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General Mach Discussion / Recomendation for parallel or USB controller + motor brands (CNC plasma cutter)
« on: July 21, 2015, 05:46:15 PM »
Hi everyone. I work for a small company and we would like to get set up with a CNC plasma cutter, but they cost a lot and we decided to build our own.
BUT I have a lot of questions considering I have never thought of building a CNC machine before:
1. Which is the better option for the breakout board connection? USB or parallel port? We have computers with both for the software.
2. Any recommendations on breakout/controller and motor brands? Which ones work good for you? Cheap is good (price-wise). only need x, y, and z axis.
3. And I'm not sure of what size stepper motors we need, but we need to be able to move a big homemade steel gantry over a 4' x 8' sheet of steel. Can you use small motors and gear them down, like for example a 3 to 1 reduction? Is there a chart or system to figure out how much torque needed? Would like to just use small inexpensive motors and gear them down to give them enough torque to not slip or miss a pulse. The machine doesnt have to move fast from what I see.
4. Does Mach 3/4 have the ability to turn on a plasma cutter torch with, for example, a relay output on a controller board? I have the ability to make a relay driver from transistors from logic level.
Button option in the software? In the past I've seen people use a router as a cutter and they just turn it on manually before starting the cut. But that probably wouldnt work too good for a plasma cutter.
Thanks for any info, it's really appreciated!
BUT I have a lot of questions considering I have never thought of building a CNC machine before:
1. Which is the better option for the breakout board connection? USB or parallel port? We have computers with both for the software.
2. Any recommendations on breakout/controller and motor brands? Which ones work good for you? Cheap is good (price-wise). only need x, y, and z axis.
3. And I'm not sure of what size stepper motors we need, but we need to be able to move a big homemade steel gantry over a 4' x 8' sheet of steel. Can you use small motors and gear them down, like for example a 3 to 1 reduction? Is there a chart or system to figure out how much torque needed? Would like to just use small inexpensive motors and gear them down to give them enough torque to not slip or miss a pulse. The machine doesnt have to move fast from what I see.
4. Does Mach 3/4 have the ability to turn on a plasma cutter torch with, for example, a relay output on a controller board? I have the ability to make a relay driver from transistors from logic level.
Button option in the software? In the past I've seen people use a router as a cutter and they just turn it on manually before starting the cut. But that probably wouldnt work too good for a plasma cutter.
Thanks for any info, it's really appreciated!