing water on your material certainly is not a plus for cut quality.

    http://www.cnczone.com/forums/cnc_pl...ant_water.html

    Another tip; check out the We-cim package Dynatorch offers as it will make your life much easier when you start creating those parts on your new table.

    Have fun! I will watching your build.


    Magma-joe

    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails New Dynatorch 5x10 Dual Drop side Frame/Water Table Build-koike-plasma-table-jpg   New Dynatorch 5x10 Dual Drop side Frame/Water Table Build-way_register-png  
    Last edited by magma-joe; 01-16-2012 at 10:17 AM.


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    Good afternoon!

    We load ours with a forklift and have a "level" setup. We can kiss the back of the plate or drop to near empty if needed. I usually cut about half inch from the top, this gives 99% smoke and dust trapping and parts that are cool enough to pick-up as soon as the cut is finished. Keeps parts straighter too. I am soaking up some Maui sun but will be back and find some pics to post late this week.

    Cheers,
    WSS

    www.metaltechus.com


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    Thank you guys for the input...

    I wouldn't say we are straying TOO far away from the Dynatorch frame/water table design ( we can only stray so far within the confines of a gantry kit). BUT, as this is going in a full time fab shop where it will hopefully be loaded up with a pretty consistent production schedule we want something a little more durable or idiot proof than the standard plan calls for. We need something that an idiot can smack a fork lift into the side of every day for the next several years and still be there.

    Our philosophy is that if it is a part of the machine that doesn't move, then there is no harm in making it 3 times heavier. We want something that is overkill and looks classy at the same time since it not only represents our shop and it's capabilities, but will hopefully shine well on Dynatorch too. Honestly, looking at your own build, I think we are on the same page.

    To give you an idea, I have attached some pictures of where I am at right now on our table design. I put this together in a few hours last night and a lot of details shown will probably change but I use a top down design process that sort of lets the build show me the way to my desired end result (For instance I quickly saw that it was going to be more of a pain in the butt that I originally envisioned to use our planned 2x4 tubing main frame rails atop our 4x4 legs because of the notching of the legs that would be required for our water table support frame). Because the model is built with a lot of associative constraints, I can can make major changes easily (ie. adjust a major dimension on the table and everything re-proportions itself to maintain the same symmetry and relative fitment).
    Everybody likes pictures!




    As it is drawn the table now has a 4x4 main frame rail system, but that may change going forward. Whichever way the design ends up being..it will fit inside the Dynatorch specified spatial envelope in any dimension important to Gantry fitment.

    About the linear rails... aside from more difficulty in initially setting them up, and obviously some more cost, is there any reason not to look at pursuing that direction? It would certainly seem to have the advantage of being a more rigid/accurate setup? I guess it is certainly questionable about whether it would truly be beneficial for this class of machine (mostly being limited by air plasma). I hate to design/build for less than we are capable of though.

    There are plenty of home/small shop builders who seem to successfully pull off parallel linear bearing systems. One of which that comes to my mind from my research is all of the tables dnelso has built. His builds appear to work great with years of results (as an aside they look to move nice and fast too). I understand his explanation of how he was able to get them on plane, but I don't fully understand his explanation of how he got them to be parallel within an acceptable tolerance. Besides peoples input on if we should or should not even try dual linear X rails, I really hope to collect some more information about logical construction methods that allow one to build such a system within acceptable accuracy without having to take some of the extreme machine/cost intensive steps that industrial manufacturers might commonly take. Something such as a clean packageable and reliable method of having multi-axial adjustment of the guide system along with a methods of measuring to properly adjust such a system.

    Any ideas,examples or information that anyone can provide is greatly appreciated. I will continue looking as well, but the clock is ticking to get this stuff built, so hopefully the collection of knowledge here can help speed up the process.

