Plasma Cutting Table

On this Plasma cutting table you will have 3 distinct parts .

- The plasma generator ( I use an Hypertherm Powermax 45 or a Esab CutMaster A40 )

- The Frame ( build with vslot rails and xtrem solid wheel ) , based on an OX CNC from vslot-europe

- The Water pan ( Martyr , waterpan ... )

For the plasma generator , you have 2 choices .. if you want a nice cut , cutting thick sheet of steel and that you build worked on the first try .. that have a price .. buy an Hypertherm or Esab generator .

I tried with low cost chinese plasma generator but i never achieve to have a good result .

Working size is around 130cm x 130cm

Frame take around 1 week to be build and wired correctly .

And the water pan was made localy by a friend ( you can work without it , but you will have to use a smoke extractor .

The frame of this plasma cutting table is based on the OX CNC from vslot-europe .

Some profiles were added to rigidify the build and support the machine .

A THC is a nice tool who can help you if you cut big parts .

The THC adjust the height of your torch above your material .

I bought a low cost THC : a Proma THC SD

There is 2 way to do the THC connection

.1 / using a plug on the back side of my hyperterm .( with 1/50 scale )

2 / Directly on the row voltage of the arc I try both , i had some trouble with de 1/50 divider ( voltage was not correct ) so i 'm now using the raw value of the arc and it is much better .

3 Nema 23 steppers ( 2 for Y axis and 1 for X axis )

1 Nema 17 stepper ( z axis )

4 stepper drivers

1 Mach3 compatible controller board ( USB )

1 THC Proma

On this build i choose to use a floating head instead an inductive sensor because I was afraid that the parasites created by the plasma arc pertube the operation of the inductive sensor.

You can see above some pictures of the floating head

Some of my works made with this plasma cutting table .

Create you parts :

I use autodesk autocad or solidworks or google sketchup (free )

Create your gcode file :

I use sheetcam for this operation ( specialized for plasma , milling , laser cutting )

And finaly send your gcode to your machine :

Depending of your electronic board , you can use universal gcode sender ( forg GRBL controler ) or MACH3 if you have a mach3 compatible board .

Those are some files who can help you in your build :

Coming soon ..