"Origami" CNC Plasma Build - folding 1200 x 600mm cut area

Why not something like the Esab Crossbow ?

For the size you are doing, you could use a single inline workshop blower to do a downdraft. Check if Hare and Forbes Machinery House stock them in your country. Not very costly and you just roll out the duct when in use. It might be a lot less stuffing around on a folding table.

rodw wrote: For the size you are doing, you could use a single inline workshop blower to do a downdraft. Check if Hare and Forbes Machinery House stock them in your country. Not very costly and you just roll out the duct when in use. It might be a lot less stuffing around on a folding table.

Hmmm ... exploring this some more as even though I have a bunch of steel (4 x 4m lengths of SHS65-3) nothing is committed yet. And the more you guys poke me on this the better.

Fan being this one Rod? www.machineryhouse.co.nz/F050
With some of this ducting: www.machineryhouse.co.nz/F051
I think MH in NZ does pretty much all the same stuff as in AU.

Looking at the gantry arrangement on my size I think the best layout would be to have the gantry running vertical.
This way I could still use a full sheet index approach by feeding the sheet through from the side. Heck I could even create sheet supports to hold the part not in the machine. Those could be standalone or on slides into the machine.

If I up scale the machine to being 1.2m by 1.2m cut area on a vertical style table that will create a total out dimension in the order of 1.6x1.6m. However that is still a half sheet machine so if you want to be "efficient" in sheet use I would still argue that being able to feed a full sheet from the side would be easier to deal with on a number of levels. Yes? No? Some big issue with the gantry in the vertical? Somethign somewhere is going to have to over come gravity. It might mean needing a strong motor for that long vertical axis.

Any views on the amount of back lean needed? Of course some toggle clamps at the top for sheets would allow an angle very close to 90. 75 to 80 perhaps?
Edit: Looking at the specs of the BurnTable's vertical slopin table, given 30" footprint from wall and a 60"x60" cut area the slope of the work surface looks to be around 60 deg. Put another way the angle at the top of the triangle is 30 deg. Doesn't seem as aggressive as I would have expected it could be.
a 21" (crica 530mm foot print) gives a 70/30 deg split. but perhaps not stable enough.

Hmmmm .... maybe I will hack a model up and post here for some rock throwing .. I mean constructive advice.

Still need to hunt down those clamps Rod mentioned.

tommylight wrote: Why not something like the Esab Crossbow ?

I had thought about that approach. But the gantry models are ultimately more compact in operation and pre setup.
In short, looked at, considered design options, considered operational area needs, setup and the like and decided wasn't enthused enough to want to make it happen. This vertical table idea is starting to grow on me. Especially as I am starting to see how I could have it permanently setup inside with little need to move it. Although I am still likely to put it on wheels as the option/ability to do the workshop waltz is pretty important.

Cheers.

On clamps for plasma tables I found ths thread on a website that seems to have an awesome list of clamping approaches. Love it.
Saving these off for later reference. Just be aware you have to be logged in to see the images.

www.plasmaspider.com/viewtopic.php?t=15287

Cheers - J.

Yup you found them!

I'm a bit rusty on the resolution of forces but w sin(theta) and w cos(theta) comes to mind for resolving forces to the X & Y direction for a force w acting at angle theta (where theta is the angle of the lean.

There is not much difference in forces required per motor to move the whole gantry with 2 motors then a torch lifter with one motor.
In one design I have its 142 N split over two motors vs 56 N for one motor.

But lets just assume direction of travel is dead vertical. The additional forces in newtons for gravity will be 9.81 * the weight in kg.

I think you could upgrade your gantry end motors to small NEMA 34's and run the gantry up and down I upgraded my original Stepper online motors (on a 48 v power supply with DM542a drivers)
www.omc-stepperonline.com/nema-34-steppe...86x98mm-8-wires.html

to Moon ML34HD0L4700 motors. (64V AC = 90 volts DC approx with LAM DS1076A driver)
www.moonsindustries.com/p/nema-34-standa...0-000004611110010545
These are more expensive but lighter and way faster! Seems like they would be OK on 48V