    About the aluminum water tray... I am still trying to gather some more info on the suitability of it. I didn't speak to Leon about it, but Michael (the owner of Titan Fab) did. The message that was conveyed to me is all good as long as the loads it will be seeing are adequately supported. In our design the only real meaningful loads the aluminum would see are some fairly small spans of supporting the waters weight. Material weight is supported by the table frame rails with the only real load to the aluminum being compression of the sheet between the slat holder system and the frame. The slat holders are positively located within the water table without welding. The main thing I am concerned with, and still need to research more is the affect of water submersion on galvanic corrosion. Again any shared knowledge and feedback on this is greatly appreciated.

    As far as the hydraulic slat lift cylinders are concerned I think we are beginning to lean toward the simple tried and true methods like WSS mentions he uses with his table. Without having more experience here we really don't know what kind of water levels that we might want for what types of cutting, so we were trying to keep our options open with our design being able to cut at just about any water level to the plate while still keeping the plate level above machine grade for easy loading. It was a cool idea in concept at least...

    We do know that we do not want the slat surface sitting well below the table top as some have been constructed.

    We have ordered the Dynatorch premier software package with We-Cim. The posts from you two guys helped seal that decision before we even went to Ky. a few weeks ago. If the guys from Dynatorch are reading this, hopefully that means some cookie points for you guys.

    I still have plenty more questions to ask yet, but I hope we can get some more input on the things already out on the table(no pun) first, plus I have more research and thinking to do before I could even do the questions and your answers proper justice.

    Thank you guys for your input so far. I'm looking forward to whatever else you can share.

    WSS, NIIICE on he Maui Sun... Remember to enjoy that a little extra for the rest of us still working back inside the box.

    Sean

    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails New Dynatorch 5x10 Dual Drop side Frame/Water Table Build-dynatorch_frame-jpg   New Dynatorch 5x10 Dual Drop side Frame/Water Table Build-dynatorch_frame_bottom-jpg  
    Last edited by LiveOff-Road; 01-17-2012 at 02:17 AM.


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    LiveOffRoad

    I just wanted to chime in and let you know that even though you may be a few weeks before production that I would be happy to answer any questions you may have about the WE-CIM Software. I don't know if you knew this but you are pretty close to us.

    I am also interested in following your post. Sounds like a fun project.

    I am sure that you will find a wealth of information here as the participants are surely the best you will ever find. They have been in the trenches and I am positive you can benefit from their trials and tribulations.

    Gary



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    Quote Originally Posted by gwittlock View Post
    LiveOffRoad

    I just wanted to chime in and let you know that even though you may be a few weeks before production that I would be happy to answer any questions you may have about the WE-CIM Software. I don't know if you knew this but you are pretty close to us.

    I am also interested in following your post. Sounds like a fun project.

    I am sure that you will find a wealth of information here as the participants are surely the best you will ever find. They have been in the trenches and I am positive you can benefit from their trials and tribulations.

    Gary
    Gary,

    Yeah we actually did find out that you are not TOO far away here in Alabama. If you are ever down in this area, definitely come check us out. We are just a few minutes off I65.

    Thank you for your interest. We look forward to working with you as we strive to get the most out of our system.

    Oh and ROLL TIDE!!

    Sean



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    Quote; (There are plenty of home/small shop builders who seem to successfully pull off parallel linear bearing systems. One of which that comes to my mind from my research is all of the tables dnelso has built. His builds appear to work great with years of results (as an aside they look to move nice and fast too). Quote(I understand his explanation of how he was able to get them on plane, but I don't fully understand his explanation of how he got them to be parallel within an acceptable tolerance. Besides peoples input on if we should or should not even try dual linear X rails, I really hope to collect some more information about logical construction methods that allow one to build such a system within acceptable accuracy without having to take some of the extreme machine/cost intensive steps that industrial manufacturers might commonly take. Something such as a clean packageable and reliable method of having multi-axial adjustment of the guide system along with a methods of measuring to properly adjust such a system.

    Any ideas,examples or information that anyone can provide is greatly appreciated. I will continue looking as well, but the clock is ticking to get this stuff built, so hopefully the collection of knowledge here can help speed up the process.)

