which cnc plasma

[Mysfyt]

After seeing his thorough posts on other forums for years, I finally get the chance to say thank you to Jim Colt. You explain things with detail way better than I can! I'm sure we met at Fabtech at some point over the years. Glad to see you participate on this forum.

 

[grsthegreat]

Don't want to hijack this thread, but how successful has Vextractor been for converting raster to vector? How 'clean' is it when you load it into CAD?

Actually it dies a very good job. But took lots of tweaking on setpionts

 

[yomax4]

There are a lot of used plasma cams out there for sale. mainly due to non use. Many were sold to people with high hopes in the decorative market that they lost interest in. I know of several in the Midwest. I also agree that a height control is key to usable parts that require minimal cleanup. Dual side drive is important too but you can get ok parts without it. As posted above, many new inexpensive machines are popping up out there and I have looked at a few low cost machines that are solid with height control and dual side drive. Some tables like torchmate are light weight extruded aluminum bolt together where some of the newcomers are 2-3" square tubing welded. Do check out a few options like Pro-Cut or my favorite small table made by Bulltear ind. Good Luck.

 

[hwatkins]

Jim,

Do you have any details on the custom 2x2 machines you are building? Gantry, motors, software, etc?

 

[jimcolt]

The machines I built for the trade shows are for demonstrating Hypertherm's products.....Air Plasma, CNC, CAM Nesting software. For most that are looking at low cost machines....these would not be the perfect fit, however they are great for being able to see and understand all of the mechanics, electronics and software involved in a CNC plasma machine...and that is what they will be used for. I am attaching a couple of pics, I'll have more after the shows in November.


The gantry was customized for my needs by Ron at Precision Plasma LLC . I needed a special 2 x 2 machine strictly for low volume trade show use that looks cool.

The motors and drive electronics are very high end Kollmorgen AC Brushless servos with a Ethernet like (new technology that I cannot yet discuss) interface between the CNC and each drive amplifier. These motors normally would not be found on an entry level machine as 4 of them with cables and electronics were about $8k.

The CNC control is a Hypertherm cnc as used on high end industrial machines. It is designed specifically for 3 shift a day high volume manufacturing.....very little time is spentpushing buttons, a lot of time devoted to cutting. Most low cost cnc's are designed to design draw and cut at the control...this one is designed to cut. It uses Hypertherm's Phoenix machine control software.

The CAM is Hypertherm's ProNest 2015. Again designed to improve productivity in very busy cutting operations.

First pic is being built in my home shop....second machine in background. Second pic is loading in my truck using Kubota!

Jim Colt Hypertherm

 

[dzljon]

My next table will be a arclight dynamics machine