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Bought my first CNC, 5x5 plasma table

Cole2534

Diamond
Joined
Sep 10, 2010
Location
Oklahoma City, OK
Friday I picked up a CNC plasma table and I really like it. It's a beginner model, belt drive with stepper motors and a Powermax30 for supply.

Currently using Sheetcam and Mach3, that's what was on the PC when I picked it up.

Anyway, I know so little about this that I'm not even really able to ask questions. So if anyone has any good posts, link them up please!
 
Plasma tables are lots of fun. Lots of Hints/tips at plasmaspider.com
My hints:
Dry, clean air, motorguard filter works well for me.
Pay attention to torch height control, mine was wonky forever. I finally realized and fixed it. Big difference in performance.
 
First place I would look is your hypertherm manual. Mine has tons of good info. I am not sure what yours has for mechanized cutting, I think it is "handheld" only.
Most things I cut, the height is .06 off the material. I think it's the same from 16 gauge to 1" thick steel. That's all I have cut.
 
So how does one know what a good height is? Thanks for the link, much reading to do.

Me thinks with this question, that you do not have torch height control ?

If you do have THC, the hypertherm manuals are great at "initial pierce height", "Initial run height", as well
as "Arc voltage" for final running height.

If you don't I'm sure Jim will have some pointers to help make whatever system you do have, work better.
 
The Powermax30 is not factory recommended for mechanized cutting, however there are many in use on cnc machines for thin materials. Because it is only available with a hand torch, Hypertherm only puts information pertaining to hand held cutting in the operators manual. Here is a cut chart you can use with the Powermax30 with heights and speeds etc. for mechanized cutting.

Keep in mind that without an automated height control you will not get the best performance in terms of cut quality and consumable life. If used on 3/16" and thinner, you will be able to get away with a fixed cut height of .02". On thicker than 3/16" you really need to pierce at higher pierce heights, then cut at .06" for best results. Piercing too close shortens nozzle life, cutting to far away increases cut edge angularity.

Best regards, Jim Colt Hypertherm
 

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Jim with the amount of people out there using a 30 or 30 xp will Hypertherm ever offer a machine torch? or is there just not the demand.
 
Jim, thanks as always! You are most helpful.

No, the 30 is not factory setup for machine cutting but it's what I had laying around and allowed me to get into the game at a reasonable cost. No auto height control at this time, but the plan is to upgrade the power source in time and add that option. The table is setup for it, just isn't hooked up.

Jim, how beneficial is nitrogen to the cut? It's really cheap, so if there were gains to it I'd not mind giving it a shot.
 
DD, I've no idea what all is needed to add torch height control.

I've been flirting with the BobCAD folks, I like their setup but my biz partner does not.
 
I wonder if your machine is set up to cut/pierce at a fixed height, perhaps having spherical rollers under the torch. Think this approach was common on some machines set up for cutting duct work.

Do you have a good respirator, darkened face shield to wear while observing the cutting?
 
I wonder if your machine is set up to cut/pierce at a fixed height, perhaps having spherical rollers under the torch. Think this approach was common on some machines set up for cutting duct work.

Do you have a good respirator, darkened face shield to wear while observing the cutting?
The machine haz a z-axis motor and controller, it just doesn't have closed loop feedback from the torch, which is how I understand auto-THC to work.

Soooo it rapids at some elevated Z, pierces and cuts at another.

No respirator, but I either wear dark shades or my welding hood when it runs. I need to build a water pan for the thing. How hard could it be?

DD, I'll grab some pics next time I'm at the shop.
 
I think (I'm not sure) that board (or another one like it) provide the feedback you need.

The way I understand it, you have the "touch plate" down pat, you have the "retract to pierce height" working,
next you fire the torch, and you have the "starting cut height" working as well.

It's supposed to time out, and transfer over hieght control to reading the arc voltage, hence the voltage
divider board I linked to.

Or at least I think that's how it goes....
 
adama,

We have engineering specs regarding duty cycle limitations that dictate which systems should be used for machine cutting applications. With machine cutting you can very easily exceed the duty cycle rating of the smaller plasma cutters. Yes, we could make 100% duty cycle Powermax30XP's, but they would be larger and would cost considerably more. So.....we (most likely) will not suggest any of our systems with less than 50% duty cycle for mechanized cutting, and likely will not produce machine torches for that reason. Running any equipment beyond its duty cycle ratings repeatedly will have an affect on reliability and performance....

Jim Colt

Jim with the amount of people out there using a 30 or 30 xp will Hypertherm ever offer a machine torch? or is there just not the demand.
 
I was going to buy a CNC plasma table... But then I found out that even companies like Speedy Metals offer CNC plasma cutting at a rate that isn't much more than the cost of material! I once did a cost analysis on a particular part. Could have made 8 cut from 1 sheet of material for roughly $3 each, just in cost of material. Then I got my time loading the material on the table, designing the burn program, using my consumables, and my electric, would have had to worry about ventilation, then I got cleanup of the whole set up. Not to mention the amount of space the table would have taken up, and the initial cost of the cutter and the table would be, around $6,000 for a LOW LOW end system. Speedy metals quoted me $7.50/each. Would have to cut well over 1,000 of those parts just to break even on initial costs.
 
I was going to buy a CNC plasma table... But then I found out that even companies like Speedy Metals offer CNC plasma cutting at a rate that isn't much more than the cost of material! I once did a cost analysis on a particular part. Could have made 8 cut from 1 sheet of material for roughly $3 each, just in cost of material. Then I got my time loading the material on the table, designing the burn program, using my consumables, and my electric, would have had to worry about ventilation, then I got cleanup of the whole set up. Not to mention the amount of space the table would have taken up, and the initial cost of the cutter and the table would be, around $6,000 for a LOW LOW end system. Speedy metals quoted me $7.50/each. Would have to cut well over 1,000 of those parts just to break even on initial costs.

But now you are missing out on the sparks, smoke and noise!

It would probably be cheaper to farm out to local plasma/laser/waterjet for most stuff, but for me it is handy to be able to go from idea to drawing to finished part all in the same day.
 
But now you are missing out on the sparks, smoke and noise!

It would probably be cheaper to farm out to local plasma/laser/waterjet for most stuff, but for me it is handy to be able to go from idea to drawing to finished part all in the same day.

Tru dat....

I had a flat tire on the skid loader one Sunday afternoon, and my tire machine center nut would not
work on the large center hole rims.

Walk up to my homebrew cnc torch, draw (2) washers, select scrap of 1/4" plate, fire up torch,
burn parts, walk away in 15 minutes total time with adapter needed.
 
Cole,
Ditch the water table idea. Been there done that. Get one of those cheap ($180) MSC painter vent fans and blow it outside. I fought a water table for a year and finally gave up. Plasmaspider is your friend and Jim spends time over there. When I was looking for water table designs, Jim posted that I should do down draft, I should have listened. Keep an eye on craigslist DFW. That,s where I picked up my hypertherm 600 for about $700. I see 1000 G3s on there from time to time. You will always want a bigger cutter than you have.
If I had to do it over, the cnc plasma table would be my first cnc.
have fun
i_r_
 








 
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