Building a 4-axis plasma table

Hello, my name is Daan Bent, 28 years old, and I’m from the Netherlands.
At the moment, I’ve started working on the mechanical design of a DIY plasma cutting table, with an option for a 4th axis to also cut tubes. For now, I want to focus on cutting plates, but I’d like to have the hardware prepared for a 4th axis later on.This brings me to the first problem I’m facing: I’m hesitating between Mach3, myplasmac, and LinuxCNC software/hardware. Given the forum, most of you will probably suggest going for Linux. My programming experience is very minimal, but I’m willing to learn and find it quite interesting. Do you think it’s doable? The advantage of myplasmac and Mach3 is that they seem easier to use in my opinion, but the options with Linux seem endless.Here’s the start of the design for my table, tips are of course very welcome! Over the next period, I’ll be focusing on the design of the mechanical part and diving deeper into the hardware and software.

 

Mach 3 is at a point where it is hard to run unless you have a really old version of windows. i used it for years until i hit issues in windows 10. so i would make the switch which i did do
when it comes to plasma and THC Linux with Mesa has probably the cheapest THC solutions out there but I'm in the US so duties and taxes could factor into it to some degree.

there is no comparison. Linuxcnc's QTplasmac, a Mesa 7i96 and a THCAD2 will give you a high end system for almost nothing. Its feature set is very extensive. The difference is that the THC is managed internally by Linuxcnc, not an external THC so the system knows much more about what I'd going on and has much more ability to provide consistent results.
This is quite an old video but it shows what you can do

And the cut recovery features

nothing comes close!

Then the choice seems quickly made; I'll have to get my hands on an old PC and start exploring Linux, which is completely new to me. Do you have it running on an old PC mounted near the table, or is it also possible to run Linux on a NUC?

In any case, I'll dive into the various posts on this forum while continuing with the mechanical design.

I see that QTPlasm doesn't work so easily for the rotation axis—perhaps I should leave it out for the first project and later build it as a standalone machine, just like Tommy did.

Thanks for the input! It's greatly appreciated!

I've not used it in earnest but QTplasmac installs fine with 4 axes with 2 motors on the gantry, XYYZA
I have installed it with 5 stepper drives though
Probably pair it up with Sheetcam rotary for CAM