I need to Build a 8’ x 30’ cnc plasma table

[asil]

Not sure how to drive it …I don’t see any way a ball & screw will work….some Kind Of rack & pinion…is weight is enough, will I need any thing—can just run it on a rail on the floor.don’t know..How are the big machines made… the plates I am cutting are not more then 1/4 inch thick…. Is there any kind of special cam soft ware am I going to need to handle that size of table.

[Al_The_Man]

There is one manufacturer (Esab) that uses a floor mounted rail and rack and pinion drive, it has a fairly huge gantry, the operator actually sits at the console that is mounted on, and carried with the gantry.
Most commercial machines of this size use Servo motors with a master and slave servo either side of the X axis. And use a rack and pinion on the X.
There is one older table that was made by Linde that had a gantry that weighs around 350lbs and is driven only on one side by rack & pinion, the method used to keep both sides of the gantry tracking is the use of small gauge railway type rail both sides with a axle from one side to the other with two 8 inch dia. wheels riding on the track, this works suprisingly well due in part to the large mass of the gantry.
In the past a couple of the major US players, MG sytems and Koike-Aaronson used the Acroloop PC based card with the DOS version of Acrocut, this makes for a great retrofit as the software was designed specifically for gas and plasma cutting.
If you want to set up a table of this size, it might be worth looking out for an older Linde to retrofit, they can be picked up cheap as originally they were Gas Trace cutting machines. The last one I retrofitted was 10ft x 60ft.
Al

[aghobby]

Do you know the price of the Acrocut software and the motion card?

Thanks,
Alex

[Al_The_Man]

The ACR2000 which has an on board PLC and 24vdc opto isolated i/o is around CAN$2000.00 it will run the Acrocut DOS s/w http://www.compumotor.com/manuals/Ac...Supplement.pdf on a 386 if need be.
If you have a large amount of i/o you would need the expanded i/o board.
Unfortunately, Acroloop has been taken over by Parker-Hannefin and most of the guys that knew the software have seem to gone by the wayside.
I have been involved with Acroloop products for quite a few years now and were sorry to see the drop in support from the older software. They were also in the process of developing the AcroMill s/w, both in DOS and WinNT, they now have a new company Axiom, designing the software called MotionMAX, at the moment it is just for CNC mills under win2000 & XT.
I have used the AcroMill DOS software and apart from a couple of bugs it has in the G41/42 and feed overide, it was showing great promise as a retrofit s/w.
I am not sure wether you can still get the AcroCut for DOS as although they still show alot of the products on their web site, I believe they are pushing the new Win s/w.
The DOS software was a one-time buy so it is pretty cost effective.
If there is anyone that uses the Acroloop software, I would gladly offer any help in setting it up.
Al

[cybertek]

I would sugjest looking into OneCNC Profile version of Cam Software
Dont spend 2000.00 for dos based software
not shure what the cost is but dont think its more than 2000.00
as for a cheap way of driving the table for plasma cutting
how about using belt or steel wire loop to drive the 30' axis
with V grove rolers
that is how the older plotters are driven
rack and pinion will cost a fortune.

[Al_The_Man]

Originally Posted by cybertek I would suggest looking into OneCNC Profile version of Cam Software Dont spend 2000.00 for dos based software rack and pinion will cost a fortune.

The $2000.00 is for a motion control card which offers many more advantages over a serial port software driven system, the card operates the CNC control independantly from the PC or operating system, the PC is just used for an operator interface.
The cost of the rack and pinion to do the 60ft table was a little over US$1000.00 which I would not call a fortune, for the table mentioned in the first post that for a travel of 30ft, I assume is going to be used for commercial purposes.
Al

[Johnuk]

How do high tension timing belts compare to rack and pinion for an 8 to 9 ft table?

I was thinking of driving with them servos from either side. I read that using two half power servos either side of a gantry notably increases it's acceloration over one big servo.

Best wishes,
John

[asil]

Originally Posted by Al_The_Man The $2000.00 is for a motion control card which offers many more advantages over a serial port software driven system, the card operates the CNC control independantly from the PC or operating system, the PC is just used for an operator interface. The cost of the rack and pinion to do the 60ft table was a little over US$1000.00 which I would not call a fortune, for the table mentioned in the first post that for a travel of 30ft, I assume is going to be used for commercial purposes. Al

Where did you get the rack and pinion you mentioned, the places I have found, Only have rack in 2’-6’ long ….

Can any Drive software or g-code conversion software be told to make
enough steps to go the entire length of the table without having to sacrifice detail.

What I am doing is building boat…. not for commercial purposes…. I already Have the steel, some there on the order of 19-20 sheets of 8’x30’ something like 28,000 lbs of steel, cutting all 300 pieces by hand seems like a near impossible task.. I sure it could be done…. all of my pieces are nested on one AutoCAD drawing with all the sheets separate not sure how to separate them. Cross that bridge When I come to it…

Was thinking i could use the geckodrive..or the rutex stuff ??? it really dont have to be user friendly i will be the only using it..

[Al_The_Man]

The rack I used was from Boston gear http://www.bostongear.com/literature/index.asp
L2012-6 6ft rack and YD28 spur gear.
It sounds like you just need a table for the one project? It might be worth while looking at getting the local steel supplier to cut them for you, the time and effort to build the table will probabally equal the cutting time by hand.
Al

[Al_The_Man]

Originally Posted by asil Can any Drive software or g-code conversion software be told to make enough steps to go the entire length of the table without having to sacrifice detail. .

I have retro-fitted a table as long as 80ft and if you keep the rack and pinion meshed with a slight pressure, and calibrate the system accurately, there should be no problem with accuracy.
Al

[kanankeban]

Originally Posted by Al_The_Man I have retro-fitted a table as long as 80ft and if you keep the rack and pinion meshed with a slight pressure, and calibrate the system accurately, there should be no problem with accuracy. Al

Hi Al,
I'm planning a 6ftx20ft table, I need some advice, Im planning to build a heavy steel table, and a light wieght gantry, to drive a plasma torch. My idea is to drvie the x,y with rack and prinion (boston gear), I don't know what to use if Vee Bearings ridding over steel channel or Cam Folloers over a rectified steel flat on both sides od the x of course. Next to choose the vee bearings or cam followers, and next what kind of motors (and torque needed) and drive bards...I don't know to go for servos and geckos or rutex or to go for steppers...Could you help me figure out this doubts? And what do you mean with slight pressure in the rack and pinion, do you mean like a spring mechanism appling pressure to the rack from the pinion? as in the shopbot design?
Thanks....
Hector

[Al_The_Man]

The motor size etc depends on the projected weight of your gantry and the acceleration and feed speed you can/want to achieve.
For meshing, I used a motor tensioning product by Rosta It can be seen in the photo's as the pivot point for the motor assy. It will be most probable that you are going to need some kind of reduction on the drive, I used NOS Bayside planetary gearboxes off eBay.
Pic's 1 & 2 show two different machine X axis.
Al