Homemade, cheap, plasma CNC

phillc54 wrote:

You can achive what both of your laser buttons do by using the built in laser button:
linuxcnc.org/docs/devel/html/plasma/qtplasmac.html#qt_laser

 

Yeh, that was suggested in an earlier post here but James wanted to do it his way. Not a bad way to learn about hal and QTP really.

Thanks Rod, 

Did have some luck tonight getting spotting to work. 

I followed some instructions from arclightdynamics on youtube, they did a clip called 'plasma center punch training video'. this made a little bit of sense to me for some reason, then coupled with your advice I'm getting somewhere now. Currently in the GUI I have 1V and 2ms. this is working and not punching through 1.2mm steel. I'll mess around with it some more tomorrow.

Philc54, Thank you. I had looked into this previously, however I wasn't at this level yet to fully appreciate how this would work. I am getting there and this will be my next hurdle. I do use it to some capacity using "mark edge' & 'set origin' to align my material if I can't be bothered to set it on the machine correctly or if it's a small bit for a quick cut. Hopefully soon I'll have this setup.

Cheers  

 spotting 

Looks perfect! Time to move on to the next challenge!
Just watch that the torch voltage does not flicker over the 1 V threshold  when its not cutting.

Thanks Rod,

Next challenge is the torch mount properly, even with 10 'strong' magnets, it still breaks away too easily, and I don't have. micro switch on it yet to pause the machine when it does breakaway. 

Also brains trust, I want to upgrade the 2 relay's I have to a set of 8. however I'm struggling to find a correct wiring diagram on getting it connected to the MESA board. 

Pics to follow of current setup, new 8x relays, current wiring diagram. I need help on how to connect this all in properly, I'll also put up my attempt at connections. 




 

RNJFAB wrote:

Thanks Rod,

Next challenge is the torch mount properly, even with 10 'strong' magnets, it still breaks away too easily, and I don't have. micro switch on it yet to pause the machine when it does breakaway. 

I found vicegrips solved this

   

Current solution.

So looks perfect to me!

Actually have found Linuxcnc so good, I don't even think a magnetic breakaway is required.

EDIT: Been thinking of drilling and tapping a hole to make it permanent!

Thanks Rod,
I was thinking of doing the same, however I'm having issues if I have VOID A/DIVE on. This will from time to time cause the torch to crash, with it off I have had no problems. Also if I have AUTO VOLTS on it can be a bit hit and miss, sometimes a perfect cut, sometimes crash every 20mm or less. The torch just keeps diving.

Currently with the volts set for each material and a bit of tweaking, I have nice cuts for all the material I normally use.