PRL motorsports 5x10 plasma table

[Prl motorsports]

I started building our 5x10 plasma table for our shop last week. we have a hypertherm 65 that it will be controlled with candcnc electronics. we're using 1018 CRS for the long axis and a hiwin 30mm rail for the short axis along with a k2cnc.com z axis for torch height control. we're also using cncrouterparts.com for the gear drives and their rack clamps. once the table is up and running it's going to be fully boxed in as a water table with the storage tank built in and controlled by air pressure to raise and lower the table.

the gantry design is pretty similar to the TM2 and the precision plasma piece. all of the brackets i drew up myself however to work with the different pieces we're getting from the different manufacturers. i figured why build the parts myself if there are already companies out there making them and selling them for a great price, like the K2 z axis and the cnc router parts gear drives. all of my brackets for the gantry were cut locally on a waterjet. Hopefully i'll have it up and running by the end of the week.

anyway, the pics, sorry they are crappy iphone pics. feel free to comment or ask questions

[Prl motorsports]

i finished the table up a little while ago, but haven't been able to post any updates lately since we've been busy at the shop. it's been working great, but there's a few things i would change if i built another one. all said, it was a pretty fun build, and will be a very valuable asset to the shop. here's a few more pictures of the build along the way, and then some videos of it cutting.









First Video of it cutting before i added the water table underneath--click to see it.


second video with the water table, notice how much less smoke there is.

[Ubatoid]

Looks like some nice work there fella. How are you finding the quality of the Z unit ? It looks like a K2CNC unit to me which is what we have on the shopping list for our 10 x 5 router / plasma table.

[Prl motorsports]

Well for the money I'd say you can't complain too much about the k2 unit. You barely could build the same thing for less. That being said though, i do have issues with it that I would Change if I built my own. I had to redrill it to fit the hg30 block I used for the linear rail and they already had so many holes drilled in it for various different blocks, but they were unsure what blocks it was drilled for when I ordered it. Second, it should have a 2 start 1/2-10 lead screw to allow faster speeds without stalling the stepper motors that it seems everyone is using from candcnc. And lastly, it needs to be counterbalanced somehow to make the weight of the torch neutral. As I have it now, when it touches off on thin metal it just flattens it against my slats effectively making the touch offs useless if the material has any warp to it. It's not really finding the true zero of the material when it flattens it against the slats Only to spring back up when it goes to pierce

[I Lean]

Well for the money I'd say you can't complain too much about the k2 unit. You barely could build the same thing for less. That being said though, i do have issues with it that I would Change if I built my own. I had to redrill it to fit the hg30 block I used for the linear rail and they already had so many holes drilled in it for various different blocks, but they were unsure what blocks it was drilled for when I ordered it. Second, it should have a 2 start 1/2-10 lead screw to allow faster speeds without stalling the stepper motors that it seems everyone is using from candcnc. And lastly, it needs to be counterbalanced somehow to make the weight of the torch neutral. As I have it now, when it touches off on thin metal it just flattens it against my slats effectively making the touch offs useless if the material has any warp to it. It's not really finding the true zero of the material when it flattens it against the slats Only to spring back up when it goes to pierce

There is a spring in there you could change or remove, so it would require less pressure to trigger the touch off switch. If you remove it, you'd be relying on gravity to move the lower section of the Z though, so if you had any binding on the rails it might not work.

I haven't tried it on my K2 Z, but I think about it each time I cut something thin.

[Prl motorsports]

There is a spring in there you could change or remove, so it would require less pressure to trigger the touch off switch. If you remove it, you'd be relying on gravity to move the lower section of the Z though, so if you had any binding on the rails it might not work.

I haven't tried it on my K2 Z, but I think about it each time I cut something thin.

the spring in the z axis is really the least of my problems. it's the weight of the torch is where i see most of my problem coming from.