Plasma table

[Hood]

I decided to go for the 60/40 pulleys as originally planned, I thought what the heck its only money

Got the 60 tooth pulley machined and bored.

I then cut a chunk of 4" square aluminium and milled it all away to make some angle Milled out the hole for the motor and bored and tapped for the slider plate.

Then made the slider plate.

 

[eSCHEn]

I then cut a chunk of 4" square aluminium and milled it all away to make some angle

Animal. Keep it up

 

[Hood]

The next Cat will be here in a week or two so I thought what the heck, get this plasma done before it arrives and if anyone needs a job done in the mean time it is tuff sh..
So at 1pm I went out to the plasma shed armed with the rattle gun and started ripping things apart.

4 years worth of vaporised metal

Managed to remove all the wiring intact with the exception of one 5 core wire for limit switches.

Box containing some of the parts that will be used on the new table.

The rack that will be used for the Y axis.

And the rails and old gantry, the latter will be shortened to about 1700mm instead of the 3,000mm at present.

Decided to call it a day and make tomorrow a day of chopping up the old table and hopefully getting the new one inside.
As it was only 4pm I thought I might as well bore out the pulley to fit the X axis motor, first I bored out some soft jaws.

Drilled out the pulley to 10.5mm then finish bored to size, 11mm.

 

[Hood]

It has been a horrible day today, gales with heavy rain and occasionally torrential rain

I managed to get some more done though which included 5 wheelbarrow loads of melted metal remains to the skip.
After the trays were emptied I got the ducting removed then the trays themselves.

I then hacked up the 50 x 50 box frame and decided that was enough for the day.

I think I will try and pull the remains of the plasma table outside tomorrow and hook up the hand torch to the Jasic and chop it up, don't fancy trying to cut it up in the shed.
Hopefully I will manage to haul the transformer and huge Yaskawa motor out from underneath so I can get the frame outside.

 

[eSCHEn]

Making good progress mate

Been the very definition of dreich here as well today.

 

[Hood]

Got the old frame hauled out and chopped up, also got sick fed up of moving the massive Yaskawa spindle motor around from place to place. I know I will never use it so decided just to junk it, its transformer and the drive as well. It is a bit of a shame but...

Got the compressor moved to its new position and got the table in. It has been sitting outside for 6 months or more so good to actually see it inside.
I also got the Y axis rails bolted down and the gantry chopped to length and fitted.

Now that it is inside I can start fitting the rest of the bits and hopefully have a working plasma again in a week or so.

 

[Hood]

Got a bit more done today. Turned the gantry round as I need it the opposite way from previously, should have looked at the 3D model I had done before fitting it yesterday Having said that it was just remove 8x M10 cap screws, turn it around and refit, so no big deal.

I fitted the round rail I will be using for the X axis and temporarily fitted the carriage and Z axis so that I can mark where the holes for the trucks will need to be bored.

I also got the Y axis motors and pinions fitted and made up spacers for the pinions.

Tomorrow I will hopefully get the carriage bored and fitted properly and then get the rack fitted on both sides of the Y axis.

 

[slim_boy_fat]

@Hood Coming along nicely , but are you not familiar with the concept of 'rest day'?

 

[Hood]

@Hood Coming along nicely , but are you not familiar with the concept of 'rest day'?

I don't do them because 666

 

[slim_boy_fat]

I don't do them because 666

????? [I'm being dim tonight ]

 

[Brad93]

That’s looking stout mate

 

[Hood]

I missed out I am and rest days are for the God fearing


Edit, FFS my communication abilities tonight are dire

Ok what I should have said to your "rest day" comment was
I don't do them because I am 666

 

[Hood]

That’s looking stout mate

Hopefully it will work well. The end loading narrow gantry is the way I should have gone for the plasma the first time due to it being in the container. It was however meant to be in my workshop and then I got gifted the container but had already started the build so...

