Keith, I love your videos. I'm sure everybody who has a workshop of any kind can appreciate your flat-spot comments. In another video you showed what I think was a multi-level flat spot and that cracked me up. Keep it up.
The diamond pattern is no bother and flipping it over to work with it upside down, would of created scratches in the face. Now if you didn't have heigth control you could cut it from other side, still dealing with scratches.
Those are done with a slitting saw in a mill, held by a dividing head or indexing collect set up! I will keep this in mind to stick into a video when it comes about! Thanks for the comment and Idea for more video content…
Same way they place parts on a circut board the use a refrence called a fudcial the machine sees the mark and uses it for part alignment. Clever very clever..
Great stuff. I am mesmerised by the care you put into your work. How could putting a small battery powered laser dot into your pointing/ locating tip work.
Should be getting back to some lathe projects next week, got the impeller wear ring work on the clam pumper video project and making the standoffs for the sprocket on the American Crane project. I have to move around with the shop priorities. Got a very strong possibility that soon, I will be machining a fly wheel to aid in a project presented by a universities’ project, building a copy of; Henry Ford’s Quad Cycle… Thanks for the comment!
The pattern was hand cut in the field, in the bilge of the boat. Most of the shape can be just drawn in with the standard drawing tools within the CNC program, the hand cut; curve to fit a fiberglass surface is not in the program! The straight lines are as easy to sight as the bubble in a level. Drawing another line, on the part, wouldn’t have corrected the curve; I needed to change the cut path. My tool will have many other uses like it today, giving me node locations within .005” or so by eye.
I was wrapped up in getting it out as fast as I could for the customer, it was a rush job and adapting to on the fly adjustments, it was all I could handle at the time, attaching my camera and mount to the carriage didn’t come to mind. LOL! I got the Indexing down to a science; it was having to deal with a hand cut radius edge, I first drew it out as a fixed radius in relation to X & Y points of pattern, what looked like the start and end of. The line between took a (walk about)...
I could of ran the tip along the path, I have the sensor to stop incase contact, or setting the Z axis height for the check. If there was just the need to verify a programmed cut to a raw piece of stock, I could see the practice of the maker in place of the cutter. The problem was more than likely setting zero for the marker...LOL...
I first had cut a .600" diameter hole in the plate, within the center cut out, so I can drop my tip into the hole to verify zero location each time I move the plate. That location of the hole moves with the drawing and cut paths as a unit.
Then I won't mention my first divorce after 10 years, three months six days three hours and ten minutes, but who’s counting, was $160.00 I sent the child support for the first two years, then she sent my daughter to me and started sending me the support!
Aluminum cuts petty clean, in fact after cutting aluminum the water tray even turns crystal clear! I do have draft suction that clears the air, but I have to say the smoke is less dense with aluminum.
The TV camera sounds a great idea, but I was wondering if it would be possible to have a scanner head which could be used to copy the outline of the original wooden pattern and save all that measuring, drawing and checking of the cut path?
Excellent job sir, I wish I had half your skill and experience, I had an idea for testing the radius's instead of the point what about a small (key chain) laser pointer inserted into the tip then you don't have to raise or lower the torch all the time when laying out a line on the likes of chequer plate
Thanks for getting back to me on this Travis, That’s pretty much how I use the hole and contact tip idea, It gives me the accuracy as close as .005” and compared to the kerf of .080”, I’m happy with the control I have and sometimes it only takes the one hole, but your input has me thinking on longer indexing capabilities with controlled locations…
great video again, have you considered using pins to locate long sheet work? On my cnc table they work great, works good if you have to flip a part over as well.
Now the next tool to make is a TV camera with a bombsight that registers right in your torch holder while checking and tracing outlines. We use these on some of the circuit board drilling machines... however the cameras have gotten much smaller and would be ideal for tracing and snapping points into your program!
Would it make sense to mount a sharpie in place of the the plasma gun and let the program run through? That way you could see where it goes off and correct it accordingly. Or am I being too simplistic?
Keith, Great as always,but I can't get a grasp on the PC end of things.Could you possibly do another video explaining how you incorporated the new points you picked up into an already written program and incorporated the changes?It would be a lifesaver.Thank You for sharing! Kirk
Hey Keith, which gas/gas mix do you use when cutting Aluminum and stainless. I finished my plasma table build just a couple of weeks ago and im planning to cut some aluminum soon...
