Pertneer's Blog

Been a while since I did a write up for this blog. I guess it is overdue.

A couple of weeks ago I was trying to line up a sheet on the Plasma table and struggling to locate a part within a piece of material very close to the same size as I was planning to cut. I told myself, “Self you need to make something to help with this little issue”. I only talk to myself on very rare occasions. Stop being so judgmental.

I decided to take a trip to the hardware store to see what I could use to make a device to locate my sheet. First thought was a device that went off of the edge of the table but seams too simple. So then I though about using a laser to help locate the sheet. Sounded like a nice little project. So I went in search of some sort of laser line generator. Off to the laser level isle. I found a cheap little level that had a laser line that could be rotated for around 15 bucks. Was hoping for something a little cheaper because I would need two of these.

I started off with just purchasing one (tight budgets suck) to make sure it would work as I expected.

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Since I recently got this machine actually moving I have been putting it through some tests. The other day I create a G-code program to move the table throughout its travel in various directions to make sure it worked as expected and returned to its previous position.

Since the table is driven by stepper motors instead of servos loosing steps is always a concern. This is generally contributed with pushing the machine to fast resulting is the stepper motors loosing there count. Not sure why, but is does happen.

After tuning the motors in Mach 3 to suitable settings I proceeded with the testing. I started with the table at around a travel speed of 600 in/min but was not happy with the sound the table was making. It sounded like it was struggling to make the moves this fast. So I slowed it down to 450 in/min. Still a respectable speed for a rapid move. This sounded a lot better and leaves some room for improvement.

This video shows the path I programmed in and the speed in which it travels.

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As the title states I am testing the movement before I start using he torch(saves money until I make sure it is working properly.

It is kind of boring to watch, but in a later test it made a perfect circle very close to the diameter I programmed it to do. Not to bed for the first trial after setting it up.

I received a large shipment of part this week of parts for my project. I still have others on the way but I got quite a bit started this weekend. I started of day with opening up all of the boxes to make sure everything was intact. I then moved on to getting the rack onto the table. This took some creativity to make sure it was on straight so that the pinion stays engaged. There is also an issue with the rack not coming in long enough pieces for the length of my table. With the table being 9 1/2 feet long and the rack only coming in 6 foot pieces I needed to join the ends while maintaining the lead along the length. I came up with the idea to use the piece cut off of the end of another piece of rack to align the pieces together. Since they are the same lead it should work.

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I started off this week with getting under way with the constriction of the gear boxes for my CNC plasma table. I started with just the simple task of squaring up the side pieces to bring them into size. Once completed I would be able to utilize the CNC mill to put in all of the holes.

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