New Plasma build in OZ

This is one of the Y axis drives. Ive made the cover semi transpearent for the pic. Ive put a filter and fan in the cover as well. The belt is tucked up behind the rails. The second pic shows the from the underside. I havent bothered to draw the belt around the drive pulley yet. The reduction is 4:1 and I have room for a 45 tooth final drive pulley between the carrages. I'm guessing ill use a 30 tooth giving 15mm per rotation of the stepper. A 40 tooth gives me 20mm. Used the 45 in the model to get the clearances correct

Looks great.
I am a bit worried about your gantry ends as they may flex under inertia on X axis moves.
I think it It needs something to stiffen it up. Can you fold the edge over or attach another box member along the angled edge?

Pics of the X axis. I have used a prebuilt torch height unit, as I have this one here. Will have to chage the DC motor to a stepper. Ive included the Torch, Camera and scribe. All 3 can access all the the table cutting area. In the second pic is a vew with the covers removed. Again Ive added a fan and filter to the the cover plates

This the X drive from the rear with the covers removed. Aslo some more details views of the drive itself. The reduction and final pully is the same as the Y axis

Solidworks is estimating the ganry at 29kg (everything that moves).Im guessing about 30 once built as I dont have the cables in the model. 

Anyway getting very close to what im after and starting to build.
If anyone has any sugestions or comments that would be great.
If you want and more details or images let me know

34by151 wrote:

Pics of the X axis. I have used a prebuilt torch height unit, as I have this one here. Will have to chage the DC motor to a stepper. Ive included the Torch, Camera and scribe. All 3 can access all the the table cutting area. In the second pic is a vew with the covers removed. Again Ive added a fan and filter to the the cover plates

Funny, I bought one of those lifters recently. It was supposed to have a stepper on it but it turned up with a DC motor. You reminded me I fitted the stepper (It had been spot drilled for a Nema 23 motor) and modified the wiring earlier in the week. I also modified the torch holder so its closer to the lifter but never finished the job. Been no time for play this week!

Also, have a think about the camera wiring. The maximum USB cable length in the spec is 5 metres and you'll need a lot more than that. You]ll need an extender of some kind. Thats why I think a crosshair laser pointer is a better idea.

rodw wrote:

Looks great.
I am a bit worried about your gantry ends as they may flex under inertia on X axis moves.
I think it It needs something to stiffen it up. Can you fold the edge over or attach another box member along the angled edge?
 

Thanks Rod. Have attached a couple more detailed pics of the gantry ends. Beeen trying to build as light as possible but in saying that have not got to do any structural testing in solidworks yet. 

You probally could not the see the angle bracket in the underside in first pics or get a good view of the braces.

Let me know if you still have concerns

rodw wrote:

Funny, I bought one of those lifters recently. .....Been no time for play this week!

Same here only time to work on this is at night, flat out building and shipping orders plus have half a dozen R&D projects for new products to get finished. 

The unit I have here has the new style torch holder not the one in the pics. The new one allows you to adjust the angle in in the x and y planes and retains the collision detection

rodw wrote:

Also, have a think about the camera wiring. The maximum USB cable length in the spec is 5 metres and you'll need a lot more than that. You]ll need an extender of some kind. Thats why I think a crosshair laser pointer is a better idea.

 

Ill add a powered extension if needed. I can also go for the WIFI camera and supply it with 5v power. Also have plenty of room for some pointers if needed. I wanted to have the provision of adding scananything at some point.

The workshop is rather large so at worst ill use the camera to view whats gooing on remotly. Might even add it to the camera system I have in place here.