Hello guys, i want yo build an lowrider 4 for plasma and wood cutting. I looked at other users in this forum that they used different control boards for plasma cutting like MESA control board and MESATHC. My questions now:
Do i need both Jackpot and MESA controllers ?
Can i cut wood and steel with the same lowrider but with tool change?
Any problems with a large build like 2x3 meters?
I would like to start with steel plasma cutting first for my bussines and thats why im asking all of this.
Thank you in advance for your answears and please excuse my english. This is not my native language.
a LowRider that can do both Plasma and spindle is surely not going to work. If you look at @DougJoseph’s plasma thread, you can see that it is wildly different from a CNC that cuts wood, starting with the table, the torch holder, the software and hardware…
The only reason we use mesa cards in out PLasma builds is real time torch height control. If you are doing thinker material and not worried about warping you don’t really need that.
You only need the mesa setup, not an additional jackpot.
The wiring and programming are on the advanced side, please be careful.
Thank you for advices. In december i will order the international kit for lowrider and print myself the mountings. For sure i will look at the design8 guy for clarifications. Glad to see such a community.
:)) i had that when i started to learn how to weld back in the days. Now i weld proffesionally almost every day as a job. Now the fun part…. I will build a LR4 for plasma cutting and wanted to know if i understood correctly looking at Doug and Kyle:
1.i must order the hardware kit from v1 site without the jackpot board and stepper drivers
I must print the kit of pieces from v1 site with PETG filament
I must buy the MESA 7I96S motion control interface and MESA THCAD-10
I must buy a plasma cutting machine that have a connector to wire up the thcad10
Build a table from rectangular pipe as frame and feets, and from a sheet of 3mm metal make a water table on top of the rectangular structure
Assemble the Lowrider, put it on the table, wire it to the mesa electronics and to the plasma cutting machine.
Use software to send the model to the plasma cutter and profit ?
I Spent a lot of time on this, I feel like I understand all the electronics. Yet somehow I popped half the breakers on my house on one of the early runs and I still don’t know how it happened or why a GFI popped on the other side of the house as well.
In the end, I hate to say this. A commercial control system might be the safest route. From there you can easily make it bigger if you need.
I used a regular build using angle iron and welded up a sheet metal tub then flex sealed it.
As Ryan said V1E steppers are fine (I used them on mine I think).
One thing I did not see in your list is drivers. The Jackpot board has drivers built into it. The Mesa Electronics board does not. If you look at my build log, it has my wiring diagram from where I made mine — with driver details— and also if you look at Ryan’s photograph above you will see those drivers. In my case and I think in his also they are big black rectangle box looking things. TB… something or other. I gave details in my build log.
Side question. Would lr3 be better than lr4 as a plasma body? Because more aluminum/steel can be used in the lr3 (XZ and YZ plate). This would achieve a better spark duration. I’m not building it myself, but I’ve been thinking about this.
It’s a nice benefit of the LR3, and a plasma rig does not face the forces against rigidity that a router rig does, so the added rigidity of LR4 is not so needed for plasma.
However, if one thought the sparks were creating an issue for a LowRider v4, then one could use thin metal plating to “armor” the insides of the plates of the LR4.
i am an automatist in fire alarm, smoke ventilation, hvac etc…
