Tracker CNC plasma cutting machines

[AdvanTech]

Anyone have one or have any input about them? We are looking at buying one for about the price range this is in.

Any input or recomendations?

http://www.trackercnc.com/

[traveler]

The best support imaginable comes from Ken at Tracker. My situation is a bit different than most because I had a unit that just was not satisfactory. Ken at Tracker put me on the right road to correct all my problems. I cannot praise Ken and Tracker highly enough.
If this was e-bay they would get a rating of AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA++++++++++++++++++++++++

never set a pace you can't maintain
Tom at Accufab LLC

[AdvanTech]

Thanks for the reply Traveler. We are also looking at Plasmacam, shopbot, and others.

Anyone else got any feedback.

We will be using it to cut wire mesh. Anyone with some plasma experience see any porblem with this? Mesh sizes vary from .20 square opening to 5 inch square openings. The 5 inch mesh has about .200 dia wire.

Will the openings be a problem for the torch? Do they cut air?

[DSL PWR]

I think the pilot arc may time out on th 5 inch stuff, but finer stuff should work fine.

[AdvanTech]

Can you program it to shut off in between wire? Or maybe program it to rapid between wires?

[DSL PWR]

That would probably be difficult. You would need to overlay the the sheet on the profile when you make the toolpath. Then you would need to zero the machine and have the sheet indexed on the table perfectly.

[AdvanTech]

So it would be possable? What kind of Plasma table are you using? Know anything about Tracker?

[DSL PWR]

I don't have one yet... but I've been around them and used them. I plan on building one in the new year.

[Ries]

I have cut a lot of perforated and expanded metal on my plasma machine- but nothing as big as a 5" mesh. Expanded up to 2" openings that I have cut has worked quite well, in fact I think aside from a really big shear, it is one of the best ways to cut things like this.
I think the variables would be in the plasma power supply, not the cutting machine. the cutting machine will trace your part, you just need to make sure your power supply doesnt turn itself off. I do know interupted cuts like this make for heavy consumable use. So figure on going thru a lot of tips and electrodes.
Even with the big, .250 wire size, I think a shear is the best for rectangles. Of course, you are talking one big shear, and you have increased blade wear due to the interupted cut.
I dont know if there is a really great way to cut mesh like this, but the plasma machine should work. One trick might be to use sacrifical backing plates, so the machine was always cutting- a piece of 1/4" plate that you just tossed out when it got too cut up. It would last quite a while though, as the slag would tend to weld the cuts back together. Since the machine was always reading a cut happening, it wouldnt time out between mesh openings. You would need to have a good auto height system to climb up when it came to the wires, though.

[traveler]

I haven't cut anythng with a five in mesh but if it were repetitive cut it would not be too hard to rapid travel between the mesh and make the extra time worthwhile. I use auto cad and what I would do is after the drawing was made, draw a five inch grid over the drawing with an offset of perhaps 3/8" cut at each grid to drawing intersection. When choosing the cuts order just choos the 3/8" sections.That would allow rapid travel between cuts and would save consumables. The cut lines would look like a series of dashes. Got you completely confused? e-mail me your drawing and I'll set up like I'm discribing.
Never set a pace you can't maintain

[AdvanTech]

Well we have ordered a Tracker. Should be here in a couple of weeks. I'll let you know how it goes.

Thanks for the help.

[AdvanTech]

Well we got the machine about a week ago. First impression is that its a nice machine for the money. It could use alittle easier instruction on leveling and squaring it but so far it works great for our application.

Started cutting mesh on it right away. It produces very round circles and the sizes are right on.

One question. We are using the hypertherm torch because of the holes in the mesh. We got hte Powermax 1000 unit. It says it can cut up to a inch think. I figured we would have to turn the amps down on some of the material we cut. Useing mesh with like a .125 wire diameter as an example. I started with the powersupply set at 30 amps and it wouldn't cut through the wire. We ended up turning it all the way up to 60 for everything we are cutting. I am guessing that the pilot arc it has does not kick into the real acr fast enough to get through this in time. It seems that by the time the real arc kicks in its halfway through the wire. Slowed the feed down some and it helped. Am I on the right track here? Is the pilot arc weaker than the cutting arc?