Thread: Look what I found in the garden. :)

I showed my partner and she just about had to change her kni***rs, looks really great

Ah, it's a little one

Greg, what thickness steel can your plasma unit cut, I spoke to rod about ones of these at his place a few years back

Steve

The plasma unit is a Chinese 50amp model I picked up on ebay. (cheap)

Supposedly it will cut 12mm but I have not cut more than 8mm.

On the table I am only cutting 1.5 to 3mm.

For a serious CNC plasma table you really want a Hypertherm, but that would cost more than twice what I spent on the whole table, electrics and cutter.

Not going to happen in the foreseeable future.

Yes there ability to cut is sometimes exaggerated, I received a laser cutter and it was stated to be able to cut 25mm thick mdf, struggled cutting 12

Steve

Nice one greg. I wanted to build a pkasma, but lost motivation before i started. I think id have to do what you did nd buy a unit. Is it a big table?

so you moved to cockatoo as well?

Hi Greg, Can you post a link to the plasma you are using?

Originally Posted by seafurymike

Nice one greg. I wanted to build a plasma, but lost motivation before i started. I think id have to do what you did nd buy a unit. Is it a big table?

so you moved to cockatoo as well?

Hi Mike

Yes, near Cockatoo for a couple of years now.

I bought the plasma cutter off ebay. Luck had it that I got it for half what they ask for it.

LOTOS LTP5000 Pilot Arc 240 Voltage 50Amp Plasma Cutter

I built the table and associated control gear. Still have some tidying up to do but it works.

It is 1300 x 1300 (half sheet) Hafco sell one that size for $32,000. Better than mine, but mine works.

I get flashbacks whenever I see those things, I attempted a few to "test" my machine when I first built it, no decent feedrate, no constant contouring, no tabs, no idea really and about a three hour toolpath, lol.

I made the butterfly and my son who was a toddler at the time taught it to fly...don't think I ever made any more after that haha.

Russell.

Hi Greg

Spider looks great!
What THC did you end up using? Are you happy with it?
How about sharing a few photos of the machine.

Cheers
David

I am using this THC from Vietnam.

Compact THC3T-01

It is much the same as the Proma 150 and a couple of other fairly basic THCs.

You can spend a lot more money. For my hobby plasma table it seems adequate.

Most of my issues so far are to do with the very cheap plasma cutter. But it works.

What issues are you having with the cheap plasma?

Issues revolve around the torch. These show up as two things.

1. Unreliability of the pilot arc start

2. Angularity of the cut due to lack of concentricity in the torch.

I was using a machine torch. For the moment I have abandoned that and resorted to the hand torch.

This has made the pilot arc start more reliable but still has angularity problems.

I never expected great things from this cheap plasma so I am not too disappointed.

Hi Greg
Looking at the photos, are you running the pinions directly off the motor shaft for the X and Y axis?
Cheers
David