Hello Guest it is March 28, 2024, 03:28:00 PM

Author Topic: Physical buttons for plasma  (Read 155119 times)

0 Members and 2 Guests are viewing this topic.

Offline Hood

*
  •  25,835 25,835
  • Carnoustie, Scotland
    • View Profile
Re: Physical buttons for plasma
« Reply #10 on: January 04, 2016, 02:59:12 PM »
Not a clue Russ, not spoken to any of them for a year or more I suppose.

Hood

Offline Chaoticone

*
  • *
  •  5,624 5,624
  • Precision Chaos
    • View Profile
Re: Physical buttons for plasma
« Reply #11 on: January 04, 2016, 09:19:15 PM »
Looks good Hood, glad to see you building one.  :) That fella in the demo is just showing off.

I know you can put the sheets where you want them (with one arm) but would think a button to set the alignment would be real handy. What size is the table?

Brett
;D If you could see the things I have in my head, you would be laughing too. ;D

My guard dog is not what you need to worry about!

Offline RICH

*
  • *
  •  7,427 7,427
    • View Profile
Re: Physical buttons for plasma
« Reply #12 on: January 05, 2016, 06:51:24 AM »
Consider just using even spaced nails instead of the bars in the basin. Easy replacement if cut through.
That's what my friend did when he built his. Have a drain on the bottom pan to get rid of the water.
A cheap exhaust fan using pvc pipe for duct with 4 clear vinyl draw down curtains keep any fumes in location. Not sure how big, but, a base / legs  for it which folds along with casters allow you to store upright and get out of the way when not in use.
Consider using the base along with a lip to hold a spoil board and making an attachment for a router....now you can have a multi purpose machine.

FWIW,
When the floor and sides of the room provide no room it's time to use the ceiling. :D
I also add that, try as I may, you just can't put 2 ft3 into 1 ft3....but dumbo here still tries! ;D

RICH

« Last Edit: January 05, 2016, 06:54:34 AM by RICH »

Offline Hood

*
  •  25,835 25,835
  • Carnoustie, Scotland
    • View Profile
Re: Physical buttons for plasma
« Reply #13 on: January 05, 2016, 11:45:01 AM »
Brett,
  was thinking of designing some sort of roller system that raises/lowers and have a reference stop for X and Y. Or maybe even using the gantry with some suction cups, have a big vacuum pump waiting for a job :)
The table is 3070mm wide (my cabin 3150 :D ) and 2000 long. The sheet shown on the table is 2500mm x 1250mm (8' x 4')

Rich,
 will have a drain in the tray, as for the fan, the cabin is full of holes and the gales are constant here :D

Not sure what you are meaning by  nails or rather the fixing method you would use.
 The slats are just slid in so easily replaced.

Hood

Offline Chaoticone

*
  • *
  •  5,624 5,624
  • Precision Chaos
    • View Profile
Re: Physical buttons for plasma
« Reply #14 on: January 05, 2016, 11:53:01 AM »
Quote
(8' x 4')

Good! I'm so glad to see you building one and I am most interested in how much you use it/like it in a years time. If my rich uncle had got out the poor house 10 years ago you would have had one then (hes still not out BTW). I just think you will get a lot use out of it. I can hardly wait to see some of the work you will produce with it.  :)

You settled on motors and drives yet?

Brett
;D If you could see the things I have in my head, you would be laughing too. ;D

My guard dog is not what you need to worry about!

Offline Hood

*
  •  25,835 25,835
  • Carnoustie, Scotland
    • View Profile
Re: Physical buttons for plasma
« Reply #15 on: January 05, 2016, 12:45:06 PM »
Yes I am sure I will use it a lot, just simple things mostly.
I make a lot of bits and pieces for the boats out of sheet/plate and at the moment I mill them which takes time as it is mainly 316 stainless. With this it should make these bits easy and save on snapped carbide cutters :D

Will be using the spindle motor/drive and Z axis motor drive from the wee lathe and have another motor on its way from eBay.
So 400watt Samsung for Z.
600w Allen Bradley for Y
1.2Kw Allen Bradley for X.

