Hello, I am almost finished with my cnc plasma table. All the fabrication is done, just running wires and hooking up my PRICE torch height control. I am also building a rotary indexer with a concentric 4 jaw chuck to cut round and square tube. Running a stepper motor with a reduction. Sheetcam has a post to run a rotary plasma, how would the screen setup integrate the 4th axis for plasma, since plasma screens show 2 axis with THC running the Z axis after touch off and arc okay.? I do not have my cad yet, because I want to make sure I can do rotary plasma with it. I am going with sheetcam as a post, just unsure of the rest. Really love the board by the way, so simple to setup, thank you. - Ben
rotary plasma
- Thread starter bprice
- Start date
do you have the 4th axis software for your MASSO? you might have the 3 axis version and that is why you can't see the 4th axis on the screen.
Ross
Ross
Hi, I have not tried it but the thought I had if I was to do it would be one turn of the chuck is the total length of X axis.
( ALL X AXIS IN DRAWINGS MUST BE THE SAME AS CHUCK RADIUS IN FINISHED DRAWING BY STRETCHING OR COMPRESSING IT)
Lode your project like a piece of paper that had been wrapped around a pipe having the cuts drawn on it.
Unwrap your paper showing where the cuts are. Make a gcode of it.
OK, that is how I think how you could do it,
PS let us know how it goes cause it could help others!
From Ross.
Quick note, I ordered a Jusic cut 100 and Proma 150 today for my hobby build, Just hope I know how to get it working
( ALL X AXIS IN DRAWINGS MUST BE THE SAME AS CHUCK RADIUS IN FINISHED DRAWING BY STRETCHING OR COMPRESSING IT)
Lode your project like a piece of paper that had been wrapped around a pipe having the cuts drawn on it.
Unwrap your paper showing where the cuts are. Make a gcode of it.
OK, that is how I think how you could do it,
PS let us know how it goes cause it could help others!
From Ross.
Quick note, I ordered a Jusic cut 100 and Proma 150 today for my hobby build, Just hope I know how to get it working
Attachments
Ross
Ross
Just noticed you said Sheetcam I got that last week, Absolutely gave up on Fastcam "That was a waste of good money, To all that read this take note of this. It destroys DFX files and has no post processor to tune your machine like setting up M-codes". ? ? ? ? ? five not happy face rating.
PS Will sell my Fastcam program to anyone silly enough to buy it from me!
PS Will sell my Fastcam program to anyone silly enough to buy it from me!
I have the 5 axis board. My gantry has two steppers one is Y axis and the other is B slaved to Y, I am running a homing sensor on both for gantry square up on start. I have my rotary on A axis. My rotary is not finished yet, just have the stepper wired up to test it. I will take a closer look at the screen, I may have missed something as I powered it up just to do some quick tests. Any suggestions on a drawing program that will work well for rotary plasma. The sheetcam post flattens the drawing so maybe a 2 D drawing is all I need. Thank you- Ben
Thanks for the drawing Ross. I can mount it inside my bearing housing as well, I am unsure what to designate the input as?. Would a standard NPN or PNP sensor work? CNC4PC makes a small card with an inductive pick-up made for lathes, not sure if that input could be set up for indexing as it is used for threading purposes. I just need an input to reverence a home position for square tubing. My rotary chuck is on my A axis which has a home input, just not sure about it. Getting the final wiring for my PRICE torch height control done today. I am going to get my table running first then finish my rotary axis.
Ross
Ross
Ben, it sounds good,
I have bought my sensors from https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Fre...etection-Switch-NPN-DC-6-36V/32526173088.html
been very happy with them.
I just thought on the full rotation it might trip the sensor, but that might be overcome by spring mounting the sensor and before it gets to 360deg you could make something to push it out the way!
Good luck with it and post your photos.
My z axis with sensor, scribe finished but I will replace the temporary hand trigger for a machine type and add two laser lines for squaring. Just have to find some money without the Hand brake finding out!
I have bought my sensors from https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Fre...etection-Switch-NPN-DC-6-36V/32526173088.html
been very happy with them.
I just thought on the full rotation it might trip the sensor, but that might be overcome by spring mounting the sensor and before it gets to 360deg you could make something to push it out the way!
