New Colorado Member Intro

[tking]

I had intended to wait to introduce myself after receiving the new 200PI machine that I ordered early this week, but this site just keeps drawing me in.

I have built a variety of things over the years with the most recent being a small pickup-mounted drill rig for work I do now and then. I've owned a few welders over the years and have gotten rid of all except my oxy-acetylene rig and a 200 amp Lincoln mig welder I bought to do the rig. The plasma cutter function of the 200PI is the main reason for this new purchase, but I often have need to do small aluminum repairs and other things that make me want the tig abilities. Gadget has now really gotten me interested in the CNC machine and I suspect that might be one of my next projects although I have to build a small drill rig attachment for a small skid rig first. I just wish I had the CNC machine first before I start anything else!

Great site and resource.

Toad
Denver area

[LONGEVITY]

HI Toad,

Welcome to the forum. You will find this forum useful as there is a lot of information. Our moderator has placed you in the registered users.

Thanks and have a great day!

LONGEVITY

[matteh99]

Welcome,
Building a CNC machine is on my list of things to do also. But now I am working 4 part time jobs (2 are very part time), taking a graduate class, trying to spend time with my GF, looking into buying a busness and a few other things. So I haven't made it past ordering a few parts

Eric

[KHK]

Hello and welcome Toad. We are always glad to have a new member. We like pictures of projects so if you have some please post them.

[Gadget]

Hi Toad and welcome to the forum. I will be happy to do anything I can to assist you with a CNC table. I built mine over a year ago and have been having fun with it ever since.
Dan

[tking]

Gadget,

Again thanks. By the way, after reading all about your table and seeing the photos and videos I am very envious. I will have many more questions in the future. Having just read your last entry on the contest thread, I am curious how you handled the height adjusting of the torch your reference here: "I use the LP80 on my CNC and find the pilot arc is not needed. If you use a pilot arc torch and ground the pilot arc wire to the ground cable the torch works great and starts off metal with no problem. You will want to make the torch tip run about .080 off the metal. Also start the pierce at about .125 and have it ramp down as it pierces."

I have read that a commercial builder and marketer of small cnc machines uses a amperage measurement to adjust the height of the torch (I think that is what I read). This would be very useful when working with a warped sheet or a sheet that warps as it is being worked. I am assuming that you are just setting the "zero elevation" at the start of the work and then the torch starts at .125 and drops to .08?

Thanks,

Toad

---------- Post added at 11:53 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:41 AM ----------

Thanks for the reply. I had a look at your site and photos. That tank was an interesting project. I have never owned a BMW but have always admired them. If I was to get one I would probably be looking at one like yours or even older. Please advise where the bridge is with all of the metal strapping holding the columns together so I can scratch that route off of any future travel plans. Just joking. Unfortunately there are a lot of bridges around this country in similar shape, and, a lot more being built that will end up that way prematurely because of poor design and poor implementation/QC.

Toad

[Gadget]

Hi again Toad,
I use the Z axis settings to start the torch height for pierce and cut. Warpage is an issue with thinner stock since I cannot justify the cost of a THC (Torch Height Control) like you mentioned. Ideally, the THC is the way to go for torch height. That is also adjustable based on tip to work voltage measurement. The Z axis is adjusted automatically based on the set voltage so it follows warped materials easily. The cheapest THC I have found it from CandCNC.com and runs around $600.00. I only cut a piece at a time a few times a month right now so cannot justify the cost.

[tking]

I thought I should go back to my introduction to post that today I fired up my new 200PI that I have now had over a month. I managed to break my Lincoln mig at a bad time and I wasn't planning on using this machine yet, but boy does it work nice. I only tig welded, but I certainly am impressed with how easy and nice it works. I learned to weld using oxyacetylene and tigging comes pretty easy as long as I don't have someone grading me on how pretty the results are.

Thanks again to Longevity and to the members here who have provided so much useful information.

tking