CNC Router Table plasma cutter cuts

**Gadget** · 07-10-2009, 05:15 PM

I am building a blower for my aluminum foundry furnace. I have the motor and blower fan but no housing so I'm building my own. Here are the cutouts of the front and back of the housing. I created the drawing in Alibre lite, created the cut path in Sheetcam TNG and cut it on my home built CNC plasma table.
Cutter Longevity Force Cut LP80.
Table controller EMC2 on Ubuntu Linux.
Metal aluminum .08
Cut speed 60ipm.
Air 70psi.
Dan

**KHK** · 07-10-2009, 06:30 PM

Looks great, thanks for sharing.

**HerbD** · 07-10-2009, 07:02 PM

Gadget,

Like it. Wish I had my CNC hooked up with a plasma table, but I want to finish CNC'ing my mill first.

I use TurboCAD to design/layout most of my projects. Then work out how the parts fit together and check for anything that interferes or doesn't look right. It saves a lot of wasted time and materials. From there I go to Mach3 to see how it cuts on screen just to be sure. The G code that Mach3 generates is helping me build a library of routines and parts (saved as files) so that when the mill gets finished I can create the actual pieces on the mill.

You always come up with interesting projects, keep up the good work and thanks for sharing.

HerbD

**Gadget** · 07-10-2009, 07:08 PM

Herb,
Sheetcam has a simulator built in so I can see what the cut will be before sending it to EMC2. Nice features in Sheetcam, torch on and off, ramp in and out, delay before torch move and after cut. Sheetcam is only 2.5d though but that is fine for plasma and pocket milling.

**HerbD** · 07-10-2009, 09:26 PM

Thanks Gadget, I'll look into Sheetcam even though I don't have a cutting table yet. I do like to check out a simulation run before committing to any actual cutting etc.

HerbD

So little time, so many fun things to do

**Gadget** · 07-11-2009, 06:04 AM

Herb,
Sheetcam is a free download (requires a license also downloadable) for evaluation. I think it is limited to 180 lines of code but it is enough that you can test it with simple parts.
To get the eval license you have to register by email, here is a link to the registration page. The download link is on the left.

http://www.sheetcam.com/register.shtml

By the way, I also do a dry run on the CNC table before turning on the torch as an added precaution to insure everything is zeroed out and aligned properly.
Dan

**HerbD** · 07-11-2009, 07:24 AM

Thanks Gadget,

I downloaded Sheetcam late last night. Working through the video tutorials that are available online. Pricing isn't too bad on the full version and it also has an available plug in to Mach3.

Looks like Ivan Irons does a detailed job on the tutorials.

Thanks for the info.

HerbD

**Gadget** · 07-11-2009, 07:50 AM

You might want to check out Ivan's site too. http://cncinformation.com/
Lots of good information there.

**Gadget** · 07-11-2009, 07:52 AM

If you buy, make sure you get the TNG version. The standard Sheetcam is being replaced by this so you will have a longer support period. TNG is still under development but is fully functional and has been released.
Sheetcam also has a Yahoo support group mailing list. You can subscribe here
sheetcam-subscribe@yahoogroups.com