At this moment CNC means Can Not Compute . Still I will get me a move by your self plasma thingey when I feel that I have the $ for it. Probably within a couple of years. Til then I'll use my brain for computing and my arms to move the thing here and there and along a piece of wood to make straight cuts. My litle 40 A Dedra plasma cut's 12 mm steel with no problem and I totally love it. Been reading a few plamacutter blogs and such and someone say crap someone say great stuff. Glad I have time to research the subject and of cource wait for the lottery to give me a call :) Then I'll call ESAB to order me a 50 by 100 yeard table ....... LOL.......Not going to happen, I know :) Again : Thanks Keith for another great episode of the Fenner Show. Some blogs say that indexing the sheet is a total nightmare but I guess some people might have the brain mounted bacwards.
Love your videos Keith. For a one-off you could have simply used the pattern ... back set the shape and use a guide.or just cut the thing freehand. You would have been done before you even had the data inputted into the system.
Strange job to have to follow that rough pattern. You might buy you a 3D scanner for future copying of a pattern and bring the file in as a vector and then you can adjust the vector points for a smooth curve outline.
Well done Sir. Felt a bit like on the job training. Good stuff. I want to build a CNC Plasma of my own, will probably kick the project off here shortly. I was fairly intimidated and overwhelmed and figured the project was way too complicated until I started to research the mechanics and controls of a decent working system. Gotta say, all in all fairly affordable and fairly uncomplicated. Most likely from what I can see is knowing CAD or something equivalent. Nonetheless, great video, thank you!
I suggest you make a holder for an automatic center punch. It can be used as your locating tip, but if you Z it down it will make a mark. This can be used to relocate. So you can in most cases do it on a place not being cut out. Combined with a USB camera at an acute angle you can even follow the line without leaving the computer screen.
GREAT vid Keith! I work in a waterjet job shop.(we also have a laser) Many of our "walk-in" customers can't seem to understand how difficult it can be to reproduce a "hand sketch" or hand cut template. much less why "one-offs" can cost soo much. Not to mention oversize parts that require indexing to pick up the cut. I'd love to use this vid as an example.to show why.
After seeing this cutting job , I am SERIOUSLY considering buying a Plasma, as I can use a plasma for general cutting where I might normally use Oxy/Acetelene without the stupid prices charged for consumables and Cylinder Rental in Oz. Keith, your table an commercial unit or made from a scaled up modeling CNC ? What software ? you made changes very easily so the software must be rather user friendly.
There used to increment sliding of the piece. We use cad software to design the part and cut it in half digitally, create two files and run them through the cam software to get two seperate gcode files to run in mach3. Cut the holes, locate on pins, run first program relocate part run second program. Same process for machining both sides of a part. When we make pinewood derby cars we use two pins and flip the work over to machine the bottom side.
Keith that is a great tool I am going to have to make one out of an old contact tip. I see from the comments the mention of a sharpie holder. I taped a sharpie to the torch on our machine when we first got it. It worked OK but yes the z zero killed it after a while. I am going to have to revisit that because we sometimes use our machine to draw on materials. A spring loaded holder would be good. The cut looks really good the auto height control looks like its working well.
Years ago they used to make the kids do that on the CNC mills before they ran their programs in metal. For whatever reason, they kept smashing their markers when the z axis would come down. My instructor said he made a spring-loaded marker holder so you could stop the machine (and save your marker) if the z-axis was going to crash. I have no idea why they had so many problems with z-axis crashes. This was probably in back the 70's.
How do you accurately position the plate after you've dragged it back right after the first cut ? obviously you're true along the long axis because you have a straight edge you are butted up against.... But what about the other axis (gantry travel direction)? It appears you are just eying it.
Make a mount for a scribe or a sharpie marker to use in place of the torch. Then put two to four refrence marks on the material for oversize parts that way you can move the material line up the torch with the software to the refrence marks then cut..
Having the camera mounted on the head to follow the sharpie line for the practice run might give you some better views of the accuracy. What about spring detents/index notches in the side of the plasmacam bed?
Get down Kieth. ...lots of great suggestions in the comments. Does PlasmaCam offer a DRO-3D stylus/indicator that integrates with the Operating System? Via bluetooth, wifi, etc. ...if not, you could design, develop, produce, and PATENT one. It would attach to the torch (like the pointer) and follow the edges and any irregularities (like the diamond plate reliefs)....a "MMR"? ...just thinking outloud... probably already out there... BTW, I'm curious/amazed about how the diamond plate reliefs were followed.... (preprogam?....I'll Google it).
