Anything Manufacturing - Small to Medium Scale Metal Work (CAD/CAM included!)

Gotcha.

I've never seen that function you're referring to, though I also never went looking for it.

Do keep us all updated as to which way you go about it!

 

well, the place I was looking to rent shop space in, all the small 25'x25' shops are rented. but for a bit more I can get a larger shop space, 24 month lease will be ~$1275 all utilities include except for internet. 120/240 in the space and I can build out the electrical to suit my needs an add a mini split if desired. even this will still be cheaper, and will give me room for the 1929 Mercedes Gazelle kit car that my dad gave me. and still be able to work on it an everything else.

time to schedule a tour and put eyes on it.

 

I did say STV gives you an oversized water pan but man...this is 4' x 4' worth of steel plate on top.



Picked up a sheet of 4' x 8' of 3/16" so I can get started on dialing it in.

Soon after that's done, I can start fulfilling several orders.

 

Damn I don't check this thread for a bit and you have a whole new table! I might grab one of those raptors for my kid one day, would be cool to teach him to weld just by learning the tacking.

 

Crazy to think I had two other tables and another plasma cutter before that

 

That just means business is doing well and you are doing something right

 

Had a little bit of time to test out some 3/16"!

However, I was able to confirm my suspicions I had when I was test cutting 1/8" the other weekend. I did my usual 2.5" x 2.5" test cuts, but with a more realistic hole and slot size which is 0.425".



Fortunately, 3/16" is a lot thicker so it's easier to confirm changes in parameters. What I found after 4 different test cuts is that a change in kerf value means nothing inside of Optimum's layer features. I had also noticed that the cut speeds also did not change as I used a cut speed of 45ipm on the inside with a cut speed of between 70 - 90ipm on the outside. No matter if my kerf was at .01" up to .04", the inside hole when using Optimum always came out at 0.38".

I thought I'd do a few tests in Fusion running between 0.019" to 0.05" kerf, and the hole sizes did indeed change. from over 0.43" down to 0.41" from the 0.425" drawing.

I shot Barry over at STV a call to ask about Optimum's layers, and if it was just me experiencing this and that's when he said he would have to ask the developers about some of the functions not actually being active - apparently there are still changes happening and features being brought out as the software is still pretty new. It's exciting to hear that in a way, but also kind of crappy if I'm here using something and it isn't working.

That's fine because I'm really well-versed in Fusion and I can knock stuff out as needed easily which brings up my first commissioned piece on this table; replicating an art sculpture in metal.



The item above is shown before bending or welding anything up as I just got the pieces cut out. I still need to figure out what the best pierce delay is and how to work my lead ins because using the same settings as before is giving me different results due to how the Z axis runs on the STV.

On the plus side, this is the accuracy I'm getting right off the bat with this table.





And this is just how little bevel I'm actually getting.









So while there are things to work out, I think it won't be much until I'm finally there.

I need to learn the correlation with initial height sensing, piercing, delay, and even Z axis speeds as I believe these are all attributing to my pierces being so noticeable.

Oh and before I forget, when using Fusion to post for an STV table, you cannot utilize Feed Optimization. I found this out when I saw the same cut speed for the inside circles as I did the outside. It wasn't until I manually changed the general cut speed for that specific profile that it actually followed that speed - it seems to disregard the Feed Optimization rule in Fusion.

 

Little bit of bending.

Here are the parts cut out and bent ready for welding tomorrow, next to the piece sent to me to replicate.

 

How is the price of steel? All the US producers of steel here seem to keep raising costs to match tariffs. My HR sheet is up over 75% coming out of South Carolina mill.

 

I havent noticed anything too crazy. DOM actually was down alot. Used to pay $10/ft and it was $6/ft. Sheet steel may have been up 5% over last year

 

When I picked up 3/16" it was only $202 for the 4' x 8' sheet.

I'd have to check but the 1/8" was about $118 or so for the 4' x 8' sheet.

 

So I have to try and test it but there's no reason to believe the information I received is invalid.

Apparently when you're creating layers in Optimum and changing any settings such as cut speeds and/or kerf, you have to hit REFRESH to apply that layer.

Explains why I saw what was possibly a faster speed used on the holes and no change at all in kerf!

Definitely user error on my part so thought I'd come back and share. Plan to do some more test cuts later today.

 

My list of rookie mistakes is as long as your arm and still growing longer.

 

The biggest mistake one can make is thinking they can't learn anything more

 

MORE TEST CUTS!



Even though I had great results yesterday, I opted to run some today using only my Optimum software.



As you can see, not only is the tapering down to a minimum, but the hole sizes are larger as well all while using the same DXF I drew.



Pierces are also taken care of as I had to make changes both to the THC settings as well as pierce time. No more overextended pierce delays which can possibly foul up nozzles.

 

How big of shifts did you make with pierce delay? .01 or would .1 be too much.

 

Both with Firecontrol and Optimum software, I adjust 0.1 of a second each test.

Anything smaller than 0.1 won't register (or matter).

I found in Optimum there's an added delay as it has to do with the ignition height/pierce within its THC settings.

Firecontrol has something similar but I think it's less about THC and more about the post processor (how it's written) hence the need to use 0.5 or longer in Fusion.

My THC now has a delay as small as 0.3 down from 0.5 and pierce time down from 0.5 to 0.2 in Optimum.

 

Also forgot to add, I did have a follow-up call with Barry earlier as he said he would have time for me today to answer any specific questions.

Well, he was helpful in explaining the whole THC setup which is what led me to reduce the timing there.

However when I had Fusion-specific questions, he said he can't help there as that's up to their developers and R&D. Unfortunately, they don't allow the means for customers to talk to their developers for several reasons which makes sense.

What was suggested instead is because I'm within driving distance (5.5hrs), I was told to ask to speak to Robert. He's the Operations Manager and actually the same person that I spoke to regarding my motor plates; he made that call to send me the gear reduction kit for free.

He suggested this because posing my ideas and suggestions to him will carry a lot more weight when going over them with R&D and their meetings.

Going in person would allow me to go over everything in real-time on their own tables and software.

I may consider it

 

You should do this if you have the time. It's not everyone who gets invited and you'll get your conversation real time without the delay of emails etc.

 

take them up on the offer, you will not regret it. Many years ago, we had a crucible blowout on the second firing. brand new. Dad was just going to throw it out and buy a new one. I convinced him to call the factory and tell them what happen. They not only replaced the crucible free of charge, they gave a factory tour showed us how everything was made, an gave out a couple free crucibles, they where VERY happy to get the fail product back, something they told us has rarely happen for that size. they said it would give them a chance to improve the product by figuring out why it failed so early in its life cycle

not saying they will give you a free table.. but ya might get a shirt to wear in your youtube videos or a banner for the shop wall. you will gain a lot of knowledge and probably learn a few tricks as well