My Newb Plasma Table Attempted Build

Now that I'm outside of pncconf and working on learning and dialing things in, I got everything to home. Then I went to jog X from home to it's limit on the other end and it only went half way. Travel was perfect in pncconf. I'm a newb, but I think this is what PCW was referring to.

It looked to be about half way across, so I doubled the scale. I have the travel limit set to 49.75in. It traveled 48.375in. I'm only guessing here, but maybe the wheels are acting as a minor reduction?

Tommy if you look at his screen shot should the pitch be set to 3 mm rather than 6 mm ? basically he has a 20 to 1 gear ratio if i'm not mistaken. your the expert with belts as drives

that's pretty coarse as a pitch. maybe show him how to add some more gears to the drive so he can get close to where he needs to be. or post a link to your builds. i think you have some good pictures posted that might help him get to where he needs to be. i don't think it can be done with just one pulley. you would never get one that small to slow it down enough.

tommylight wrote:

Pictures of building a reduction system using pulleys and belts, as requested.
forum.linuxcnc.org/show-your-stuff/38547...lasma-build?start=20

Holy cow! That thing is awesome man!

Machindude ... I have no point of reference for a coarse machine vs anything else (total newb, 1st ever attempt), but Tommy also stated the same before. I'm making mental notes on that input though, as I can see changes will need to be made in the future. In the meantime, I'm going to continue with what I have in front of me. I think it should be enough to get me started. I like using a belt as a rack gear in the vslot, so I'll probably adapt my table with reduction to do that in the future. It's just a 1500x1500 (smaller working envelope, though), and it's really those dimensions for 2 reasons: limited space to work in (at home); I'm building my table primarily for the purpose of making some products and parts I need for products. Of course, I'm going to attempt to get more cut business in the future, but I'm not expecting any for a little while. Time will tell, but I need to get the machine running so I can see how consistantly and precisely (or not) it will cut with what I have for the time being.

All that said, I now have the X and Y homes/limits/scaling all set. For some unknown reason the X and Y required very slightly different scaling, although the limits for each are the same (48.50in). Maybe it's because of the dual motors on the Y axis, I don't know. But it's working and repeating at slow speeds now. I'm now working on dialing in the Z axis (it's a mess at the moment). Once that's completed, I'm going to bump the speed up and see what my threshold is for accuracy/repeatability. I think this is a reasonable plan.

I still have to make a mount on the table leg to secure the electronics enclosure to, wiring in the voltage divider/arc ok/torch start from the plasma to the enclosure, then I can test with all of that connected and get into plasmac. I guess a fortunate coincidence of this whole crazy covid-19 thing is that I have time on my hands to really get after it. I can already say that I would be MUCH farther behind where I am now without help from this forum and it's members, I'm very grateful.

Pat

Haha I'm actually using that build thread to occupy me in between failed Z axis dialing attempts! The plastic work is awesome too, very fine craftsmanship.

Pat