Hello to the group:

I am new on here and I am mostly interested in home based machines, at the lower end of the cost scale really, basically because I have neither the mains supply or the space (& readies) to go and buy a large table and very good machine set-up. Although I do appreciate the development that has gone into them, the finish that can be achieved and speed of the top end units etc.

So some time ago I made a table top CNC plasma cutter, made lots of mistakes as I went along, wrong design choices that I would hope not to repeat.
The unit is based on the cheap Cut40, so you can probably guess the rest as I am sure several others on here have used said machines.

I started off with control software CNCPro done by Doug Yeager, and in the past 12 months as the old dos computer failed switched to Mach3. Then bought Sheetcam, and then a Cad package etc. you get the idea this cheap system continues to cost money, not on the system it self but on the software to make life easy no matter what system you have.

The machine to build has probably cost around £650 to date and that includes the plasma cutter and for me it does. I have added the probe function to the Z axis to zero on work, I have added a THC driving Mach3 inputs Arc OK, Up, and Down, probably cost me in grand total now £20 to make that plus time. I am still learning and going slowly through some tutorials on Sheetcam to get more benefit from that.

So I am generally interested in the low cost hobby builds, the experimenters and similar builds rather than Lincoln, Miller and Hypertherm.

So I hope there is a spot for me to sit and read quietly in a corner, help any builders that are reaching a stage I have been though already of give a bit of friendly advice and banter when needed.

Cheers
Adrian

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