The Home Machinist!

In the process of building a CNC operated burning table. Anyone else ever design/build one?

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If it works Don't fix it....

Hi Millman5;

Sorry I can not help you on your mission, but hope it goes well and that you will post pictures and text as you progress.

I have thought of the idea twice myself, once after struggling to keep a steady hand with the propane/oxy torch and second after seeing the sheet metal plasma/cnc on shopoutfitters site.

I moted that on eBay, there is a German kit generally made of aluminium designed as a router table but can see no problem in fitting a plasma head or torch head.

Many years ago with help from a machinist friend we built something very similar, but much smaller for PCB drilling and milling wax to form moulds.

With more powerful steppers or servos and bigger screws I would thing that size would not be an issue.

The still bigger cnc cutters seem to use a pantograph arm system to get more movement, which way are you planning to go, or are going?

Cheers

Adrian

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Why do I always need to make the tools, to complete the work?

Planning on building a 5' X 10' capacity table of gantry design. Overall size will be in the neighborhood of 6' X 12'. I am in the parts gathering & design stage right now. There is several kits avalible, Torchmate, Dyna CNC, Dynatorch, Plasmacam (the one on shopoutfitters) etc. Although good machines I'm sure. I think they look a bit light duty for daily usage. They look to be designed primairly for plasma which realistically limits you to about 3/8" steel. They claim better capacity than that, but I have never seen a good square edged cut from standard plasma. Much less run it for 8 hours continuous.
I guess if you have $7000.00 or so for an industrial plasma unit & another 1500.00 or so for a high definition machine torch one might get a more square cut & do thicker material.

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If it works Don't fix it....

Millman

If you decide to build a table you will have more invested than you think and a lot of time. Not just building but trouble shooting on start up. But it was worth it for me. My table is a router/plasma combo. Not sure it is a good combo since it is hard to keep the router board level and true when it is laying on the steel racks for the plasma. Here is a pic set for plasma use but with the router still attached.

John

The actuat build of the table will not be a problem at all for me. I own a fair size machine/fab shop.

Setting up the computer, software, other electronics, & de-bugging may take me a while. Once done it really should be a great improvement of daily life in the fab shop.

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If it works Don't fix it....

Hop over to the Mach 3 forums on CNC zone and the forums On www.machsupport.com a lot of people doing these things

Happy Hunting
archie =) =) =)

PS I want one too

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Cincinnatti Hydrashift 18X96, Atlas 12X36 Commercial, Steinel Mill, Bridgeport R2E4, Wells Index 847,Lagun CNC, Delta drill Press, Cincinnati #2 T&C grinder,
http://jeep534.smugmug.com

I posted a build log of my Ox/Fuel-Plasma table build for anyone interested on CNC Zone. Here is a link to the project: http://www.cnczone.com/forums/showthread.php?t=31133

I used Mach 3 for the machine controller. AutoCad V14 for drawing. Sheetcam for handling dxf files, layout to a sheet & generation of G code.

It's still a work in progress. I am planning on the addition of Plasma in the near future. The plasma will remain mounted as well as the Ox torch at all times. So there will be no conversion time for either process.

I still need to add some covers & gards & finally paint to complete the project.

_________________
If it works Don't fix it....

Looks like a nice project. Yesterday I bought an MG tracer gantry with 4 motorized height, electronic ignition torch heads. I'm going to remove two of the torch heads and convert one of the remaining two to plasma. I'll take a readthrough of your build log and hopefully grab some pointers.

Are you going to retrofit the drive motors & entire control system?

Is the MG a gantry or cantilever?

I know the servo drive motors from the older Linde systems pretty much have to be scrapped. Something to do with the encoders.

I'd like to have some sort of automatic or at least semi automatic ignition for my Ox/fuel. It's not that bad to have to light up with a spark lighter in the beginning of a program. If I get part way through cutting an entire sheet & need to clean a tip however, It can sometimes be a bit hard to reach without walking around the table or having to bring the gantry home, relight then move back out to the next part.

Then there is also the rare occasion that mill scale will pop up off the sheet & snuff out the flame.

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If it works Don't fix it....

Millman5
I sent you a pm on the cnc zone site.

I live near huntington and I am retrofitting a Bridgeport with Mach3
also I hope to be starting on a plasma table shortly after that.

archie =) =) =)

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Cincinnatti Hydrashift 18X96, Atlas 12X36 Commercial, Steinel Mill, Bridgeport R2E4, Wells Index 847,Lagun CNC, Delta drill Press, Cincinnati #2 T&C grinder,
http://jeep534.smugmug.com

It's a gantry type 18'9" long but I don't have the table, although from the way the gantry is built a table will be pretty simple.

I had some time to tinker with it yesterday and after finding the control head in one of the boxes of parts and bolting it back on and connecting the cables- it worked. The Y (what I would call the Y on a mill anyway) runs but needs to be sitting on the table to actually move. The X moves the torch heads left and right, the 4 torch stations go up and down (by toggle switch), the igniters work as do all of the gas and air solenoids.

Best I can tell the electric eye tracer seems to be working. I drew a straight black line and held it parallel to the gantry and it follws it. When you rotate the paper toward the perpendicular of the gantry the X proportionately slows while the Y accelerates until reaching 90 degrees and then only the Y runs.

Mine has Stewart Warner controls and I think I can piggyback encoders onto the servo tachs and with a little creative wiring have the original controls with the tracer and CNC operation as well. I will probably remove two of the torch stations and set up one of the remaining as a plasma and leave the other for oxyaccetylene. I also have a spare pair of motors and gearboxes in the parts boxes but I haven't checked them yet.

I hadn't heard of MG equipment before I bought this but I'm learning from other forums they were/are supposedly high end machines. My biggest problem is finding the room to set this thing up. As much as I hate the thought, it might have to go outside under a 24' x 12' overhang covered with a tarp when not in use. Either that or add onto my shop- again...

There some pictures of mine on this thread-
http://www.cnczone.com/forums/showthread.php?t=56999

I didn't get the PM on CNCZone

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If it works Don't fix it....