Eric's 4'x4' CNC Plasma table build

[Eric S]

Okay finally an update.

Finish a hand torch mount. I'll have to save up for a machine torch to add later.


Table is done and painted. The stainless steel door is an electronics cabinet. It still needs a clean up. The glue from removing the protective film covering it does not want to come off easily. Still have to make the back wall of the cabinet but waiting until I know exactly what wires and hoses are going though it.



Water table is done but still have to finish up the tank.


Used angle iron to hold the slats.


Y axis rails and gear racks mounted



The gantry fits!!

[xjdubber]

looks nice, is that a lada niva in the background?

[Eric S]

Slats installed. They are not supported in the center but seem okay. I did weld a tab to each end of the water table for a bolt on support if needed. I'll see hole it works out.



Finished the water tank.
Welded 2" NPT bung, casters, and bung for a drain tap.


Plunged the holes in the JobBox and welded on some more bungs for air, vent and pressure pop off valve so I don't explode it be accident
After the paint dried I am going to run a bead of silicone around the lid and bolt it closed.

[Eric S]

It moves under it`s own power. Sounds great!
Still have to wire in the plasma, plate marker and feather touch but IT`S ALIVE!

[Eric S]

Well I thought progress would have been further along by now. Was planning on making some test cuts this weekend but it did not go to plan. Very close though.

Had issues getting the lid sealed on the water tank storage box. After a couple of attempts I pulled the welder out. Now I will not have to worry about the lid popping open under pressure. If later it needs to be cleaned out I'll just cut a hole in the top.


Ran some ground wires for the table and installed a 10' 3/4" diameter galvanized ground rod. I was getting tired pounding it with a sledgehammer so I used the photo taking as an excuse for a break. Working at it some more while um...taking nice to it managed to get it down to sticking up only 6". Should do the trick.



The Powermax 1000 with hand torch now fires from Mach and the ohmic sensor is wired and seems to be functioning properly.

Now that I know my water tank isn't going to leak all over, I can get it attached and test out the table side. Hoping I found all the pin holes in it while welding it up and any others the paint filled

Still have to hook up the regulators for the scribe and after I'm sure it's working properly clean up the tables wiring.

[Eric S]

Water table fills and drains quickly. There are some spots that are weeping water over time so I'll have to seal them up. Quite happy though.


First test cut. Had to use 60amp consumables since I purchased the wrong fine cut shield. Should have picked up a couple for use with ohmic sensing. Going to be a week to have them ordered in so I'm playing with the 60 amp and 16ga steel.
Video



As you can see first cut didn't go well. Booooo.

Adjusted some settings and things started to go better.



Had an issue with the CandCNC DTHC voltage reading. It only read an average of 40V while running. Instead of the 134V programmed.
PWM Sensor's test button reads 126V in Mach3.

Checked Voltage from the stereo jack coming from the RAV-01 Raw Arc Voltage Divider Card and it read 4.35V. From what I have researched I think that it should be in the 13.7 to 14.4 range.
Just to rule out my Powermax 1000 I checked the tip voltage going into the card while running and got 135V.
So....I'm thinking my Voltage Divider Card is bad. Took a look at it an couldn't see anything obvious so I'll have to contact CandCNC about it.


So Gave up on that and cut something a little more exciting than straight lines.
16ga mild steel. 60amp consumables. 502 inches per minute. DTHC off.

Video


Think it was a little quick since there were a couple places where it didn't break though but for a first real cut I'm happy

Front




Back



A couple taps and it came out.


Still LOTS of fine tuning and cleaning up of the wiring to go!

[LeeWay]

I fine tuned mine for a couple of weeks before I got it where I wanted it.
Looking good though. At times I wish mine had a water table. I would constantly be fishing out little parts though. The drain tank is the way to go.

[Eric S]

Didn't get a lot accomplished today. No test cuts. Adjusted a few settings and managed to get my home switches to also function as limit switches.

Wired up a "industrial chic" temporary hardware e-stop switch. I know it's not critical to have but after years of machining with a big red button handy I just feel better having it there Still have to decide where the monitor and keyboard are going to live.


This is also on the list. Once I know everything is working well with the table I can clean/organize this mess up. I have also temporarily left the back off the cabinet until I know what wires/hoses are passing though.


Now this rec connector on the feather touch. It cam wired from CandCNC but it seems to me that is us upside down. This way the wires are in the correct position but it really doesn't connect well. Plugging it in the opposite way it feel much more secure. I would like to swap it around, anyone know if I can remove the wires and re-use this type of red connector? Seems like I could.