 

[Woody.v8]

I missed out I am and rest days are for the God fearing


Edit, FFS my communication abilities tonight are dire

Ok what I should have said to your "rest day" comment was
I don't do them because I am 666

A lad who races national hot rods is number 333 he has "halfway evil" written underneath

 

[henry Kadzielski]

Good evening @Hood. With the new build orientation you could put up a monorail in the roof to help load and unload. Just my thought. I put up a electric chain hoist in my workshop, runs along a 'I' beam transverse over the top of the plasma table. The purpose was for load and unload those big alli sheets (6100 by 1830) and it is wouderfull for those. Problem now is, I would like it to travel length ways up and down the workshop and carry about 2k kg. Never going to happen, but here's me dreaming. Another problem is, if that will ever be achieved, then some one will require 5k kg capacity

 

[Hood]

Good evening @Hood. With the new build orientation you could put up a monorail in the roof to help load and unload. Just my thought. I put up a electric chain hoist in my workshop, runs along a 'I' beam transverse over the top of the plasma table. The purpose was for load and unload those big alli sheets (6100 by 1830) and it is wouderfull for those. Problem now is, I would like it to travel length ways up and down the workshop and carry about 2k kg. Never going to happen, but here's me dreaming. Another problem is, if that will ever be achieved, then some one will require 5k kg capacity

I have several plans in my head but one which I am thinking is the most likely is a roller on the front of the table and a couple of strap points on the gantry so that I can fix straps with hooks and pull the sheet onto the table with the gantry. That would only be for the heaviest of sheets though as loading 5mm and probably even 8mm alu should be easy enough due to the low table height and the end loading.

 

[Hood]

Today I got the carriage drilled and the trucks fitted and aligned. It was a bit of a PITA as the tapped holes in the trucks are not exactly true to the bearings and it took a good bit longer to do than I had hoped but I got there

I found another piece of rack and I messed around with different permutations of the sections and managed to come up with a way to get 2575mm travel on the Y axis which should be enough. I then got the right hand side rack fitted and lined up and adjusted for backlash.

Because I found the extra bit of rack it means I have enough for the X axis. I am not sure whether I will use it or use the ballscrew I bought but I will likely just use the rack for now at least as it will let me get things up and running quicker and no settings to alter in Mach3.

 

[Hood]

More done today, got the rack fitted and adjusted on the second side of the Y axis and decided to also go with the rack on the X axis. It means I wasted time and money on the ballscrew but I may still use it in the future.

Rack on X axis.

I also got the energy chain fitted to the Y axis, I had been planning on putting it on the opposite side but decided this would be better as I would only have the motor narrowing the passage at the opposite side instead of the energy chain obstructing at least half the length.

Sorted out the tangle of wiring and started refitting things, also partially fitted the smaller energy chain for the X axis.

Also made hard stops at either end so that I can't run off the rails if something goes wrong.

A filter turned up today for the water, it is a basket style that is normally used on boats although the ones I fit are a good bit bigger, this should be perfect for the plasma though.

 

[Hood]

Got the majority of the wiring done but found a problem. The wires are not long enough to reach the control cabinet so I have had to put the table over to the port side and the cabinet to starboard. Bit of a pain but I will see how things go and if it is a nuisance I will have to extend the wiring.

Two prox switches are not working so I couldn't get the homing working, not sure if it a wiring issue or if they have just died, have a few spares so will hopefully get them sorted so that I can get it homed. Also still have the X axis motor to fit to the gearbox, I will have to make up a puller to get the pulley off so it can be fitted.

Max has found a new home.

Vid of the progress so far.

 

[Hood]

Today was one step forward and ten back.
First thing I found was it was just two wires had pulled out of the terminals for the prox switches, putting them back in made them work
Got the pulley removed from the motor and got it connected up to the X axis gearbox, I then fitted triggers for the X and Y axes prox switches so I was then able to home which went without a hitch.

The problem then arose, one of the Y axis drives tripped while I was doing a rapid jog, reset it then the other tripped. The error code was E10 which is bus over voltage and is supposedly due to decelerating too fast but as I was in full motion I am not sure if that is what it is. I thought maybe it had something to do with both drives sharing a phase so I swapped one over to share with the Z axis but it still happened. I then thought maybe it was because I was using the extension lead so wired up a new 3 phase switched socket beside the cabinet and it seemed ok for a few runs then happened again. Not sure what the issue is as it never happened on the table previously, good thing is it is happening on both drives so it is unlikely to be a drive or motor issue. I have some active shunts I will take down tomorrow and see if that cures it, if it is bus over voltage then they should but...

Anyway that is more or less all I got done today.
I am toying with the idea of separating the monitor and keyboard/button panel from the cabinet and having that remote so that I can get the cabinet under the table and get the table shifted to where I would prefer it but it will be a fair bit of work so I may just wait and see how things go before I decide.