Rat Rod Plasma is alive

[OldFatMan]

I posted a few times in intro and got some initial assistance that helped with my ambition to get started. Its been a while with several starts and stops but it actually works pretty well. So far the high frequency start on the Prime Weld is not an issue- worn consumables are an issue. Mostly using simple 360 designs to cut but have exhausted the limits of the Mach3 trial so purchasing a license is next even though my original intent was a machine to fab brackets and parts for fabrication. I did steel artwork years ago with only soapstone and an oxy torch but got to a point I couldn't see to do it anymore. This is a terrible rabbit hole to go down- it never ends I think. I started with the manual panto graph shown- bought lead screws, couplings, mach3 USB board, Nema 23 motors, drivers and cat tracks from build your CNC. The Z axis leads crew and linear bearings and motor are from amazon. Everything else is from scrap and project leftovers. Its 28X28 cut size- more than I have room for in my cramped shop. Thanks for the help and info from members.

Plasma Table.jpg

Plasma.jpg

[acourtjester]

The change from image one to image two is a big leap forward. DIYer are welcome as they encourage others to hop on the wagon. No matter the size of a table the fun is still there, and having a tool like it is an addition to the shop. There are many projects posted here that may interest you so look around. You may find thing to cut and sell to offset your expenses.

[weldguy]

That's awesome. Machine looks like it evolving very nicely. It must be particularly satisfying and additive to have started out with the most basic of setups and have it evolve into this already all on your own Nice work.

[OldFatMan]

Thanks. I built this in stages- first it was just going to be a burn table to get me up off the ground with my torch. Bought the prime Weld plasma based off of rave review for customer support (which I haven't needed -thanks for that) but couldn't see around the cup on the torch very well. I built the gantry to make rip cuts on X any Y axis then added the scribe to be able to follow patterns for tabs, brackets and hole templates. I bought a little 3018 router to make templates for it then decided to convert to plasma CNC. I didn't have high hopes of making the Prime Weld plasma work and knew any of the commercial units wouldn't support use of a high frequency cutter so my "panto-graph" became the donor machine. After all the research I could find I did a few specific things to deal with the noise. All shielded cables with shield terminated at one end only. Control box electrically isolated from the table. 8' ground rod driven about 15' away from the electrical panel ground rod. I did drive it outside of the garage and have about 8' welding cable to the table frame and it seems to be fine. The power for the control is plugged into a UPS as is the laptop. Careful not to cross power cables and signal cables inside of the control box. Finally and probably overthinking it I ran a light shielded cable from the gantry through the cat track to the table ground connection to make a ground path for noise picked up on the gantry. The plasma work cable is also connected to the plate connected to the ground rod. I'm surprised how well it works. You know what they say- even a blind sow finds an acorn once in a while.