Single purpose tiny CNC plasma machine


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    Default Single purpose tiny CNC plasma machine

    I'm sure you all see hundreds of requests every year by people who think they want to build something and never do. I hope to NOT be "that guy". I have built a nice 2kW CNC mill and a CNC 40W CO2 laser cutter, so I'm quite familiar with the controls and software associated with CNC. My mill is pretty much single purpose, but I have recently modified it to handle general purpose jobs. Its main use is to cut various hole shapes in 1mm thick steel single gang outlet plates for my business. It takes a little over a minute for my mill to cut out these plates.

    Example:

    Single purpose tiny CNC plasma machine-img_20170509_46398-jpg


    I use flood coolant and a good AlTiN milling bit and it lasts for several hundred plates. But now I'm bored with this and I want to speed up my production, so I'm thinking Plasma. I go through about 1000 plates a year with about 7 different hole patterns. This is too low of a production to consider stamping dies or outsourcing for cutting, but getting to be too high to be sitting behind my mill for hours on end. Time is money.

    With this in mind, I was thinking about building a small CNC plasma machine, maybe capable of 2' by 2', and slapping a Hypertherm 30 on it to cut my plates. I say Hypertherm because I really have no knowledge of the various cutters and have only heard good things about the Hypertherm being able to do some fine detailed cutting. So, here is where I would appreciate some advice. Am I on the right track to think Hypertherm for this single purpose 1mm cutting application, or are there others I should consider? Other than the CNC build, which I am quite capable of doing, I would need a torch height controller. I'm fine with a "hobby" type controller as long as it would give me a good repeatable piercing cut. Any advice? Lastly I will use my existing copy of Mach3, which handles my gcode and does THC the last time I checked. Anybody foresee any problems with this?

    To prove how much of a Newbie I am, I ask the following about Plasma... Do I need to worry about the fact that my steel plates are powder coated? I figure the plasma just blasts through, but thought I should ask. Also, if I were to commit my entire machine to have a true single purpose, which is cutting these plates, placed at an exact location with the same height to the torch every time, can the system run without an active torch height control?

    Thanks!

    John

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    Default Re: Single purpose tiny CNC plasma machine

    A stamping press with dies would be the bees knees on that. You can get them online for cheap from factory liquidations. 1 second boom done. you could use your mill to cut the die and send it out to get heated treated and off you go.



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    Default Re: Single purpose tiny CNC plasma machine

    I do see where that could be nice, but I think that takes me too far to the other end of the spectrum. High speed mass production, where I only go through 1000 plates per year. My machine would sit idle for 364 days...



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    Default Re: Single purpose tiny CNC plasma machine

    I have apparently been lied to. I went to visit a Hypertherm dealer today and he told me there is NO WAY to get that level of precision from any plasma cutter. My smallest holes are 1/8" diameter and according to this dealer, the pierce hole would be larger than that. I found that hard to believe so I drove over to a second dealer in town who had better news, but still recommended against using a plasma for my plates. He said it might do the internal cuts, but I would be unhappy with the amount of cleanup required and it wouldn't be a whole lot faster than my mill. So I guess the YouTube videos showing plasma cuts almost as fine as laser cutting are smoke and mirrors. He also echoed the statement of davy182 that making dies with my mill would be a better approach.



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    Default Re: Single purpose tiny CNC plasma machine

    I think this is doable But i think that your 1 min milling time is great
    Post this On the Hypertherm section of the cnc zone where it can be seem
    i am shure Jim Colt can answer questions



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    Gold Member LeeWay's Avatar
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    Default Re: Single purpose tiny CNC plasma machine

    I use a Powermax 45 and get decent holes. I use PM30 consumables though.
    Down to about 1/8", but as mentioned, they will need to be punched through with a drill bit to true them up. I have had some parts laser cut in the past and I am considering doing this again for some parts made out of .048" SS. Each will have two small holes. 3/16" and 1/4". That is a lot of drill press time with plasma cuts, but laser cuts don't need that kind of cleanup. You might source them being done that way instead.

    Lee


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    Community Moderator Jim Dawson's Avatar
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    Default Re: Single purpose tiny CNC plasma machine

    I would think a laser or water jet would be more appropriate for that application. Somewhere I saw a reference to someone building a water jet out of a pressure washer pump, but that seems like a bit of a stretch.



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    Default Re: Single purpose tiny CNC plasma machine

    Thanks guys. The milling isn't "killing" me, I spend about four hours a month on it, but as I sit there making chips I'm always thinking of faster ways to do it. I do have an old Roper #92 10 Ton press, so I might have to start looking into the calculations of whether it could punch all this in one shot with the right dies.



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    Default Re: Single purpose tiny CNC plasma machine



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    Default Re: Single purpose tiny CNC plasma machine

    You are making beautiful looking plates and you are spending 4 hours a month. I don't really think this part of your business needs any improvement.



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    Default Re: Single purpose tiny CNC plasma machine

    It can be very disappointing what some vendors will say about plasma. I went to a manufacturing show and asked for the expected precision of the plasma table they were selling. They told me 0.001 inch, which I knew was absolute bullcrap.

    A plasma flame is what I would term "floppy" and it trails at an angle. A really good control system has various features to ATTEMPT to get around this. Extinguishing the flame a short time before motion stops. Turning the torch height control on and off during motion without getting any pauses in motion (Mach3 has this issue). And various other things. Holes are one of the hardest things to get perfect with plasma. Sometimes you even got to do tweaking to get the lead-in lead-out point smooth.

    If you want any level of precision and edge finish I'd be thinking laser. Or if you could do a rough cut with plasma and have the CNC mill do the finishing work then plasma would do. I know of one machine shop bought a plasma table for this reason, but he is not at all knowledgeable about the intricacies of controlling plasma and he just hacks his parts out with the biggest nozzles.



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