15m Industrial Plasma Cutter

Thanks everyone.

I'm leaning towards steppers now (only because I'm pressed for time and I'm trying to keep it simple). I'm not sure that I fully understand what the advantages of servos are.

Is there a good way of navigating this forum/ finding resources? How did you guys find out how things like the z axis worked for your first build? For example, I see pictures of people's designs but I don't really see how they work or what the necessary parts are. Sorry to bug you guys about the boring stuff, normally I'd just trawl through the Internet and figure it out myself but I'm really trying to get into a position where I can place some orders on Friday.

Use google hacking, that is a thing and google teaches you how to do that, just search for it.
Example:
to search for anything related to DIY, plasma, cnc, only on the Linuxcnc.org site you type
diy plasma cnc site:linuxcnc.org

results:


To search for the exact sentence use
"diy plasma" site:linuxcnc.org

results:


Same goes for files, like
diy plasma cnc filetype:pdf
etc.

Thanks for that.

If I'm using tommy's stepper idea and going with a 7i76E + THCAD do I need an additional breakout board? I saw a thread about using a 7i76E and 7i43?

I don't think you _can_ use the 7i43 with a 7i76E. Maybe it was a 7i73?

(the Mesa names are definitely confusing, but they do Google well)

but a 7i76E and THCAD are sufficient aren't they?

They don't need anything else?

Jarman wrote: but a 7i76E and THCAD are sufficient aren't they?

I would think so, yes.