DIY rotary pipe cutter add on

[kn612]

Looking for inspiration on what guys are doing to add rotary axis to their tables. Enough room for about a 6" piece of pipe under the z axis on my precision plasma gantry. For tables that turn under the z axis on the table how is the workpiece being supported? Temporary rollers you mount and remove for plate cutting?

[acourtjester]

Here is a simple one which seems to be easy to make. I did it differently for the one I built, mine was more involved. David has one that is different from this one maybe he will post info for you.

[Joe Jones]

Rolling the pipe beneath the torch is the easiest way to cut pipe. The torch does not know if it is cutting flat material, or a round pipe. it only knows that the top dead center of the pipe is the surface of the material, and the pipe rotates to maintain that TDC position as it cuts the design into the pipe.

You already have the gantry motor and the carriage motor for the X/Y motion, and the Z motor for the torch, so why complicate things by adding more motors? Simply lay some square tubing onto the grates to act as a track for the pipe to roll on, and use some bolt on or clamp on wheeled guides to push and pull the pipe parallel to the gantry tube.

Larger diameter pipe is also easily cut by designing a torch riser that will raise the torch higher than the carriage and extend it out over the taller pipe.

Joe

PIPE CUTTER GANTRY PUSH PULL JPG.jpg

[kn612]

Still need to make time to fab up brackets and rollers like your pipe cutter Joe. I'd like to try that out for shorter pipe.

Ended up buying a rough 6x12 Lonestar table that has a rotary on the side. Planning on using that on the next upcoming table build. Or running the Lonestar if I can clean it up.

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[Joe Jones]

Wow. you are ambitious! I am guessing that you can get the LoneStar up and running. i know nothing about them, or the software they use. Where are you located?

Joe

[Jason@bc]

Rolling the pipe beneath the torch is the easiest way to cut pipe. The torch does not know if it is cutting flat material, or a round pipe. it only knows that the top dead center of the pipe is the surface of the material, and the pipe rotates to maintain that TDC position as it cuts the design into the pipe.

You already have the gantry motor and the carriage motor for the X/Y motion, and the Z motor for the torch, so why complicate things by adding more motors? Simply lay some square tubing onto the grates to act as a track for the pipe to roll on, and use some bolt on or clamp on wheeled guides to push and pull the pipe parallel to the gantry tube.

Larger diameter pipe is also easily cut by designing a torch riser that will raise the torch higher than the carriage and extend it out over the taller pipe.

Joe

PIPE CUTTER GANTRY PUSH PULL JPG.jpg

That's a neat idea you got there Joe, but what happens with the X motion....wouldn't the wheel guides put some drag on the X motion?

[Joe Jones]

That's a neat idea you got there Joe, but what happens with the X motion....wouldn't the wheel guides put some drag on the X motion?

The wheel guides are not mounted to the carriage. They are mounted to the gantry tube, and the carriage moves back and forth between them. They offer no resistance.

Joe

[acourtjester]

Here is another style of tubing cutter shown in this video, the guy is a little long winded. His second video shows he is quite busy running a company using a DIY table.

[weldguy]

Super impressive DIY design, thanks for the vid Tom

[Jason@bc]

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That's a neat idea you got there Joe, but what happens with the X motion....wouldn't the wheel guides put some drag on the X motion?

The wheel guides are not mounted to the carriage. They are mounted to the gantry tube, and the carriage moves back and forth between them. They offer no resistance.

Joe

I see now how it works...thanks for explaining, Joe. I cut a lot of 1.5'' holes in pipe anywhere from 5'' to 7'' od, this would speed it up if I took the time to set this up.

[Joe Jones]

Absolutely! Set up level saw horses off to the side of the plasma table. Set up a jig to roll the pipe beneath the plasma torch, and cut! You could also set up a path to cut that angled end. The nice things is, if the holes are pass through, you can set up the file to have the two holes EXACTLY opposite the other two on a given diameter of pipe. No more guesswork.

What do you do? SCREW these into the ground?!?

Joe

[Joe Jones]

Here is another style of tubing cutter shown in this video, the guy is a little long winded. His second video shows he is quite busy running a company using a DIY table.

That is an awesome setup for rotary cutting.

Joe

[Jason@bc]

Absolutely! Set up level saw horses off to the side of the plasma table. Set up a jig to roll the pipe beneath the plasma torch, and cut! You could also set up a path to cut that angled end. The nice things is, if the holes are pass through, you can set up the file to have the two holes EXACTLY opposite the other two on a given diameter of pipe. No more guesswork.

What do you do? SCREW these into the ground?!?

Joe

Yes, these are what they call screwpiles, the ones I build are 20 feet long with 24'' dia helix, 1/2'' steel. This cement plant sits on screwpiles.

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[Joe Jones]

Yes, these are what they call screwpiles, the ones I build are 20 feet long with 24'' dia helix, 1/2'' steel. This cement plant sits on screwpiles.

