Joe Jones pipe cutter

[kn612]

Have you guys seen this??

Joe, care to share any details on this? How small of diameter pipe can you cut with it? This is a great solution to avoid having to add another axis.

[AREA]

Thats super cool. Would have never thought of that. Nice Joe, very nice.

[Joe Jones]

Have you guys seen this??

Joe, care to share any details on this? How small of diameter pipe can you cut with it? This is a great solution to avoid having to add another axis.

The diameter of the tube to cut is determine by the wheels that push and pull the tube across the two tracks on the grates. I SUPPOSE there is really no limit. Could a 1/2" conduit be pushed and pulled this way? I don't see why not.

Joe

[Joe Jones]

Thats super cool. Would have never thought of that. Nice Joe, very nice.

Thank you for the compliment, but I did not create this concept.

I give credit where credit is due. This concept was originally created by John Derby. He did a "halo" type of brace that sticks to the gantry tube with magnets, and places the push and pull wheels at 10:00 and 2:00 positions from ABOVE the tube. John simply rolled his tube over a sheet of steel. The torch doesn't know if it is cutting flat steel, or cutting at the top dead center of a round tube.

I will draw it crudely here now ...

Joe

JOHN DERBY PIPE ROLLER.jpg

DERBY PIPE ROLLER.jpg

[Joe Jones]

Here is the file for the two side plates. Feel free to play with them, improve them, and make them better!

Joe

PLATE PIPE ROLLER PCM.pcm

PLATE PIPE ROLLER DXF (2).dxf

[TJS]

Thanks for sharing, Joe. This is really cool. I will save this for later. I think those brackets should be pretty easy to adapt to the PPLC gantry where they just use the aluminum extrusions with the slots in it. I forget the commercial name for that material. Anyway, you talk about your homing situation. In Command CNC there is a work Zero so whatever you set your X Y 0,0 when you when you initialize to cut something it comes back to the work zero and not true machine X Y zero.

[Joe Jones]

Anyway, you talk about your homing situation. In Command CNC there is a work Zero so whatever you set your X Y 0,0 when you when you initialize to cut something it comes back to the work zero and not true machine X Y zero.

The PlasmaCam table uses a physical limit switch to tell the controller that the carriage has returned to the home position. This apparatus makes that impossible. Hence the length of steel bar to reach beyond the apparatus attached to the gantry, which will hit the switch from a distance. It could also be a wooden ruler, or any other stiff component that can hit the limit switch before the carriage physically reaches that location.

John Derby's setup uses rollers that do not prevent the carriage from returning to the home position. They control the pipe rolling farther along the gantry tube.

Joe

[acourtjester]

Slick design, why can't you just edit the G-code and remove the last line that tells the control to return home (G1X0Y0f50 or what ever is there)

[AREA]

Thats super cool. Would have never thought of that. Nice Joe, very nice.

Thank you for the compliment, but I did not create this concept.

I give credit where credit is due. This concept was originally created by John Derby. He did a "halo" type of brace that sticks to the gantry tube with magnets, and places the push and pull wheels at 10:00 and 2:00 positions from ABOVE the tube. John simply rolled his tube over a sheet of steel. The torch doesn't know if it is cutting flat steel, or cutting at the top dead center of a round tube.

I will draw it crudely here now ...

Joe

Well its brilliant on John's part and I enjoyed your video. Would like to try this if I can get some free time.

[TJS]

Joe,
I also have physical home /limit switches also. Tom's idea sounds like a great one.

[Joe Jones]

Joe,
I also have physical home /limit switches also. Tom's idea sounds like a great one.

The PlasmaCam does not use G-Code. At least not on the surface. There is no option to redefine Y=0

Joe

[robertspark]

clever idea, what about slip and backlash

thinking about cutting thin wall exhaust tube, I expect feedrate would be an issue

[Joe Jones]

clever idea, what about slip and backlash

thinking about cutting thin wall exhaust tube, I expect feedrate would be an issue

I move the wheels down to contact the tube at 10:00 and 2:00. There isn't really any backlash. In the video, I did back off one of the wheels when it showed the finished text, but the wheels are both directly against the tube during cutting. This is not a machining process. It is cnc plasma. Feed rate should be the same for the tube as any equally thick sheet of flat material. The torch is cutting at top dead center, so it doesn't matter if it is cutting flat material or a tube.

Joe