Nice work. I was hoping the whole time. I think you’ll probably get there. From the limited amount I have read on the forums, some plasmas are fine and some are just very noisy.
I may be getting there. I have testing a bunch of different shielding, with limited success. I almost thought it worked once, but could not reproduce the results. I am waiting on a relay to arrive to help isolate the wire that turns on the plasma cutter. I will need to try it to see if it even does anything.
Now I have to remember my feed rate used to program my test parts.
Might seem like limited success to you but it looks pretty good from where I’m sitting. A few minor kinks to work out but I feel like you’re almost there.
What’s the duty cycle on that plasma cutter? I’m kind of wondering whether mine will thermal out on longer programs. I have two actually, an old one just good for sheet metal, and then one that’s part of my multi-process TIG. Was hoping to relegate the old one (“Thermal Dynamics” somethingorother) to just CNC use.
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Thanks for the pep talk.
The Eastwood Versa-Cut 40 I am using is listed as 60% duty cycle. I suppose you could always pause the program part way through to let your machine cool down if there was problems.
Most likely your Thermal Dynamics machine is way better than the one I am trying to use. I got a new video out, basically it shows what I didn’t get to work. I tried some other shielding ideas not in this video that I will have to describe later.
It is taxing to have a 2 year old, edit videos, research the subject, and try to capture everything on film.
No need to wait for the relay, you can just hook up the original switch of the torch and manually switch on and off the plasma cutter to see if entirely separating it from the rest of the circuit helps.
How did you ground stuff exactly?
That is why I have a relay on the way. I tested it with the other trigger I had and I ran a whole part.
ah ok, sorry I haven’t had time to watch the whole video since it’s too late here and I’m about to go to bed, only watched the end.
I don’t know if you have watched my old thread already, but I got through the same hassle before so maybe there could be a few tips for you :
If firing the torch by hand seems to solve the problem, then you’re on the right tracks, don’t bother giving any more tries before receiving the relay or you might very well fry your motherboard.
Good luck, I think you’re about to succeed. Your table looks really sweet by the way 
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Don’t worry. Before long your 2 year old will be a 16 year old welding new rocker panels on his truck next to an open plastic jerry can and you’ll wonder what that bright twinkling light is in the shop from the comfort of your lawn tractor until it dawns on you WTF he’s actually doing. This is also when you discover that your lawn tractor doesn’t move fast enough.
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On bigger projects that have alot of pierces, I lose z steps . I’m trying to make a sign for my father in law that says Hestons woodshop. It does “woodshop” first but when it goes to do “Heston’s” my plasma cutter has a considerable gap from the workpiece. Tried to pause it and adjust the z manually but program froze a letter or 2 latet. I know the programming is correct, ran fine with cutter turned off.
Saw your latest videos. Congratulations! It’s working well!
I found with my old plasma cutter that if I have the nozzle touching the work-piece, I go through electrodes like crazy. I find I have to keep the nozzle about 1mm or 2mm from the work-piece. I notice you’ve got yours set to make contact.
So is that just an attribute of my cutter or are you also going through nozzles like they’re going out of style?
Things have gone a little south on how well it’s working. It did work pretty good at first, but now the memory card disconnects and sometimes the programs go haywire. So far I haven’t had time to figure that mess out.
I have “drag” tips on my torch that have a small stand off milled into them. My consumable life does seem short, but I don’t have enough experience to know what normal should be.
Where I thought I was losing z steps, I got caught up on over thinking the situation. My Z slide springs aren’t suited for what I am using them for. The slide just needed pushed down. I wasn’t sure until I reviewed the video.
I’m a big fan of Octoprint. No SD cards in my life. https://octoprint.org/
There’s even an XBox controller jog-control plugin. https://github.com/OutsourcedGuru/OctoPrint-Xbox I’ve had it working but then broke it.
The drag tip on my Everlast didn’t last for ever. In fact, it managed to get itself welded to the first thing I tried cutting.
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I’m still having trouble with my memory card losing communication, but I did get a new electronics enclosure built yesterday. Nothing new to really report besides I have a video reporting as much.
I am curious how you shielded your lcd screen. I keep losing communication with my sd card, also it opens the menus while cutting. Like you pressed the thumb wheel. I added capacitors to the lcd and Ramps to help smooth the power.
I’ve put the arduino as well as the screen in a metallic enclosure, so it acted like a Faraday Cage
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Is your maching a high frequency machine?
It was. I had to switch over to a low frequency plasma cutter. I had too much trouble otherwise with the electronics going crazy.
can any of you please help with Marlin FW config? I just need to know what to change on my FW that is already working on a MPcnc milling setup. @81Ls1Camaro video explaining it, I cant see what you changed and your utube links in description bk to V1engineering web reference is broken.