Good luck with it and post your photos.
My z axis with sensor, scribe finished but I will replace the temporary hand trigger for a machine type and add two laser lines for squaring. Just have to find some money without the Hand brake finding out!
Attachments
I am curious how the rotary axis should be indexed or homed. I could have a 100ppr quadrature output into the encoder input, or I could have a sensor that is tripped once per revolution. I will post some pictures when I am building it, I am actually using the cnc plasma to make the parts for it so I am getting my table dialed in first. Just need to know on how the 4th axis is homed and indexed. Thank you- Ben
Ross
Ross
Here are some of the bits I bought. All from AliExpress, cause it is to hard to find it in Thailand.
www.aliexpress.com
www.aliexpress.com
1PC HGR20 Linear Guide Width 20MM Length 200MM with 1PC HGH20CA
You have to use a linear glide for the scribe because the pneumatic cylinder rod has too much flex n it. Plus I had problems getting the scribe to the job using low pressure and it was still pushing to hard on the scribe.
Even at the moment it still might be a bit heavy, might have to tie some helium balloons to it!
Just think what people will say when they see it working "HEY WHAT ARE THE BALLOONS FOR?"
From Ross.
11.76US $ |double rod cylinder TN16 70 16mm bore 70mm stroke pneumatic cylinder components for filling machine parts dual rod cylinders|Pneumatic Parts| - AliExpress
Smarter Shopping, Better Living! Aliexpress.com
7.05US $ 30% OFF|Pneumatic Electric Solenoid Valve 5 Way 2 Position 12v 24v 220v 6mm 8mm 10mm Hose Connect Adjust Control Air Gas Magnetic Valve - Pneumatic Parts - AliExpress
Smarter Shopping, Better Living! Aliexpress.com
1PC HGR20 Linear Guide Width 20MM Length 200MM with 1PC HGH20CA
You have to use a linear glide for the scribe because the pneumatic cylinder rod has too much flex n it. Plus I had problems getting the scribe to the job using low pressure and it was still pushing to hard on the scribe.
Even at the moment it still might be a bit heavy, might have to tie some helium balloons to it!
Just think what people will say when they see it working "HEY WHAT ARE THE BALLOONS FOR?"
From Ross.
When the A or the B axis are setup as "Angular" in the axis setting in F1-Setup screen then MASSO will use the homing input to home from the sensor but as the axis might need to rotate 360 deg or more during machine use which will trigger the sensor again, MASSO has a built in logic that it will ignore sensor input in "Angular" axis mode.
I am almost ready to make sparks, just having a hard time setting up my Z axis. X and Y(with B slaved on the gantry) run great and home properly but Z wont go up , then wont go down, and is constantly giving a hard limit alarm, homing in the opposite direction, travelling past my homing switch and crushing my switch( glad I bought a box of ten!). I am going through it step by step. How did you set yours up? My zero is fully retracted away from the table, home is at zero with 5.5 inches of travel. I have the 5.5 inches as a positive value. Z axis is on a Ballscrew and and has a 2 to 1 belt reduction on it, running a nema 23 285oz-in motor and a digital drive at 1/2 step. It has plenty of resolution and power. I tried setting Z at a negative value, triple checked driver settings and wires. Your build looks Great! Maybe your setup can help me sort this out. Thanks Ross
whats you Z minimum and maximum travel values?
Ross
Ross
Ben, Here are the screen shots that you asked for, It might help with the Z axis. Plus one of me and my wife "HAND BRAKE"
I still can't get my plasma to cut, On a 20mm circle it does the pierce, lead in, then just 1/4 of the circle then won't go any further (some times it might run off in a different direction by a few millimeters.
I think it might be electrical noise, but I have to wait for some stuff from China to arrive!
If you can send me your settings from the THC and your screen shots of your feed rates of your Z axis it might help me too.
Thanks Ben From Ross
I still can't get my plasma to cut, On a 20mm circle it does the pierce, lead in, then just 1/4 of the circle then won't go any further (some times it might run off in a different direction by a few millimeters.
I think it might be electrical noise, but I have to wait for some stuff from China to arrive!
If you can send me your settings from the THC and your screen shots of your feed rates of your Z axis it might help me too.
Thanks Ben From Ross