Hood

Offline BR549

*
  •  6,965 6,965
    • View Profile
Re: Physical buttons for plasma
« Reply #16 on: January 05, 2016, 02:55:16 PM »
When Hood starts using it THEN he will understand the want/need of special buttons and functions. Even the Conversational SHAPES page to be able to cut common shapes to size without CAM is a great helper for one'sy twosy's . Then when you really need 5 of those the offsetright/upbuttons come into play. To cut the 2nd part you selct which direction to offset in and it auto positions it to teh edge of the last cut and you simply push teh GO button for the next cut, repeat until you have 5 cut . In most of those cases I can have them all cut before you get off of teh Cad/Cam drawing board.

Teh rotation really shines when you have to cut 1 part from a previously cut sheet that has room left on it but not in teh orintaion needed to fit teh part. That is when IF you could rotate the toolpath  say 10 degrees it would fit perfectly . This saves a lot of time over redrawing it in cad/cam to fit.  AND yes IF you could easily rotate teh sheet you could cut it but large sheets do not rotate far on a table. The reason for leaving it in large sheets is it is much more stable laying on the table that a small sheet.

BUT those are the things you learn with experience. You will love having the table when you need it.

ONE note , put it as far away from any machine tool you have as possible. a seperate building /room is best .The micro metalic dust it puts off will eat your Mill and lathe slides alive and in a short time. Once teh slides get contaminated it is almost impossible to get them clean again. The dust imbedes into the metal and is very hard to get out.

That same metalic dust will also KILL an electronic control board/PC  in short order. 

(;-) TP

« Last Edit: January 05, 2016, 03:11:28 PM by BR549 »

Offline Hood

*
  •  25,835 25,835
  • Carnoustie, Scotland
    • View Profile
Re: Physical buttons for plasma
« Reply #17 on: January 05, 2016, 05:00:07 PM »
TP,
 yes I am sure I will find these things handy once I get into the way of using it. I will have space for 8 physical buttons so will just place them in the panel and probably configure them at a later date.
 It will be a touch screen so I can also add onscreen buttons if need be.

It will be in an old GRP cabin out the back of my workshop and the only stuff in there will be the cutter and the metal I store in there, so no probs with machine ways, well except from the plasmas :D

Out of interest, which method do you use for finding the material?
I will be using the CSMIO/IP-S (removed from small lathe) as the controller so I will have the ability for index homing, so could use that with a floating torch or I could use the probing routine, but just wondering what method you, or others that have experience with plasma, use?

Hood

Offline BR549

*
  •  6,965 6,965
    • View Profile
Re: Physical buttons for plasma
« Reply #18 on: January 05, 2016, 05:09:40 PM »
HIYA Hood I use a floating Z switch and G28.1 BUT teh G31 will work equally as well and does have a couple of advatanges IF you refhome the machine. IF you are doing very light guage cutting you may want to consider an Ohmic touch off system as it does not flex the sheet goods on touch off. BUT keep the Zswitch as a safety back up to teh ohmic as the Ohmic is not always 100% certain to touchoff.

IF you are cutting thicker plate I see no advantage either way for what you are needing.

(;-) TP

Re: Physical buttons for plasma
« Reply #19 on: January 05, 2016, 05:10:22 PM »
Floating head for me.

Considered ohmic (from the same seller and also shad at neuron THC (nice controller)... But as was pointed out to me if you have a coating or surface rust they can be... Not problematic ...just not so sensitive.

Mine is a 4x4 hobby machine with a small older hyperthem.  I'd buy a 45 if I were you... Not sure how that compares with your proposed non hypertherm 65 for cut quality.
« Last Edit: January 05, 2016, 05:11:53 PM by robertspark »
Rob

Albert Einstein ― “If you can't explain it to a six year old, you don't understand it yourself.”