Another great video my friend, What's the cut width? (0.060") Oh! I WILL be making one of those pointers too! (Teaching an old dog new tricks... hehehehe) Grandpa Bill
I need help cutting my down draft panels. Won't start the cut. Says the drawing over hangs. I know that already. I will have to index it after the cut. But it won't cut.
I expect I would have flipped the aluminum plate (pattern down) and the wooden pattern so there could not be a possibility of snagging the plasma torch on the obstructions.
I am happy with your attitude to remember and thank everyone who has contributed in some way to the development of your plasma machine, if you can contribute with the design of the router so we can execute the project here in the north of Brazil, Mail to receive the project, congratulations to the machine!
If your parenting Is as good as your machining skills then she will of had an excellent up bringing. woman! cant live with and cant run them over in the car, what is the world coming too lol :-)
Great video Kieth
I have spent hours chain drilling and hand cutting plate
You can not beat technology for speed lol
Keith, I love your videos. I'm sure everybody who has a workshop of any kind can appreciate your flat-spot comments. In another video you showed what I think was a multi-level flat spot and that cracked me up. Keep it up.
The diamond pattern is no bother and flipping it over to work with it upside down, would of created scratches in the face. Now if you didn't have heigth control you could cut it from other side, still dealing with scratches.
There are 1/4, ½, and full scale tracing pads you can lay your parts on an create a hard line if want to do something like that.
Those are done with a slitting saw in a mill, held by a dividing head or indexing collect set up! I will keep this in mind to stick into a video when it comes about! Thanks for the comment and Idea for more video content…
Are the pins used to slide the plate along or index increments of sliding?
Same way they place parts on a circut board the use a refrence called a fudcial the machine sees the mark and uses it for part alignment. Clever very clever..
Great stuff. I am mesmerised by the care you put into your work. How could putting a small battery powered laser dot into your pointing/ locating tip work.
Should be getting back to some lathe projects next week, got the impeller wear ring work on the clam pumper video project and making the standoffs for the sprocket on the American Crane project. I have to move around with the shop priorities. Got a very strong possibility that soon, I will be machining a fly wheel to aid in a project presented by a universities’ project, building a copy of; Henry Ford’s Quad Cycle… Thanks for the comment!
The pattern was hand cut in the field, in the bilge of the boat. Most of the shape can be just drawn in with the standard drawing tools within the CNC program, the hand cut; curve to fit a fiberglass surface is not in the program! The straight lines are as easy to sight as the bubble in a level. Drawing another line, on the part, wouldn’t have corrected the curve; I needed to change the cut path. My tool will have many other uses like it today, giving me node locations within .005” or so by eye.
I was wrapped up in getting it out as fast as I could for the customer, it was a rush job and adapting to on the fly adjustments, it was all I could handle at the time, attaching my camera and mount to the carriage didn’t come to mind. LOL! I got the Indexing down to a science; it was having to deal with a hand cut radius edge, I first drew it out as a fixed radius in relation to X & Y points of pattern, what looked like the start and end of. The line between took a (walk about)...
I could of ran the tip along the path, I have the sensor to stop incase contact, or setting the Z axis height for the check. If there was just the need to verify a programmed cut to a raw piece of stock, I could see the practice of the maker in place of the cutter. The problem was more than likely setting zero for the marker...LOL...
I first had cut a .600" diameter hole in the plate, within the center cut out, so I can drop my tip into the hole to verify zero location each time I move the plate. That location of the hole moves with the drawing and cut paths as a unit.
Then I won't mention my first divorce after 10 years, three months six days three hours and ten minutes, but who’s counting, was $160.00 I sent the child support for the first two years, then she sent my daughter to me and started sending me the support!
Aluminum cuts petty clean, in fact after cutting aluminum the water tray even turns crystal clear! I do have draft suction that clears the air, but I have to say the smoke is less dense with aluminum.
In Flat Or round items? Machined slots or Plasma cuts?
I'm just using clean, dry air...;{)-
The TV camera sounds a great idea, but I was wondering if it would be possible to have a scanner head which could be used to copy the outline of the original wooden pattern and save all that measuring, drawing and checking of the cut path?