I wondered how these things are anchored to the ground.

Joe

[acourtjester]

Upgraded tubing rotary device DIY type by the guy I posted above again long winded but neat.

[kn612]

Wow. you are ambitious! I am guessing that you can get the LoneStar up and running. i know nothing about them, or the software they use. Where are you located?

Joe

I'm a sucker for any project cnc machine. My daily driver was abandoned when I bought it.

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Its probably more adhd than ambition, my current table does everything I need but I cant leave well enough alone. I think Lonestar uses their own modified screenset of mach3 on most of their cnc machines. This one got beat up in a storm, I picked it up on auction, mainly for the rotary and scribe mount parts but we'll see what it takes to straighten everything out this winter.

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Thinking about mounting that rotary chuck on the rear or front inside the table under the gantry. Lots of room under the gantry.

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Was going to plug the existing x axis driver into the rotary. I use mach3/sheetcam on this one too, I assume each different diameter of pipe will need the steps/unit changed?

I have an industrial plasma gantry and enough gear rack and t rail to build an 8x14. It has ac servo motors/drivers, helical gears, oxyfuel. With the wider gantry I cant make my mind up to run the rotary on the table and keep the 8ft wide cut for plate or bring one side in a couple feet and cut pipe on the side like the Lonestar does. Cant find many examples of a rotary built into the table so Im leaning towards giving up a couple ft of cut width and cutting pipe off to the side.

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Upgraded tubing rotary device DIY type by the guy I posted above again long winded but neat.

Tom, I really like this guys table, especially the rotary and follower. No need for any kind of pipe/tubing holder on the floor. Thanks for those videos, thought I'd seen all the diy plasma stuff on youtube.

[acourtjester]

Reburbing an older table that has good bones will save time, finding and replacing the bad/damaged parts will save money too. The old "one mans trash is another treasure". Many times a company will dump equipment, as they see it is cheaper time wise to buy new, you win.
Keep us posted on your progress, pictures too.

[kn612]

Reburbing an older table that has good bones will save time, finding and replacing the bad/damaged parts will save money too. The old "one mans trash is another treasure". Many times a company will dump equipment, as they see it is cheaper time wise to buy new, you win.
Keep us posted on your progress, pictures too.

There have been quite a few nice used tables go for sale on auctions and classifieds.

It didn't take a whole lot but it's cleaned up and going again. Some of the motors wouldn't spin so I replaced those and changed the tb6600 drivers and 24v power supply to some dm542 drivers and 36v. New linear bearings, it jogs pretty nice but will occasionally stall at 750ipm and above. May bump it to 48v. It's direct drive so I'm not sure how much more performance I can get out of it. 600ipm seems like the sweet spot for jog speed

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I really like the mach3 screenset/setup they use. You can home with limit switches and have multiple park positions. You can even do a dry run of the perimeter to make sure the part will fit. The thc responds pretty well but I haven't done any sloped.

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Haven't gotten around to setting up the rotary yet, main point of this thread but that's next now that I know everything works.

[acourtjester]

Not sure what thickness of metal you are going to cut, but you will not need more then 350 IPS. And that may be all that needed to rapids for one cut to another.

[weldguy]

Nice refurb job, looking really good!

[kn612]

I'm working on building a dedicated tube and pipe cutter out of this spitfire table now. Does anyone have any advice for a rotary follower? Something simple that is adjustable from 1'-4" and self centering. I figured for larger diameters I would make a custom faceplate for each one as the need for them comes up.

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Roughly drawing it up, haven't cut anything out yet. I'm basing it off of pictures I found of procuts pipe cutter. Seems easy enough?

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My other questions are for rotary square tube. I assume the steps/unit still need to be adjusted for different sizes of tube?

[acourtjester]

Looks like a simple holder but will not work on rectangle tube.

[DieselFumes]

A rotary follower for round tube would be a cinch but with the square not so much.

I wonder if you made one for round tube, and then just made something you could slip/clamp onto the end of the square to that would provide a round surface to run on your round tube follower.

[kn612]

I was thinking for rectangle and bigger tube I would make a faceplate for each size. Similar in design to this this guy has made some really nice followers

90% of material through it would be 4" and smaller, never rectangle. I'm lazy, and an adjustable follower that is self centering would be ideal. I think this design would allow it do be adjustable? I need to burn it out and see how well it moves. Im sure i will have to make adjustments on the slots in the rear piece. Seeing if anyone has made their own before I waste some plate.

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[weldguy]

I was thinking for rectangle and bigger tube I would make a faceplate for each size.

90% of material through it would be 4" and smaller, never rectangle. I'm lazy, and an adjustable follower that is self centering would be ideal. I think this design would allow it do be adjustable? I need to burn it out and see how well it moves. Im sure i will have to make adjustments on the slots in the rear piece. Seeing if anyone has made their own before I waste some plate.
Screenshot (2).png

That's a great idea, very universal. Curious to see how this project comes along for you. Pretty cool!