CNC Plasma Table Build

I'm, supposed to ground my water pan?

 

Table is moving again, and I did a bit of testing of the initial height / touch sensor.

https://youtube.com/shorts/Dfa2V8RsB3U?si=NO6SdT7gtlCjQ-He

I need to change out a fitting on the air dryer and hook the plasma cutter back into the cabinet and I can do some more test cuts.

Now I need to get the water table made so I can get start getting this finished.

 

It has been awhile since I did any work on the table, had a close friend go through a serious life altering event. but after dealing with that situation and making sure she is ok, I have been able to focus a bit more on things around the shop an home.

One of those was getting the drag chain for the Y axis installed.



this simple little bracket took far longer than expected to make, it adapts the bolt pattern from the drag chain to the extrusion for the gantry.






The chain rides on a piece of 4" aluminum C channel that I notched to sit over the mounting tube,





I also attached some ziptie brackets the C channel the gantry chain rides on. these are the same ziptie mounts I designed for my roof rack years ago. I had a bunch cut on laser, and sold a few, but still have a bunch leftover and they ended up working nearly perfect





The cables have been routed through the cable chains, and the home limit switch for the X gantry finally got wired in at the same time.

 

@Kwikvette what consumables are you running in your UPM-105?

 

Funny you ask cause I just fired up my air compressor to cut.



I have gone through a lot of PrimeWeld consumables and they are my main go to for all my work.

Before refrigerated air, I was averaging 400 pierces per nozzle and getting a max of 800 pierces per electrode.

However, I am also in the process of experimenting with others.

I have Plasmadyn electrodes on hand, and currently in use. The electrode currently has 554 pierces, with over 400 of them being on non-refrigerated air and the remainder on refrigerated air.

Not fair enough to compare as I'm now on a refrigerated setup but I do have more left over to continue experimenting down the road.

I also have plenty of ATTC consumables which are American made and a direct competitor to Hypertherm. They did such a good job that Hypertherm even sued ATTC several times over supposed patent issues. Have yet to use them but will be interesting to do so once I start cause they are non-shielded.

Long winded I know, but to sum it up PrimeWeld consumables do the job.

 

@Pyrotech

PrimeWeld on the left, ATTC on the right











PrimeWeld





Apparently non-shielded are supposed to cut better, or better detail, compared to a shielded variant running the same kerf width.

I forget the whole reason why but there's old stuff about the debate, as this is based on an older consumable type (T-45).

The plan currently is to continue using the 550+ electrode (150+ nozzle) until I hit 1,000 pierces on the electrode (500 on the nozzle).

I'll pull the set, replace with a fresh set, and see about exceeding that pierce count to about 1,200 pierces (600 on the nozzle). It's hard keeping tracking of stuff as I don't want a bunch of old consumables laying about, especially since I can't do a direct comparison anymore as I once was before the air dryer.

If you want, I can send you my bottle opener file as well as sending you an actual bottle opener I've cut out. This way you can directly compare a physical product to one you cut for yourself using the same exact file. Give you an idea of where your machine is at even. Bottle openers on hand were cut using used PrimeWeld consumables and on non-refrigerated air.