Howitt

After alot of thought Ive considered buying a CNC plasma table. Anyone got any recommendations? I have my opinion and looking for some others with experience and even if it with those cheap bolt together tables you make at home I would love to hear it

Howitt

so no one on here has used one or has an opinion. when mine comes in ill post some pics and videos of it running

k24em2

PlasmaCAM seems to be a fairly popular one. Never used it personally, but I've heard a number of good things about it.

356racing

I use a PlasmaCAM with a Hypertherm 900. What exactly do you want to know? What are you trying to accomplish? The biggest problem with plasma and thicker metals is the bevel on the cut. It works great for cranking stuff out fast but the results are somewhat rough compared to milling or waterjet. Software is easy to use, we do everything in CAD and then import it. The base table is spaced out a little too much for small stock and thin metals but you can work around that with some experience.

ExploitedRacing-HR

torchmate?

Howitt

Ive been looking at a Koike with A innerlogic HD plasma, its about 40k but quality is supposed to be near laser Im getting a demo here shortly

HickamHatch

We build them where I work.. Romeo Engineering.. Call them up. All the info is on the website.

http://www.romeoeng.com

We also make waterjets if you want one of those, haha..

Howitt

If I bought a waterjet I would be eating PBJ's for breakfast lunch and dinner for 20 years. I quoted one and it was 175k

wetbak

We were looking at getting them for making 4 link brackets and things like that. But we looked at one of the top of best out there with hi-def plasma, down draft, height ajuster... and to be honest with you it didnt impress us very well. the only thing we really didnt like about it is that it didnt make very percise and holes and they werent clean. We are now looking at either a water-jet or laser. Probably end up getting a nice tubing bender tho.

danielm3

I have a torchmate and it works great, run that **** all day long. They need a little clean up but it's worth the end result.

2kjettaguy

I have heard that the PlasmaCam system is a flimsy toy. The grates on the table are spaced too far apart for small work. Not to mention they use proprietary software, controller, and files types so that you always have to go back to them for help. I have heard that their customer service is horrible as well.

Torchmate is right down the road from me, but I've never been. We've talked to them on the phone and they seem to know their stuff. I like their systems better. The table design looks alot heavier duty to me.

One thing to keep in mind with these home build tables and any industrial table is that you need a water box and a downdraft system to not die from the fumes. The fumes from plasma cutting arte horrible. Without the water box liquid metal piles up under the table and fumes. The downdraft system pulls alot of fumes out from underneath the table, but hot air rises so fumes still stink up the shop.

Another thing to keep in mind with Plasma is that they are not very accurate. The tables and the CNC controls are capable of .001" repeatability. The plasma process is only capable of .015" repeatability. With plasma you cannot cut holes smaller than the diameter of the material. Anything up to around 4x the diameter of the material gets a wicked bevel in it.

High definition plasma is the latest and greatest technology. Hypertherm and innerlogic claim laser cut precision. BUT, you're looking at $30 - $40 for a starter power supply. Waterjets start at $100k, cost $20+ and hour to run, and require alot of maintenece. That's new pricing, as there are little to no used waterjets on the market. Shops find them to be so capable and profitable that they never sell unless the shop goes out of business. Usually when that happens someone's already claimed the waterjet. Laser cutters start at $150 USED. There's never any 4'x4' used laser cutters, so you're looking at a 5' x 10' table and 8' x 8' worth of power supplies for a laser machine.

What kind of accuracy do you need? What are you making?

Howitt

The innerlogic setup I looked at was 14k for the HD 150 AMP plasma unit and 11k for the INOVA torch height controller. I would have to fit it to the table of my choice. I think I can either find or build a SERVO table with 1400 IPM rapids and fantastic repeatability for less than 15k. which would turn it in to a $40,000 table. I feel would give me laser like result for a $200,000+ savings. Ive seen HD plasma samples in person and compared to laser and I think they give similar finishes. the normal rule of thumb for holes like you stated is no smaller than the thickness of material for 1/4" you should only make 1/4" or larger holes.

Laser is out of the question, Price is out the roof along with maitenace of the optics and gas etc. So is waterjet, 200k for new 70k for used.

Im in ohio so i called and talked to torchmate and consider driving 8 hours for a demo or 7 hours to Koike for a demo of their machine with a standard no HD plasma to see if I can get away not paying 25k for the inner logic setup.

an easy way to check repeatability on the machine is bring a magnetic stand and dial indicator, set it up at one end and jog the machine around and bring it back to that point to see if the indicator moves.

Im ready to purchase one but I just moved to a larger facility and finally have the room for one. so im excited to find one and get it running here in the next month or so