Tried some aluminum tonight, it cuts but the slag is worse. I never cut it by hand so I am not sure what to expect. Tried a couple speeds and power settings.
I also turned off the Z axis in Estlcam, I think that solved some of my height issues.
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Had issues with gcodetools in inkscape when using multiple layers and tool changes. The gcode would balloon by repeating layers in the gcode. Layer one, then layer one and two, then layer one, two and three, etc… would spend more time editing the code to eliminate all the extra replicated lines of code.
If you just use a single layer, works fine.
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Well it has been a while and few new machines later but I just welded up most of the water table. Hope to get back at this soon.
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Hey, how large is your box for your electronics? I am trying to sort out how large of a case I need to aim for. My power supply situation will take up more room than yours I think.
15"x12"x4"
I would have preferred 3" deep. Now that it is all laid out, I gave myself a bit too much room for wires. The pictures make it look more cramped than it is.
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I have an old desktop PC tower I am thinking of cannibalizing and using as the electronics box for this. I am pondering on whether that will be more trouble than it’s worth.
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Old PC cases usually make decent faraday cages, so they are a good choice for noisy environments if you have the space for them.
I have an embarrasingly large stockpile of them, dating back to AT style cases which ate no longer useful for actual PC hardware.
I really do want a plasma cutter, but will have to wait until I set up for 240V to the garage.
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@vicious1 Hey, I noticed you have several Solid State Relays in your box, and I think I read where those were for end stops or something. I’m confused on that. Would you mind to explain why those are needed and how they are being used?
I am pretty sure they are all for the ohmic sensing.
Physical disconnects for when the High voltage turns on.
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OK, thanks. I had to read up on what that even means. Found this. Reading the post you linked made my head spin.
Anyhow based on the starlabcnc website I linked to, apparently the two main choices for detecting the metal are “floating head” (which I am doing) and “ohmic sensing” (which you did). I hope “floating head” is not super challenging to setup. At least it’s something I understand the premise of.
They both work equally accurate. I am just not a fan of adding the floating head hardware. Ohmic has the drawback of needing to remove paint if it’s there, but you have to do that for the ground clamp anyway.
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That’s a helpful confirmation for the size of plasma cutting table I chose to go with. That’s approximately its cut size. My actual cut area is 2’-6" x 4’-8".
Good to know. I already designed, printed and assembled a floating Z setup. Now I only need to finish the wiring and get it accounted for in firmware, etc.
Look how janky this turned out. I wanted to get up and running so bad I just left it outside. Sure enough went outside this morning and my neighbor asked for a steel bracket for his transmission. Job one, day one!
When I figure out what I need and where everything flows I will pretty this up a bit.
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Looks great! Love it!!
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I went to buy some spare drag tips, and Prime weld had a sale on straight torches today. Picked one up. $250 is a bit hard to swallow when the machine is just a bit more than double that and comes with a torch…but it will make material handling much easier and I can route my cables more permanently / cleaner.
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And it should mean you won’t have to worry about preventing splashed water from getting into any buttons or switches on a handheld torch.
I paid $199.99 for my machine torch. I bought the one that was recommended by the seller of the plasma machine.
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My configs
linuxcnc.zip (19.8 KB)
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Running it yesterday, I popped two GFCI on different circuits somehow at the same time. Then ran it for several more hours with no issues. No idea what happened.
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Hey, thanks for posting your configs!
Downloading now.
I’m thinking in 100 different ways at once on trying to get my head around everything.
What kinds of motion speeds are you using for yours? I’m trying to get a grip on how many millimeters per minute (or second) I should be aiming for on cutting/feeding speed.