    LiveOff-Road,

    I have seen Dnelso's tables as well. Having pondered the same thoughts you are, out of curiosity I questioned him on his alignment method. Also having some 1st hand experience, I think I have figured out how Dnelso and others have been able to get away with using linear rails.

    During my build I had the pleasure of mounting 2 linear rails on the gantry for the Y axis carriage. This required MANY hours to get the 2 rails perfectly aligned for the silky smooth motion required for a CNC. The Steel Y axis carriage supplied to me by Dynatorch was not machined on the bottom.

    The Y axis carriage mounts to 3 rail cassets. When I bolted down the carriage the first time it bound so tight it would'nt move at all. Many hours of shimming later I finally got it to sit flat. Then came aligning the 2 rails paralell with each other.

    Even though the 2 rails are only 6" inchs from each other the surface of the aluminum channel where the rail was bolted down varied
    enough that the Y axis carriage would bind every few inches. This required more shimming and hours of time.

    Since the small Y axis carriage is steel and quite rigid it required the rails to be in PERFECT alignment. After this Y axis mounting exercise it became very apparent that if your rails are not in perfect alignment something has to give.

    After looking at Dnelso's builds as well as some others here on the Zone who have used linear rail it appears they all have something in common. Their gantries are light weight and are not rigidly built which alows for flexing with little resistance.

    If the rails are reasonably close to being aligned the gantry will flex to compensate for the areas of misalignment. I suspect this is how these builders are getting away with using paralell linear rail on the X axis without machined mounting surfaces. Picture a solidly rigid cast iron machining center with linear rails out of alignment by .010.

    Another thing to consider, Lets say you are successful at installing 2 paralell linear rails and you dial them in + or - a couple of thousands. Will your table still hold those tolerances when you drop a 1000lb sheet of material on it or when the fork lift hits it? The question of a table not flexing when being loaded or bumped by the forklift is most likely the reason the extreme high end builders build their machines like tanks, using 3/8 or thicker material.

    There is a thread by JerryFlyGuy about lining up some 20' rail that was quite interesting. Here is a link, it is quite lenghty.
    http://www.cnczone.com/forums/mechan...nterlines.html

    Although I did not use linear rail in my build I still wanted my V rail as straight as possible. When looking at the rail in the picture you can see a piece of 1 x 2" bar stock bolted to the top of the square tube. I had the 12' edge of the bar stock surface ground before bolting it to the square tube so I would have a perfectly straight edge to mount the rail to.

    The other pic is the adjustment system for the square tube. It allows adjustment in all directions.

    Some food for thought.......

    Magma-joe

    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails New Dynatorch 5x10 Dual Drop side Frame/Water Table Build-adjustable-rail-jpg   New Dynatorch 5x10 Dual Drop side Frame/Water Table Build-piano-wire-jpg  
    Last edited by magma-joe; 01-18-2012 at 10:03 AM.


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    With plaz, you will want water close to the back (most air plasma torches are not made for submerged cutting). With oxy, it is your choice. I drop the water, but others do not.

    As far as accuracy with linear vs V rail, I have a cam follower slave w/ V rail master and can hit within .01" every cut. OK, many factors but IF it pierces good and the nozzle is clean/un-worn, you should be able to get "repeatable" results. Set-up your kerfs per size/thickness/volts (Gary will be a big help here in the beginning, learn this section well) and you will be able to get good parts on the DT. We just retroed ours and now have four times the power and way more accel/deccel and still holds perfect tolerance. Your variables are other than motion. We load with a forklift and the current Design is NOT forklift friendly. I have had to replace a rail already due to the teeth facing the fork mast, if you can change that (maybe it already has been) it would be helpful. If you have the ohmic sensing option available, that would help too, most bad cuts start at the pierce. Our new system uses a "float head" to sense the plate and I have not had a bad pierce in over 8K pierces, That eliminates having to watch or listen to every pierce.

