plasma cam?

I'm a fabricator and enjoy building usable equipment from scratch. Besides the satifaction I get when its finnished and works right, it allows me have the equipment I need without spending the big bucks. The same goes for restoring old shop equipment like my 1933 Brunner, SB H10, 30's era Craftsman Drillpress, and 3phase RPC to name a few. I have to toss a thank you out to everyone here for all your help over the years.
Thanks

That said I have a plasma cutter and though I can cut well with plasma and Oxy/Aceteline I would love to have a computerized cutting table, like a plasma cam. A 4x4ft table is all I realy need for the work I do or even have room for at this time.
I have visited the different company websites and found that there systems are pricey. I did order the dvd and sales packet from Plasma-cam since they do not have pricing on there site
http://plasmacam.com/

Practical CNC lists there stuff in the $7 1/2-10000 price range
http://www.practicalcnc.com/price-list.htm

Dynatorch offers a table package for $5500
www.dynatorch.com

I realize they have made deals to make the system afordable. they also offer leasing. But they also sell the system at a considerable markup to turn a profit. I can't stretch my funding to lease one right now, so I wan't to set up my own. besides if i build it I will know how to fix any problem with the hardware.
Ive already aquired plans for a cutting table with a self drain water system that can be built for the cost of the steel and about $75 in plumbing including the pump.
I have several PC's that exceed the capabilities of the ones they offer for use with thier systems. So I have half the the required pieces.
The systems they run use steppers and/or servo setups.
I figure the parts will be alot cheaper wholesale and on ebay.
What would I need to collect for the gantry control parts? and if anyone could advise me how the stuff needs to be assembled? It would be much apreciated.
Thanks
John

John,

Go to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/DIY-CNC and sign up. Plenty of info there, and knowledgable guys, who will help you with whatever you need to get a CNC plasma cutter built. Mach3 has built in control capability for a plasma cutting table application, and there's an automatic torch height control board available for around $400 which is designed to integrate with Mach.

Another group is http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CncManualPlasmacutting Its moderated by Tom Caudle, who designed and builds the torch height control. Lots of good info there too on home built burning tables.

You can build a machine that will run rings around a plasmacam for about 1/3 the cost, and you can take pleasure in not giving a cent to the biggest bunch of dickheads (plasmacam and many of their faithful followers) that you'd ever encounter on the internet.

Even expensive commercial plasma tables are pretty simple in construction. A friend of mine has a Lockformer Vulcan, which is about a $50,000 machine for duct cutting. I was looking at it a while back, and it uses a rack and pinion drive on all axes. The X axis uses a motor and r&p on one side, and just a v shaped guidewheel and rail on the off side. Works well, and this is a very fast machine in comparison to what most home builders would put together.

There's a guy named Jim Colt who posts regularly on the plasma forums. He's an engineer with Hypertherm, but he's also a wealth of no-bull knowledge on plasma cutting in general. According to Jim, the accuracy of a plasma table will ultimately be limited by the accuracy of the plasma itself, so there's no point in going to extremes for resolution, etc like one might do if building a CNC mill. Square geometry for the machine frame, and smooth motion, are a couple of the major factors in a good working burning table.