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Thread: My first cnc plasma table build 6x12

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    Default My first cnc plasma table build 6x12

    I started this build late last year, and I now have the "table" portion all built and some of the electronics purchased. Me and my friend had talked about it for awhile at this point, and I decided to jump in and go for it. I choose to build it so big because one of the most common things I found researching was others wishing they had made theirs bigger to fit full sheets. I decided that the difference in the price of the total cost wouldnt be much, and now I could fit 10' sheets with ease. I also had 3000sqft of shop to use at the time, and now unfourtanetly have half of that, but too late to change it now.

    I went straight to building the structure for the table scince that was the most comfortable place to start for me. (no problem with metal fab...not so much electrical engineer) Now that it's sitting around unfinished I feel like I did it backwards, but I guess I always do that.

    I started the structure out of 4x4 16g mild steel tube. I built two rectangles 12x6' and put them together with about 2' 4x4 legs in between. I then added 2x6" 1/4" wall tube down the long sides of the top; This will serve as the mounting base for the cold rolled that the bearing carriages ride on aswell as be the sides of the water table. I covered the top of the table structure with 16g sheet for the bottom of the water table, and then capped off the short sides with 1/4"x6" strap to form the complete water tank.

    There are 3 drains in the bottom of the water table; I would like to eventually build a tank with a pump or air bladder system to raise and lower the water level, but that can wait for later.

    The table has 8 huge leveling feet, and 4 large casters that roll with the feet turned all the way up. I doubt this will need to be moved much if ever, but it's nice to have the easy option.

    I have the table all built and painted and the 1/4" cold rolled mounted to the top, but thats about where I stopped. I had to downsize my shop at the end of last year and then recently got layed off from work so things are just slower going now. Im having trouble staying motivated after not working on it for a few months, and thats a lot of the reason I decided to start a thread after lurking for so long.

    Things I have already purchased include a z-axis, stepper motors with a gecko driver and power supply, belt reduction setups for x and y as well as gear rack, and the bearing carriages. I plan to run this machine using a powermax 85 which I still need to purchase, also a thc setup, and whatever else computer/electric components I haven't listed.

    The electronics is where I start to get lost on things. I have no problem working with electronics and computers if I know exactly what I need to do...but in this case I don't and need to read up more. I am sure I will ask for some help in what else I need, and in setting up of the electrical control side of things.

    The only pictures I have of it so far are poor quality so I apologize, and will take nice ones as things go forward. Any and all feedback is incouraged, positive or negative, scince I am totally new to this and need the help.

    Thanyou for looking - Joe





    Water test.

    Rails installed

    Getting an idea of what it will be like with the gantry an motors, notice how its already collecting junk you should see it now...


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    Lookin good so far. That thing is a beast. You can park your car on it when you need more garage space.



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    Thanks! A few people have said I am overbuilding it, but I'd rather only do it once! I have seen lots of rickety tables I would not put 300lb on, let alone 3x that.



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    Not much action yet but hopefully in the next few weeks the gantry should be built and on the machine. Found a piece of 5x1.75 aluminum c-channel on the rem rack at IMS that will work perfectly for the gantry, now I am just waiting for the end parts to be cut out on the waterjet and weld it all together. I was originally going to run a rack and pinion on the y-axis but now I am looking for a 6' ballscrew instead. Then I will run rack and pinion down both sides of the x-axis scince the gantry is so big.
    I moved the table into it's working position and started cleaning up the shop around it. I'm going to build a seperate stand for the computer off to the side, and then run all the lines I need under a cover on the floor. I used to have a paintbooth installed in the same bay so air and power are already ran to this spot perfectly.
    Some boring pictures , sorry not much going on yet. I got all that cable carrier for $5 at a local auction! And the leveling feet were around $100 on ebay, not too bad for the size.





    Last edited by jfoster; 06-19-2012 at 05:35 PM.


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    [QUOTE=jfoster;1129371].... I was originally going to run a rack and pinion on the y-axis but now I am looking for a 6' ballscrew instead. Then I will run rack and pinion down both sides of the x-axis scince the gantry is so big.
    [/QOUTE]

    You may want to rethink the ballscrew idea, The Physics of a ballscrew are opposite that of rack and pinion. It looks like you are using steppers and top RPM (where they have no torque left) is about 600 for a 48V supply. A Ballscrew Decreases speed by the TPI so a 5 TPI screw with a 600 RPM motor (and you should operate that at no more than 400 RPM) will leave you with only about 120 IPM top speed (about 80 IPM for USABLE speeds) Soooo....either you need a TPI of about 2 or you need to belt increase between he motor and laedscrew.....then there is the leadwhip problem.. You can only spin a 6 ft ballscrew just so fast so even if you can get the rpm you need you will exceed the max RPM of the leadscrew.

    TOMCaudle
    www.candcnc.com



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    I didn't think about the gearing being different and how that would affect things. The main reason for wanting to change the rack and pinion on the gantry is trying to clean things up so it doesnt have to be so wide, but I guess it wont really matter. Not much progress here lately, but I do I have my gantry pieces all drawn up and ready to be cut as soon as some water jet time opens up. Thanks for the help!



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    [QUOTE=Torchhead;1131499]
    Quote Originally Posted by jfoster View Post
    .... I was originally going to run a rack and pinion on the y-axis but now I am looking for a 6' ballscrew instead. Then I will run rack and pinion down both sides of the x-axis scince the gantry is so big.
    [/QOUTE]

    You may want to rethink the ballscrew idea, The Physics of a ballscrew are opposite that of rack and pinion. It looks like you are using steppers and top RPM (where they have no torque left) is about 600 for a 48V supply. A Ballscrew Decreases speed by the TPI so a 5 TPI screw with a 600 RPM motor (and you should operate that at no more than 400 RPM) will leave you with only about 120 IPM top speed (about 80 IPM for USABLE speeds) Soooo....either you need a TPI of about 2 or you need to belt increase between he motor and laedscrew.....then there is the leadwhip problem.. You can only spin a 6 ft ballscrew just so fast so even if you can get the rpm you need you will exceed the max RPM of the leadscrew.

    TOMCaudle
    www.candcnc.com




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    Default Re: My first cnc plasma table build 6x12

    Why cant I see the pictures on this thread? it says something about "PHOTOBUCKET"



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    Default Re: My first cnc plasma table build 6x12

    Because photobucket thinks people are going to pay $400 a year to post pictures on forums , most of which support picture uploads anyways now



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My first cnc plasma table build 6x12

My first cnc plasma table build 6x12