Why on Earth would anyone want to cover up that gorgeous chromed diamond plate with some "powdercoat" color? Oh, well.
EXACTLY!!!
This System stays SO CLEAN...!
Excellent job sir, I wish I had half your skill and experience, I had an idea for testing the radius's instead of the point what about a small (key chain) laser pointer inserted into the tip then you don't have to raise or lower the torch all the time when laying out a line on the likes of chequer plate
The table is square and the direction of feeding the material is set up for that positioning, or indexing ;{)------
I am using a "PlasmaCAM" brand, table and software. yes it is very user friendly ;{)-----
Make a laser pointer to follow your line.
If that was the quality of workmanship expectations I could live with! The edge cut finish counts!
Thanks for getting back to me on this Travis, That’s pretty much how I use the hole and contact tip idea, It gives me the accuracy as close as .005” and compared to the kerf of .080”, I’m happy with the control I have and sometimes it only takes the one hole, but your input has me thinking on longer indexing capabilities with controlled locations…
Yes, I was using it to locate the part outline, after changing the part itself with a linked or closed loop, you add the cut paths…
The kerf is .080" when I'm blowing 75 PSI's at 60 AMP's...
great video again, have you considered using pins to locate long sheet work? On my cnc table they work great, works good if you have to flip a part over as well.
Now the next tool to make is a TV camera with a bombsight that registers right in your torch holder while checking and tracing outlines. We use these on some of the circuit board drilling machines... however the cameras have gotten much smaller and would be ideal for tracing and snapping points into your program!
Would it make sense to mount a sharpie in place of the the plasma gun and let the program run through? That way you could see where it goes off and correct it accordingly. Or am I being too simplistic?
Keith, could you not have flipped the plate over and marked and cut without having to deal with the lugs of the checker plate?
Keith,
Great as always,but I can't get a grasp on the PC end of things.Could you possibly do another video explaining how you incorporated the new points you picked up into an already written program and incorporated the changes?It would be a lifesaver.Thank You for sharing!
Kirk
Never mind. I should just watch the whole video before commenting.
old style monitor. ;{)-----
Be my guest!
Hey Keith, which gas/gas mix do you use when cutting Aluminum and stainless. I finished my plasma table build just a couple of weeks ago and im planning to cut some aluminum soon...
At this moment CNC means Can Not Compute . Still I will get me a move by your self plasma thingey when I feel that I have the $ for it. Probably within a couple of years. Til then I'll use my brain for computing and my arms to move the thing here and there and along a piece of wood to make straight cuts. My litle 40 A Dedra plasma cut's 12 mm steel with no problem and I totally love it. Been reading a few plamacutter blogs and such and someone say crap someone say great stuff. Glad I have time to research the subject and of cource wait for the lottery to give me a call :) Then I'll call ESAB to order me a 50 by 100 yeard table ....... LOL.......Not going to happen, I know :) Again : Thanks Keith for another great episode of the Fenner Show. Some blogs say that indexing the sheet is a total nightmare but I guess some people might have the brain mounted bacwards.
Love your videos Keith.
For a one-off you could have simply used the pattern ... back set the shape and use a guide.or just cut the thing freehand. You would have been done before you even had the data inputted into the system.
Strange job to have to follow that rough pattern. You might buy you a 3D scanner for future copying of a pattern and bring the file in as a vector and then you can adjust
the vector points for a smooth curve outline.
That was so Cool and Amazing to watch how it cuts over diamond tread !!! Another Great Video !!! Carry on as you were ...
Well done Sir. Felt a bit like on the job training. Good stuff. I want to build a CNC Plasma of my own, will probably kick the project off here shortly. I was fairly intimidated and overwhelmed and figured the project was way too complicated until I started to research the mechanics and controls of a decent working system. Gotta say, all in all fairly affordable and fairly uncomplicated. Most likely from what I can see is knowing CAD or something equivalent. Nonetheless, great video, thank you!
I suggest you make a holder for an automatic center punch.
It can be used as your locating tip, but if you Z it down it will make a mark.
This can be used to relocate. So you can in most cases do it on a place not being cut out.
Combined with a USB camera at an acute angle you can even follow the line without leaving the computer screen.
Job well done my friend. Done with care and quality. Love that feeling of accomplishment at the end of a project.
