Homemade, cheap, plasma CNC

tommylight wrote:

Took some time to stop laughing !

Thats a side affect of having the gene!

Thanks Rod,

Toolset moved.

Changed the settings in the PP ass well, however the tool set selected in the PP is the one that QtPlasmaC runs, and i'm unable to change it.

I'll stay tuned to see your PP come through in my e-mail when you get a chance.

Thanks

new problem just for fun. Any cut files loaded into QtPlasmac get turned 180deg.

Not sure why this has happened. just updated to the latest version and it still does it.

Any ideas?

Thanks Snowgoer,

Just the rotation had been changed and i didn't know how it happened or how to get it back.

Did all my cutting last night by redoing the g-code and flipping the cut. Talk about an upside down nightmare !!

thanks again for all the help and behind the scenes work that you guys are doing.

So post Christmas update 2021.

TB6600 stepped drivers getting bit funny in the heat of QLD (35+ deg C in the shed with 99.997% humidity).

New z axis has been completed, tested and is working - pictures to follow shortly. New torch also added to make life easier. 160mm travel.

New laser is in and linked to a button in the GUI. Offset all worked in to zero off laser point. Offset also worked out for framing as part of QtPlasmaC.

Still haven't worked out spotting in Sheetcam, or how to se the tool from QtPlasmaC instead of Sheetcam. Must need to watch more video's.

    

Here you can see some of the buttons that I have set. These just make my life easier in the way that I use my CNC. 

Add Sheet - moves plasma to the back left to allow me to load a new sheet of material. 
Change Consumable - Moves plasma to middle of bed right at the front to allow me to change consumables. 
Go To Zero - Go to where the machine has been zeroed
Zero On Laser - zero on the laser pointer (still not working 100% of the time - if a job I loaded it doesn't work correctly)
Laser - Toggle the laser pointer on/off
Water Bed - timed button to fill the water table. ensuring the table doesn't overflow. and making sure I don't forget to turn the pump off.
Cooling Fans - turn the fans on in the control box. 
Lights - Turn on lights around machine to help me see (not fully hooked up yet)
Box Lights - Turn on lights in control box (not fully hooked up yet)

 

RNJFAB wrote:

So post Christmas update 2021.

Still haven't worked out spotting in Sheetcam, or how to se the tool from QtPlasmaC instead of Sheetcam. Must need to watch more video's.

 

The original plasmac post for sheetcam required a seperate tool defined called "Centre Spot"
You then did a seperate drill operation using that tool.
This required you to move the holes you wanted to spot to a new layer.
The default sheetcam post just needs a drill operation with any tool. 
Thats about it.

In the gui, set the spotting threshold for 10 volts and start the delay at 0.5 seconds.
What should happen is plasmac will see the voltage threshold exceeded. Then it will wait for 0.5 seconds or whatever you set and turn the torch off before you get an ArcOK.
This should result in a finer spot than would normally be achieved.
The time delay is very machine dependent. If it does not work for you (eg torch does not turn on), try extending the time delay.

The reason why we wait until a voltage is seen is that different plasmas and relays have different lag times from the time the torch is activated so it allows for this.