    May be more than you were asking but I thought it might be useful in attacking your build. I am sure you could ask for someone with a DT to cut a file for you and have them send it to you so you can see what you are dealing with.

    WSS

    www.metaltechus.com


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    OK about time for a little update action...

    I have not had much time to give to this yet as we are working as hard as we can to get the shop as far caught up as possible before we make the push to get this built.

    I have most of the basic structural design finished. I don't want to get too carried away with the structure, but I really do want to incorporate some more triangulation. Triangles eat up space and material but make the structure significantly more rigid. Looking at it from our background (a lot of automotive fabrication such as tubular space frame design/construction and dynamic systems) it is very noticeable how little structural triangulation that you see in stationary machinery design. Lack of triangulation is generally made up for with lots of added material and plenty of rectangulation.
    I am trying to decide what makes for a good compromise for this build. Unlike dynamic machines especially along the lines of race vehicles structural efficiency is not really very important in the non moving parts of a stationary machine, and really all the weight you can throw at it is probably only a good thing for the accuracy and repeatability of the machine.

    OK back to the build...

    Here is what the whole table looks like right now.
    Top:


    Bottom:


    Not a lot new going on with the frame. Support has been added under the water tank to help support the water load and limit "oil-canning" of the large flat surface on the bottom of the tank. There are also internal gussets in the tank as well as the crossover tubes between the reservoir and cutting area being welded to both horizontal surfaces. This should make for a rigid and strong water tank even though it is built out of aluminum. As I mentioned before, the bulk of the weight of metal plate to be cut will be carried directly by the frame that supports the entire perimeter of the water tank. The only material weight that the structure of the water tank has to support is deflection of the slat support system caused by weight on the middle of the span. To support that load there is an internal center rib that runs the length of the water reservoir which is supported by steel tubing directly under the length of the rib (this is where some amount of triangulated material will end up before it is finished).

    The slat support system is a little different than usual partly because of the water table being built in aluminum, but also because we wanted the ability to easily remove the slat system in complete sections of slats/holders from the tank when it comes time for cleaning.
    Here is what we came up with.
    On the Table:


    The slat support system is made of three of these assembled together.
    Slat Frame:


    Pictured here with a revolutionary see through non plasma cuttable, slag unstickable, slat material. I call it Balognaum 68.


    Here are the three sections put together viewed from the bottom.


    The 3 sections are identical and are built so that the offset of the center support in relation to the end supports creates an area of overlap where the three sections can be pinned together. For illustration purposes only I drew up a quick and easy to draw pin. I am not sure exactly what kind of pin we are going to use yet. 4 of these pins hold the thee sections together.



    The point of these is that they will lock the three sections together, stabilizing them, but they should also be very easy to remove when we want to so that we can pull a section out.

    Another benefit (in my mind at least) to this system is that it isolates the cumulative load of forcing all of the slats to bow and takes this load away from the machine frame. I have read of some other peoples builds that the frames were square and true during assembly, but they had problems with the main frame rails bowing after the slats were installed.

    I have not decided yet if we should make alignment journals of some sort in the water tank to hold this assembly still. It can only move about a half inch in any direction before the frame touches the tank walls. Any input on this?

    I appreciate any input -good, bad, or YOUR CRAZY!!- that anyone wants to give as long as it's mostly constructive.

    Our real parts have started to come in. We have our Hypertherm PM85, SWEET leveling feet, plumbing and valves for the water table (These are crazy cool overkill and will blow you away...literally if you stand too close ) all here already and I will be posting some info/pic about that stuff soon.

