Newb plasma table help, love the look on Linux CNC

Hi guys just thought I would drop in have been been using mach3 over the years whilst mach3 has been good to me on two CNC mills
I have built I have found it to be well cluttered and always found it to be quite overwhelming to be honest so much I just dont need.
Whilst watching some youtube videos whilst researching building a CNC plasma cutter I came across a number of people using linuxCNC first thoughts were
how good does that look no clutter to be seen a nice interface but thought na that will be tooo hard to set up.

So yesterday whilst waiting for parts to arrive for my build I came across another youtube video on how to set up linuxCnc it was on a small router top
and was blown away with how easy it was with the help of the wizard, so I grabbed the download chucked it on USB went down to my shed and within 10mins I had motors turning this is nothing special at the moment
just some Chinese 2M542 steppers a cheap Bob and 269oz stepper motors, anyway I have decided that I am going to give it a red hot go on my plasma table build I was just
so impressed with the neatness of it all.

At the moment I have just about finished the Z&Y just waiting on R&P 3:1 kit to turn up from cncrouterparts for the Y&X and the yaxis comes in at approx 38kg so still have work out
what drivers as well as what Nema34 motors to purchase, still trying to work that out

The Hypertherm 45 has arrived today so happy with that

But I do have one pressing question though what THC's are people using most of my material will be around 2-6mm mild steel maybe thinner not sure.

Anyhelp would be appreciated on the above especially from the Plasma gurus if you have time.

Oh and mods if this is in the wrong place or you can think of better heading be my guest and change it .

A little unrealted - mods please forgive me.

Hey Willy. Where did you pick up a Hypertherm in Brisbane and for how much (can email me the deets: me @ ljasonh.com cause I'm looking for one locally)?

ImJay wrote:

A little unrealted - mods please forgive me.

Hey Willy. Where did you pick up a Hypertherm in Brisbane and for how much (can email me the deets: me @ ljasonh.com cause I'm looking for one locally)?

Sorry jay purchased through a mates business in melb that owed me a favour he has a hell of a lot of leverage with a Aussie Hypertherm dealer down there (welder does all the big stuff spends a lot of $$$ with them) so I cant give you price.

Best bet is to go to the Hypertherm international site and search the dealers and give them a call, but be ready to swallow your tongue I doubt you will get any change out of 4k you also need a 30amp circuit for it as well something to keep in mind more $$$ to set up.

Tokentools have a 15amp one for about $1250 including machine torch and to get the 50:1 you will pay another $200 on top of that but I am not sure how good it is though.

WillyInAus wrote:

ImJay wrote:

A little unrealted - mods please forgive me.

Hey Willy. Where did you pick up a Hypertherm in Brisbane and for how much (can email me the deets: me @ ljasonh.com cause I'm looking for one locally)?

Sorry jay purchased through a mates business in melb that owed me a favour he has a hell of a lot of leverage with a Aussie Hypertherm dealer down there (welder does all the big stuff spends a lot of $$$ with them) so I cant give you price.

Best bet is to go to the Hypertherm international site and search the dealers and give them a call, but be ready to swallow your tongue I doubt you will get any change out of 4k you also need a 30amp circuit for it as well something to keep in mind more $$$ to set up.

Tokentools have a 15amp one for about $1250 including machine torch and to get the 50:1 you will pay another $200 on top of that but I am not sure how good it is though.

Man, I need mates like that, or someone to hook me up.
Unless I get a good price I have to still to a generic (or less known) brand - apprentice wages suck!

Buying> a tour of your shed to see your plasma setup, hell I live in Camira.



Sorry for the thread hijack, I came across this so I hope it helps (if you haven't seen it already) wiki.linuxcnc.org/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?Gantry...ch_Height_Controller


All the best,
- Jay.

Maybe one day jay need to get it up and running first and it all insured.
Keep an eye on my posts and remind me when I have it running.

WillyInAus wrote:

But I do have one pressing question though what THC's are people using most of my material will be around 2-6mm mild steel maybe thinner not sure.

I use THC 10 . It works quite nice although the hal implementation is not trivial, but like others things in linuxcnc, after they are done, they are stable, and that is what is needed in a machine.

You can see it working here:


Thin plates are the most demanding for THC as the thermal energy shapes the plate during cutting.

Thanks guys had a look at the mesa card and its out of stock and was reading on the Linux forums and they seem to be behind on their orders .
So with another few hours of reading i think I will go with the Proma 150 granted it only works with the 2mm and up but I can live with that and see how it things pan out maybe try the mesa THC a bit down the track.

Sent a PM to Tom over on the Zone and have received a reply thus have decided to go with the proma and see how it works out.