[Eric S]

I've been in contact with CandCNC trying to solve my voltage reading issue.
They recommended that I get a source of 12VDC (or more ) and put it into the RAV TIP VOLTS tabs. Then measure the DC out at the stereo plug. 12/7 is about 1.7 volts (the actual exact ratio is 1:7.3 ) If the card is working right then the voltage will be right.

So I connected 12.82V DC to the voltage divider card and at the stereo jack my Volt meter read 1.65V. Not quite 1.75V but my meter is not a high quality unit so I wouldn't doubt that is where the dependency comes from. So seems my card is working like it should.

It seems as though my Powermax 1000 is not outputting the Raw volts as DC.

Guess first I'll double check the grounds and maybe up the material thickness to something betters suited to the 60 amp tip. Then see what happens. Then I'll have to contact Hyperthem and ask when they think might be the cause.

[Eric S]

Over the last while I've been fighting with my Mach3 Arc Voltage reading not going over 40V during a cut.

I've been thinking the CandCNC voltage divider card that I installed in my Powermax 1000 was malfunctioning in some way. Though CandCNC insists that it works as intended.


Turned out that if I unplugged the arc ok output connection from the card my Voltage reading problem went away. CandCNC said that the card just passes the arc/torch switch signals directly though it. So switched to the connector on the back of the hypertherm for use with the machine torch.


With this connector and using hand torch the arc ok is fine but there is a safety so the hand torch will not fire. I removed the machine torch trigger wires and swapped them for the hand torch trigger wires.

Mach3 Voltage reading is fine now ...Except I still think the card was the culprit.

- - - Updated - - -

Anyway now that that is out of the way on to other teething issues.

Air supply. Seemed I was still getting water to the machine so I added a desiccant air dryer and filter just before the Hypertherm. This one had colour change desiccant so I can visually monitor it. I'd like to work on the air more later but for now this will do.

Since the air was passing though 3 filters and 2 dryers, I made up this air gage to be able to read the input air right at the machine while running.



Installed a new set of fine cut consumables and on with the test cuts on 16ga steel plate....Thrilling 8" lines

Started at 150 ipl but best cut (least dross) ended up being 260ipm.

Top. each pass 10ipm faster. No other changes.


Close up. Top. Last few passes.


Bottom






My lovely wife had been very supportive and patient with me throughout this project. When she asked me to make her some display stands for her decorative sandblasted glass business that she is starting. I of course, put the table to use Not a line, and good practice!

Here is the side of the stepped shelf. I would have liked to get fancier with it but the machine is not dialed in enough yet.



I was happy with the dross and the edge quality.


Cutting the letters on the other hand.....


The torch obviously has too much wiggle in it. looks worse in the photo than in person but as you can see torch is flopping all over the place when making quick direction changes. Seems like I have play in the break way mount so I'm going to pull off and see what I can do it fix it.

Hopefully soon I'll have something more exciting to post photo's of

[Eric S]

Finished off some display pieces for my wife.

[LeeWay]

Wow. Those look very cool. I don't do much fun stuff on my machines yet, but I will find the time one day.

[Eric S]

Thank you LeeWay.

Not much to update. Haven't had much time to work on the new machine.
I did cut some 3/16" plate the other day and it went quite well. The thinner metals with faster feed rates are still a challenge but getting there.

Made a couple of 5" display stands out of 16ga steel for my wife's craft fair table .
Decided to give some fine cuts a try.

[Eric S]

Haven't had much time to work with the plasma table. I did get a wired xbox360 controller working with it. Tired the Lee Davis plugin first but I couldn't get Mach3 to recognize it. Switched to the Tim Shilling plugin and all was well
It is nice I must say!

Been cutting out some shapes while playing with the different settings. Still having trouble with the DTCH taking a nose dive one in a while but I think I'm close to a break though there.

Some 16ga key racks that I made. Hopefully I can sell them a recoup some of my consumables that I've trashed learning lol




Also came up with a headphone stand that I though was fun. Cut from 3/16 Plate.



That's all for now.

[a10weaponsguy]

I wish I could contribute to this build but all I can say is wow your work is exceptional!

[eloid]

Can you post a electrical schematic of the plazma thc and z axis limit and motor controller for thc

[hector-xj]

Where did you buy the plans?

[Frank W]

Hey Eric, that's how i set up my table with the long level but I never thought about using a strap to hold it together. I would tack it together and check square and level then cut it and try again. I must have measured 200 times before I had it right. My floor wasn't level so I used blocks and different washer thicknesses to get it right. Your table looks great!

I had the same issue on my letters not coming out great and I found that reducing the IPM will help that a lot. I overbuilt my gantry and it's too heavy to make the quick turns. Later on I'll make some changes and lighten it up to help with that.

I'd like to add a scribe and was wondering if you had any part numbers you could share that would help in my research?