    Sean

    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails New Dynatorch 5x10 Dual Drop side Frame/Water Table Build-dynatorch_frame-jpg   New Dynatorch 5x10 Dual Drop side Frame/Water Table Build-dynatorch_frame_bottom_1-26-jpg   New Dynatorch 5x10 Dual Drop side Frame/Water Table Build-dynatorch_frame_no_slats_1-26-jpg   New Dynatorch 5x10 Dual Drop side Frame/Water Table Build-slat_frame-jpg  

    New Dynatorch 5x10 Dual Drop side Frame/Water Table Build-slat_holder_pin-jpg   New Dynatorch 5x10 Dual Drop side Frame/Water Table Build-slat_set-jpg   New Dynatorch 5x10 Dual Drop side Frame/Water Table Build-slat_system_bottom-jpg  
    Last edited by LiveOff-Road; 01-27-2012 at 02:43 AM.


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    Liveoffroad,
    Looks like you have been busy in your design process. Your table assembly looks very strong. I always find the design process the most fun part of a project.

    I stumbled across this thread on aluminum water tables and thought you might be interested. Apparently they are having issues with galvanic corrosion from the steel sitting in direct contact with the aluminum.

    http://www.cnczone.com/forums/cnc_pl..._inside-2.html


    Have fun, I'm looking foward to seeing pics of your build.

    Magma-joe



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    Just a couple notes to add.
    In order to exactly space 2 linear bearing rails, you can secure one rail and then use the carriage or gantry as the spacer to accurately set the distance to the second rail. Drill and bolt the rail starting at one end and stay close to the movable carriage. As you move down the rail, you do one hole at a time and advance the carriage along with your progress. On the Y axis where there is little thermal expansion or possible movement between parts, this is fairly simple. When you spread that out to the 6 or 8 feet between rails, loading of the table, thermal effects and more can easily cause binding. This is why most bearing manufacturers spec very exact tolerances for this arrangement. However, since the servo motor keeps the machine square, the slave side can allow float and still support the load. It just becomes a matter of how creative you can be in designing a floating link or mounting.

    The galvanic issue with aluminum is always a problem.

    As for loading and unloading, also consider the vacuum type lifters for water tables. Vendors like Anver make excellent ones with loss of suction warning devices. I have used these for many years on huge plates with no problems. The water on the plate also acts as a seal and lube for the soft rubber skirt to reduce wear. They can be used with cranes or forklifts.



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    I have not updated this in way too long. It seems I never have the time to come sit down to bring this up to speed.

    Michael the owner of Titan Fab went to go pick up the Gantry once it was finished.

    Here it is sitting i the corner. A little dusty, but ready for action.


    In the last couple months we have had several big projects come through the shop that stole the resources away from this build, so we are a good ways behind where we wanted to be by now. As much as we (and our customers) look forward to the future with this machine, we have to keep making the customers happy in the mean time. :shrug:

    OK, for updates...

    We did decide to go with linear bearing rails for both sides of the X axis. We came up with a simple solution that we were happy with which will hopefully prove to be a successful upgrade.

    We are having some Laser cut and CNC Press formed 3/8" angle brackets made that bolt to the side of the machine frame which our X axis linear rails and gear racks will be hung from.

    Overall Pic.


    Closer


    These should give us a very solid mount with the ability to shim for adjustments in 2 axes which should allow us to get them to run bind free.

    To mount the extra linear bearings to the slave side of the gantry in place of where the floating V rollers would normally be we came up with a super simple solution that requires only minimal modification to the Dynatorch gantry. This solution we consider plan A, and is non floating. It does have slots for adjustment at initial setup. There is some concern that a non floating setup will cause problems. If that proves to be the case we will be able to implement a floating deign to this mount easily. For the first go around we want to test the K.I.S.S. option.

    X-Slave Bearing Mount


    Pictures of real parts...

    To be prepared for any shimming of the the X-Rail Mounts that might be required we picked up a bunch of U-shims from MSC.


    I hope nobody minds a Pimp for MSC, because they are AWESOME to us ( No sponsorship or anything, just great/loyal service). We have a great account rep. who is always checking make sure we have everything we need and are well taken care of. They have supplied a lot of assorted parts that are going into this build. Almost everything store bought I am about to show you also came from them.

    We Got these awesome leveling feet with 3" Pads and 3/4" Shanks. They are rated to support somewhere around 30,000 # each!


