Another plasma component...

John, I once wrote a component to show Z up and Z down LED's but there is an easier way.

One of the PID pins shows direction by the sign. Pretty sure it is pid.z.output. Connect that to an Abs command and use abs.n.is-negative and abs.n.is-positive to turn your LED's on.

And yes, I cut a full sheet (well for me thats half a sheet) yesterday and it all went perfect. I've been on the phone today looking for a local steel supplier who will deliver.

The next challenge will be to put a full sheet on the machine and move it along after half a sheet. I can get 10 out of a full sheet but only 8 out half sheets.


Plasmac is really making me rethink the parts I outsource. I've lined up a company who will do the folding for me on a press brake.

rodw wrote:

Plasmac is really making me rethink the parts I outsource. I've lined up a company who will do the folding for me on a press brake.

So next project a Linuxcnc powered cnc brake press? That would be cool.

Nah, I'll just get Grotius to send me one!

I actually have my eye on an ex-TAFE CNC one 1300mm wide at $20k which would be a perfect companion for the spaceship and the size of my workshop but I thought I'd be disciplined and use someone else's for a while as I'm not sure if the volume would justify it. Plus I know nothing about them at all.

The ex-Tafe lathe I bought the day I went to buy a new one cleaned up as good as new as it really had not been used much at all so I guess the brake would be the same..

Phill

I have no doubt that the torch enable button color works correctly on you installs, mine did too until the latest. This must be something buried deep because my .ini only differs from the imperial sim at the points required for my hardware. I do have a machine specific .hal file that contains both the machine motion and machine specific connections. I am doing as your sims and my local configuration folder just has links to the ../bymachine/plasmac/ folder for all the plasmac files so I don't have to do a bunch of copying after every update.

Please don't take my comments about the GUI function as gospel. If I feel there is a serious safety or operational problem I will be very clear about that. Most of the time I am trying to stimulate discussion to get other's view points. I work alone in a very rural location and have no interaction with other plasma users plus I am self taught having never worked in a job shop setting (though I purchased job shop services for most of my professional life). When I ran a small engineering department one of the mottoes I had on the wall was "There is always a better way, it is up to us to find it".

John

Rod

Those are nice looking parts. Are you using a wire cup brush to clean them up? With no water table you should have the dross flick off with a fingernail if there is any on those long straight sides. Be careful about always using the correct PPE when doing secondary operations on parts, I have had bits of dross end up in all sorts of places I don't want it even with a full face shield and head gear. As I have said before get your self some sort of mass finishing system before the pile of part become overwhelming.

'03

There is a fellow here that worked on and I believe finished an LCNC driven press brake. I know so little about actually using a press brake I wouldn't know where to start.

John

islander261 wrote:

Phill

I have no doubt that the torch enable button color works correctly on you installs, mine did too until the latest. This must be something buried deep because my .ini only differs from the imperial sim at the points required for my hardware.

John

It just ocurred to me that I think John was a bit slower updating so we most likely broke on the same upgrade. I wonder if its becasue we've both dabbled in Glade to make new gmoccappy screens in the past?

Also, can you guys outline how you use the reverse run feature? I've never been able to make it move anywhere.
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quote]
Those are nice looking parts. Are you using a wire cup brush to clean them up? With no water table you should have the dross flick off with a fingernail if there is any on those long straight sides. Be careful about always using the correct PPE when doing secondary operations on parts, I have had bits of dross end up in all sorts of places I don't want it even with a full face shield and head gear. As I have said before get your self some sort of mass finishing system before the pile of part become overwhelming.
[/quote]

John thanks. I just ran a flap disk over them. There were some burrs where I drilled holes that needed to be cleaned up as well. I'll give a wire brush a go.

I did a fairly busy nest in sheetcam today to clean up an offcut



I'm not sure what happened here.



This was near the beginning of the cut and the edge warped up about 40mm while cutting. I wondered if the air pressure was too low or something. I'll remember to purge the air line with the torch pulse function next time. Managed to work out how to nest parts in sheetcam inside the flange cutout. So much to learn.

Phill

That is one of the puzzling parts of this, the text in the button changes exactly as it should and the button does change state as it should.

The OS on my office machine is up to date. The OS on the machine hasn't changed in a few years because it is a custom build and takes overnight + to rebuild the RT parts.

John

@Rod,

For your previous post 29 of may post nr. 135227.
My advise for you is to use the code snipped ( on circles and small shapes ) to lower your speed
to 50-70%. Sheetcam lines will turn from green to blue where the code snipped is active.
This will result in more accurate holes and small shapes. At the moment you go to fast i see at the picture.

The post after this 29 May 2019 08:39, i marked up your plate allignment of plasma cutting is wrong in relation to the working table.
Always try to cut the long pieces the other way. Try alway's to cut the long pieces over the metal strips 90 degrees.
See this as your nesting protocol !
And in the end. Why don't you have a water table? This will end in a much more accurate product.
I made my second plasma rotary water cut option this week for a Belgium customer. Will give the forum picture coming day's.