ok picture in your head a small 300mm by 500mm - 1 ft by 1 foot 8 inch, xyz table running the smallest nema 23's or 17's.

ok now imagine that the motors were in a box side by side and connected to the axis screws with flexible drill shaft extensions @ 4 feet long, or varying lengths so its tidy.  chuck both ends, keyless, simply twist them up, forgo the 8mm screww to 6.35/1/4'' headache.
anyways I know I will have to keep the sheaths or outer caseings still at each end - easy.

right thats the plan so far..........

next, can the actual motors live side by side in a box, plus can the actual drives sit next to the motors in the box with the psu and bob?

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Its for a small plasma table of which I havn't started yet, the plan being to simply have the torch and thats in on the y axis,

ok. the machine is to be lightweight so i can move it outside on a sunny day to cut.

the next idea is to have the bed folded up in 8mm aluminium, with tapped holes on two inch centres with m6 by 1.5'' bolts siply fired through from underneath with some silicone sealer - the ends on the sheet bent up and sealed on the edges where they meet, fill with water to the 1.5'' minus 8mm of sheet .

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next IF It is possible, for exaple I ONLY EVER want to cut 5mm mild steel on this  - built specifically for it, could I build it so that the pilot arc torch simply snaps up and down from arc start down to working height utilising an electro magnet? i.e. the machine torch itself simply running in a bearing with stops up and down

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please reply even with hatred.
Thanks 

Hi Nobby,

Just one point - I suspect you will get too much backlash using flexible drill shaft extension cables between the steppers and the axis screws - maybe wrong because I have never tried it but it is just a thought.

Tweakie.

yeeeers, of course they can live somewhere else but yeah...dubious about backlash/accuracy using cable drives.

much better revising the idea to tried and proven tooth belts and pulleys/leadscrew and couplings etc... ie, a couple of printers will supply belt and pulleys


i personally wouldnt worry about water baths unless inside or using constantly. remember you do need some distance to prevent sprayback/splashing. easily replaced table surface, ie...open frame with drop in, interlaced strips. some shrouding and a simple cyclone separator on a vac would be better IMHO...

ideally move the torch rather than the material, and have the leadscrews well up and out of the way.

make at least one side a standard available sheet size for economy on materials.... can always flop the other 6 foot out one end. cant flop it out two adjacent sides very easily!


as far as im aware with THC


where was i?


short term memory loss :p

i believe THC have to be fairly smooth and linear in operation, albeit, of limited stroke, as the distance is part of the current/voltage, part of the way the machines operate, and is varied during turns, corners, ends and starts, etc...



ive thought about this for a while too, myself. hard to find much useful info do i NEED THC? (yes...i do!)


could i get away with just a frame that does the moving, while its me, holding the gun in a cradle, that pulls the trigger and starts each cut? rather than make nozzles and valves and airlines and wire things up and...oh dear... but that sounds relatively simple and keeps the cutter free for pointing at bricks and scrap out back and the odd stray dog... semi auto plasma cutter


anyways. mines on hold until i can afford 700 or so on lead screws and rails

HeadsMess, Is the THC causing the short term memory loss? I heard it would do that (in a Cheech and Chong movie I think?)