    No, they are not bent, the pad swivels/articulates on the shank. COOL
    These might be the same or very similar to what magma-joe used in his build?

    Next are ball valves we will be using to actuate our water table. Nothing too special, but we are using a 1" valve to fill the tank, and a 2" valve to dump it. We expect to see quick movement from the water table!


    To make raising the water table level faster we have incorporated a 60 Gal. secondary air receiver in the shop right next to the water table. We're thinking that this should provide nearly enough air on it's own to fully raise the water table so it should be a lot faster not waiting on it to breath from a long 1/2" supply line. We already had the tank sitting here collecting dust, so we figured this was as good of a use as any.

    On a side story...It is definitely not a good idea to throw a 2" ball valve WIDE OPEN that is mounted directly to an un-anchored air tank pressurized with 60 Gal of 120 psi air. The outcome was ...umm very exciting to say the least. That's a story for another post though.

    Air Receiver/prep.


    In the picture you can also see our air prep for the plasma with the motorguard followed by the Parker/Dominic Hunter air dryer. These supply only the plasma generator. The water table feeds directly off the receiver with 1" piping.

    Next is our computer workstation. Complete with ricer filter!



    The Cabinet was re-appropriated from a less honorable purpose. It was modified to completely seal off the lower area. There is a high volume PC fan that draws fresh air into cabinet through the ricer filter. The Computer is an old shop office flunky that is now all loaded up with Dynatorch and WeCim software and is ready to make smoke (Not from the PC hopefully).
    The monitor is a 23" touchscreen.

    Titan Fab's "Wonderboy" Jon setup the workstation on a shop network to make sending part files from the office painless.

    And here is where we were at on the table construction as of Monday. A bit more has been done since Monday, but I don't have any new pics and won't for a couple of weeks since I will be away from work on a big family vacation road trip.

    Some assembly required: This is one of my favorite parts of a pre-planned build. You look forward to things going easily, but are a bit worried if all that $$metal is going to get along as planned. There was a lot more here before I remembered to take a pic.



    Frame mostly done, water table in progress... OH, about the water table... We were able to sell the aluminum treadbright before we cut it up for use in another project for one of our industrial customers. The water table is now constructed from 11Ga. steel which I imagine we will be happier with in the long run.










    Let us know what you think or if you have any questions. Hopefully I can get back to this sooner next time.

    Sean

    Last edited by LiveOff-Road; 03-23-2012 at 01:13 AM. Reason: Fixed Pictures


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    Quote Originally Posted by LiveOff-Road View Post
    I have not updated this in way too long. ...
    Let us know what you think or if you have any questions. Hopefully I can get back to this sooner next time.

    Sean
    A bunch of the pictures are broken links.



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    Pictures fixed.

    Last edited by LiveOff-Road; 03-23-2012 at 01:16 AM.


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    Wow, Quiet in here...

    I made it back the ed of last week from a long trip out to Arizona for a family wedding and to see as much of the West as we could in a week and a half. It was a really cool trip. We saw Galveston Island Tx, Carlsbad Caverns, White Sands, Painted Desert and the Petrified Forest, Canyon de Chelly, Monument Valley, Mexican Hat, and the Grand Canyon as well as spending some time in the mountains surrounding Tucson. We narrowly missed the gnarly tornadoes in Dallas heading home.

    For updates... All of our laser cut parts to finish up the build are in the shop now. No pictures yet as I have not seen most of the parts since I have been out of town.

    I did get to see the 3/8" press formed linear rail/ gear rack mounts. IMPRESSIVE!! Those should hopefully be mounted to the frame tomorrow.

    The water tank is nearly finished.

    Once we finish all of the fitting/fab everything is going out for powdercoat which I would expect to be before the end of this week. The finished product will look very similar to the last model renderings.

    I will report back with pictures as soon as I can.

    Sean



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    Glad to see you guys are coming along with your machine build. Looking forward to seeing it in action! BTW if you need any help with WE-CIM I'm the guy you need. Don't be a stranger - Jeremy.



