Rods "Spaceship" Scratch built Plasma Cutter build

my1987toyota wrote:

I second the cable gland Idea not very convenient if you have to disconnect things but if you need IP68 then they are great. Best bang for the buck.

I don't think I've ever had to disconnect a motor cable at the control box. You just need to be able to disconnect the motor to service it

I was thinking Deutsch connectors at the motor end. You can get different keys for them, use A key for motor drive, B key for encoder. With the bulkhead mount, no cables just flopping about.

I'm planning my table at the moment, 2.5m x 4m. I've done most of the design work for the table, working on the wiring schematic now.

Deutsch looks nice but as Rod says, about €400+VAT for the crimp tool... well, it's better than Amphenol crimp tools I guess!

Speaking about Amphenol, these look pretty nice: sensor|mate CM12: M12S-04BMMB-SL7002 (male), M12S-04BFFB-SL7002 (female). Data sheet at www.amphenol-industrial.de/en/Downloads -> Circular Connectors -> sensor|mate product catalogue.

* 630 VAC
* 12 A
* Screw connection to leads
* Total size for cable-to-cable connection: about D20 mm x 110 mm
* About €11 + VAT per connector

(The female connector is currently out of stock at both TME and Mouser. Expected delivery in a month from Mouser though.)

Note I haven't used these myself!

the amphenol connector is interesting. I'll agree €400+VAT is a bit steep for the Deutsch tool, but I've just purchased the one in my previous post for around AU$62. And the inline cat spec connector kit is around AU$20. There are cheaper ones, but the CAT spec connectors are a better connector than the standard Deutsch connector

Well its official. The spaceship plasma is going to a new home. The new owner is Jason who decided to ditch his Torchmate in favour of the Spaeship! That surely says how good Phil's QTplasmac is.

My Thermal Dynamics machine died some time ago and required over AUD $5k in parts. I thought about replacing it but in reality I have not been doing any adhoc or prototyping work for a long time. Its been much easier to outsource my parts to a lasr cutter so I don't have any cleanup! This is a pre\actice I adopted some time before the plasma cutter failed.
So Jason will be putting on another plasma cutter on it to bring the spaceship

It has been a lot of fun building this and the features Phil and Snowgoer and all the other contributors have added to QTplasmac has set up a machine that has an amazing feature set. So for me the fun is in building the machine so its time to do something else!

phillc54 wrote:

I think that you need to build a fibre laser cutter now.

 

Don't tempt me! I have a mesa control panel with lam drives here fully built too! Maybe a dainty plasma like yours is in order.
I'd like to do more with ethercat drives. I'd like to do custom homing for cia402 drives and Dewey has done a lot of work with the code since my last try so I think it would be pretty easy now!

Just imagine 220v AC drives homing to absolute encoders and ethercat IO module up with the torch! There would be almost no wiring!

I like this build. Would like parts list and plans associated with it.