GREAT vid Keith! I work in a waterjet job shop.(we also have a laser) Many of our "walk-in" customers can't seem to understand how difficult it can be to reproduce a "hand sketch" or hand cut template. much less why "one-offs" can cost soo much. Not to mention oversize parts that require indexing to pick up the cut. I'd love to use this vid as an example.to show why.
After seeing this cutting job , I am SERIOUSLY considering buying a Plasma, as I can use a plasma for general cutting where I might normally use Oxy/Acetelene without the stupid prices charged for consumables and Cylinder Rental in Oz. Keith, your table an commercial unit or made from a scaled up modeling CNC ? What software ? you made changes very easily so the software must be rather user friendly.
There used to increment sliding of the piece. We use cad software to design the part and cut it in half digitally, create two files and run them through the cam software to get two seperate gcode files to run in mach3. Cut the holes, locate on pins, run first program relocate part run second program. Same process for machining both sides of a part. When we make pinewood derby cars we use two pins and flip the work over to machine the bottom side.
Keith that is a great tool I am going to have to make one out of an old contact tip. I see from the comments the mention of a sharpie holder. I taped a sharpie to the torch on our machine when we first got it. It worked OK but yes the z zero killed it after a while. I am going to have to revisit that because we sometimes use our machine to draw on materials. A spring loaded holder would be good.
The cut looks really good the auto height control looks like its working well.
Years ago they used to make the kids do that on the CNC mills before they ran their programs in metal. For whatever reason, they kept smashing their markers when the z axis would come down. My instructor said he made a spring-loaded marker holder so you could stop the machine (and save your marker) if the z-axis was going to crash. I have no idea why they had so many problems with z-axis crashes. This was probably in back the 70's.
How do you accurately position the plate after you've dragged it back right after the first cut ?
obviously you're true along the long axis because you have a straight edge you are butted up against.... But what about the other axis (gantry travel direction)? It appears you are just eying it.
Make a mount for a scribe or a sharpie marker to use in place of the torch. Then put two to four refrence marks on the material for oversize parts that way you can move the material line up the torch with the software to the refrence marks then cut..
Having the camera mounted on the head to follow the sharpie line for the practice run might give you some better views of the accuracy. What about spring detents/index notches in the side of the plasmacam bed?
Get down Kieth. ...lots of great suggestions in the comments. Does PlasmaCam offer a DRO-3D stylus/indicator that integrates with the Operating System? Via bluetooth, wifi, etc. ...if not, you could design, develop, produce, and PATENT one. It would attach to the torch (like the pointer) and follow the edges and any irregularities (like the diamond plate reliefs)....a "MMR"? ...just thinking outloud... probably already out there... BTW, I'm curious/amazed about how the diamond plate reliefs were followed.... (preprogam?....I'll Google it).
Another great video my friend, What's the cut width? (0.060")
Oh! I WILL be making one of those pointers too!
(Teaching an old dog new tricks... hehehehe)
Grandpa Bill
I need help cutting my down draft panels. Won't start the cut. Says the drawing over hangs. I know that already. I will have to index it after the cut. But it won't cut.
I expect I would have flipped the aluminum plate (pattern down) and the wooden pattern so there could not be a possibility of snagging the plasma torch on the obstructions.
hey keith, does cutting alu create much fume/smoke?
thanks for your amazing videos - a uk fan!
Seems like a really good place for one of those laser crosshair that they use on drill presses.
am curious as to why you could not orientate the sheet the other way on the table?
floating torch needed
You should of made another refrence where you moved the torch.. More precision
Nice bit of problem solving with good results and another well done video.
That is a huge case for the computer screen. Why do you need it so big?
as ever keith nice, i like that tool for the plasmacam good idea that!
The more I watch these things work, the more I want one.
I don't understand, draw on Artcam, save the route ... it's easier
Joel Oliveira I could just draw it right on the design edge software too, if it was straight forward shape. ;{)-----
I am happy with your attitude to remember and thank everyone who has contributed in some way to the development of your plasma machine, if you can contribute with the design of the router so we can execute the project here in the north of Brazil, Mail to receive the project, congratulations to the machine!
more lathe work vids please!
Wire EDM maybe?
Just a guess.
Thanks
Ouch 24K in OZ oh well magnetic pattern tracer here we come.
If your parenting Is as good as your machining skills then she will of had an excellent up bringing. woman! cant live with and cant run them over in the car, what is the world coming too lol :-)