2+2+3 More Plasma builds, double the joy ! 3X2M and 2.5X1.5M cnc plasma build.

Grotius wrote:

I was thinking a little bit about how to solve the transatlantic problem's for Tom.
 

Sorry for the late reply, somehow i missed this.
I am still working on it ....

Grotius wrote:

Is it possible to switch over to other interface's, or produce something local.

It is but i am not going to, i love LinuxCNC and adore HAL !
Locally, nothing is produced. We import everything and export money.

Grotius wrote:

There is a producer in Russia that contacted me in the past. They also produce plasma machines
and they produce also interface's. Russia is not far from Kosovo i guess.

I like Russians, i would love to learn to speak Russian, but i do not like Russia = they were d#ck$ all throughout history, just look for invasion of Finland, North Korea, East Germany, etc. All these are very recent.
And it is about 3 to 5 thousand KM away, it is a big country!

Grotius wrote:

Ethercat would be a professional solution. Selling price of machine's may go up. Ethercat is produced in Germany,
not extremely far from Kosovo.

This i would like to use, i like Ethercat, i just can not justify the price for what i do. Looked several times at used stuff, not much cheaper than new.
And Germany is 1300 to 2200 KM away, still a big-ish country !
I like Germany for a lot of things, punctuality, work ethics, no sense of humor ...

Grotius wrote:

Using a Parport break out $5 is nothing to be ashamed off. It is usable for windows and linux. Cross platform and is usable for plasma machines.

I never use break out boards, had plenty of them and just gave them away to whoever asked for them, but i do have several machines using parallel port, plasma cutters mostly, in use every day for several years. The only thing that bothers me with it is the low step rate so low microsteping and the subsequent vibrations during slow moves, although when plasma is actually cutting nothing can be heard !
Thank you.

Finished one, waiting for linear bearings should be here today or tomorrow, the finished one came in at under 2.5KG, compared to all aluminium ones i built earlier that were nearly 4KG. Old ones used 16mm diameter rods, this one has 12mm rods while one will have 10mm for testing, should be enough for sure but not sure how they handle raming them into slats at 24M/M !


Also thinking of using mechanical switches for homing/limits as inductive ones i can find have no shielding on the cables so occasionally they do trip.
Moving on....

Question, how much would you pay for one of those Z axis, fully assembled and how much for a kit without motor ?
Or how much would you sell one if you build it ?

Oh what a mess !
To many holes to spot, drill, tap, chamfer, to many screws to ... screw !
Reductions for Y axis on 3 of plate cutting machines will be finished today ... or not as i am all out of 608 bearings! Dang, always something.....
 

Doing some test fittings and "research" !

This is supposed to be the axis the moves perpendicular to square tube, so have to think how to also make/attach the swivel and tilting parts to it as i am aiming for full 5 axis. Gona be interesting how this ends up.

This is 3.15M long aluminium gantry with a single HiWin HGR25 since i had one rusting away and seing as i do not have any more of SBR16, only enough for 2 machines. Planing to mount this on the 1.4M long 150x150x4 used for Y axis ending up in 1.2X2.4M cut area, and the best thing is next time i get 6M SBR25 = make 2 of Y axis at full 6M and bolt this gantry to it making it 5.8X2.4M. Strange dimensions, i know, but when life gives you lemons ....

tommylight wrote:

Question, how much would you pay for one of those Z axis, fully assembled and how much for a kit without motor ?
Or how much would you sell one if you build it ?





Tom i would add up a total cost per unit for materials first then figure out exactly how much time you have in labor and decide what labor costs are per unit then add some extra in for the business as profit so the business can grow.

so if it cost $100 in material and takes 4 hours to produce and you pay yourself or someone else  $25 per hour for a total labor cost of $100 the business should make $100 at least on top of this in a perfect world but China Pricing does not allow this if the market is saturated with like products.

you need the business to get a cut so you can grow and you have to be able to pay yourself or someone else to process the units. so this is a basic guide line i use to evaluate  things. it's tough since China can sell a lot of stuff cheaper than i can even buy material for? but it does seem like the prices are going up on their goods lately. it makes you wonder how they can buy material and process it and ship it so far and make anything on it? the government probably has something to do with it all but who knows?