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    Quote Originally Posted by jwittlock View Post
    Glad to see you guys are coming along with your machine build. Looking forward to seeing it in action! BTW if you need any help with WE-CIM I'm the guy you need. Don't be a stranger - Jeremy.
    Were glad that you are interested in following our build. We look forward to working with you.

    Sean



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    OK, Some Over Due Updates.

    I'll let the pictures do most of the talking.

    Pictures of the Modifications to the Gantry:

    Before...




    After... ( But before the V-Rail Rollers were removed )




    Conversion bracket.

    Note the "Helper tool" in one of the slots. We had that laser cut so that we could use a transfer punch and get the bolts in the center of the adjustment slots.

    Frame Back from powder coat. Looks great


    The fork lift slots came in real handy.


    Here are the rack mount brackets bolted to the frame.


    Here is the gantry conversion bracket riding on the slave side linear rail.


    And the real exciting moment... for us anyway.

    Frame and gantry meet and get along.




    Right from the beginning eve before shimming the gantry moved very freely down the length of the rails. A 30# or so push would result in the ganty traveling 6-7' on it's own. A little harder push and someone would have to catch it before it slammed into the stops. We have since done some fine tuning with a dial indicator on the gantry and shimming the rails to improve the fit even more. The gantry moves very freely but is rigidly constrained to only allow desirable movement. You can grab either side of he gantry and push,pull,lift, etc. without any perceivable slop twisting or binding. As good or better than expected, and alot easier to achieve than expected.

    We owe a big thank you to JD and the guys at Prattville Powdercoating for helping us to make this machine look great. They did a nice job matching the Dynatorch Red color, and the TexBlack color on the frame looks great. It is like a gloss back with a texture similar to a fine grand sand paper to it. Not too glossy, but not too flat, and not too textured. It kind of has a satin like sheen to it.


    Today we got most of the odds and ends stuff finished. We got the lay track for the cable chain finished. Wiring and plumbing are finished for now, but we will do a little more tidying once we get it running. We should be doing final checks and powering up tomorrow morning.

    The water table actuation is crazy with a 1" line and valve directly off of the receiver. We timed the water table today going from empty to full (which is approximately 250 gallons) in 15 seconds! Emptying the table through the 2" valve only takes around 30 seconds.

    Thanks for following our build.

    Sean

    Last edited by LiveOff-Road; 04-16-2012 at 11:39 PM.


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    I like it a lot! Very well put together, I like the x- rails underslung like you have them, out of harms way and free from dirt and water. Hope to see that gantry in motion soon, where is the x drive track in relation to the rails? I can't see from the gantry as the xlr8 has those fancy covers!
    "Get her done!" As say say.
    Andy.



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    Quote Originally Posted by Hworks View Post
    I like it a lot! Very well put together, I like the x- rails underslung like you have them, out of harms way and free from dirt and water. Hope to see that gantry in motion soon, where is the x drive track in relation to the rails? I can't see from the gantry as the xlr8 has those fancy covers!
    "Get her done!" As say say.
    Andy.
    Thank you for the good words. We are very pleased with how it has turned out as well.

    We also really like the underslung X-Rail/Rack configuration for the same reasons that you mentioned, but we can't take too much credit it. We for the most part took Dynatorch's Master Side layout as it comes from them and mirrored it so everything is the same on both sides of the machine. We just had to make a few bits and bobs to make the conversion happen. The new style Dynatorch Gantry made the conversion pretty easy because the risers on the end of the Gantry and everything that mounts to them is pretty much symmetrical or mirrored off of the other side.

    To answer your question, the X rails/racks/mounts on both sides of the machine are exactly the same pieces and are mounted exactly the same. There are a couple of pictures from my previous post that show somewhat close up how the gear rack is sandwiched between the linear rail and the mounts. The one picture of just the loaded rack mount on the frame is of the master side.

    Sean



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